Samsung T9000 (RF32FSQDBSR) at CES

Samsung T9000 RF32FSQDBSR

To LCD or Not to LCD?

Reported by Joseph Seeley on January 8, 2013

4.8

Samsung’s new T9000 French Door refrigerator showed at the International Consumer Electronics Show yesterday. Here at Fridge Dimensions we are always on the lookout for new feature packed and innovative refrigerators, but has Samsung gone too far this time?

Contents:

• Consumer Electronics Show
• T9000 Features
• Conclusion: I was Hoping for Less

The Wonderful, The Weird, The WTF?

Samsung has been making a lot of waves at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year. They have a wide range of products from handheld electronic devices all the way up to home appliances. That refrigerator portion of the latter category is what we focus on here of course, and the Samsung T9000 looks to be one of the more interesting refrigerators to have come around in a while.

CES is always great for some awe-inspiring products, as well as quite a few laughs. I find the more mundane an item generally is thought to be, the worse it becomes at these types of technology shows. You can’t really fault high-end electronics gadgets from adopting the latest technology. But when you start seeing WIFI enabled sneakers or other absurd and useless gadgets, you have to ask yourself, “Why?”

Here is a press release leading into CES from Samsung:

LAS VEGAS – January 7, 2013 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced today its expanded line-up of premium home appliances for the kitchen at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) from January 8-11, 2013. Samsung, the company that revolutionized the home appliance category with the four-door refrigerator and a freestanding range with the FlexDuo oven, is once again redefining the appliance experience in the kitchen with new refrigerator and range form factors that bring unmatched ease of use, convenience, organization and style to the kitchen.

“As America’s fastest growing appliance brand, Samsung’s award-winning products deliver the flexibility that busy families not only need in the kitchen, but also want,” said Kevin Dexter, senior vice president of home appliances sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics America. “From our latest four-door refrigerator with unsurpassed fresh food storage, to appliances that open a host of new cooking possibilities, this year’s kitchen line from Samsung will make entertaining at home easier and more fun.”

Obviously the press release is a bit promotional in nature, but perhaps in the case of the T9000 refrigerator it’s well deserved. Then again, this is a home appliance at CES, and so there’s sure to be some questionably useful gimics involved.

What Makes Samsung’s T9000 So Interesting?

The Home Entertainer’s Ultimate Refrigerator

The 32 cu. ft. capacity Samsung T9000 Four-Door Refrigerator represents the next evolution in refrigerator design, with a new form factor that delivers the most fresh food storage in its class. This sleek refrigerator features a 19.4 cu. ft. capacity French Door refrigerator compartment on top, and a 6.1 cu. ft. compartment on the lower right side, providing an extraordinary 25.5 cu. ft. of fresh food storage. The lower right compartment can also be used as a freezer if desired, and is complemented by a 6.1 cu. ft. freezer on the left side in this unique and versatile design. Imagine the possibilities of using the lower right side compartment as a kid zone, as a prep zone for a special meal, as a centralized storage area for a family member with dietary restrictions, or to replace a separate beverage refrigerator.

The lower right compartment sounds like one of the more interesting innovations in refrigerators we’ve seen in a while. In my family we’ve alway stocked up the freezer once or twice a month, and then gradually freezer space empties while fresh food space fills up with left-overs. Having a compartment which can serve either purpose would really help balance things out to ensure you always are making the most of your refrigerator’s capacity.

Imagine being able to store all that extra frozen food right up until Thanksgiving, cooking it, and then being able to store it in the fridge as left-overs! Samsung is brilliant!

In addition to being flexible and stunningly beautiful, this refrigerator also performs. To help ensure optimal temperature and humidity control, as well as performance in each of the fresh food zones, the T9000 has Samsung’s Triple Cooling system. This unique cooling technology ensures that commercial grade humidity levels are maintained in the fresh food compartments with the help of two compressors, three evaporators and an array of sensors to keep produce fresher longer.

That’s a lot of cooling power and control. Hopefully it’s energy efficient as well, but we’ll have to wait and see.

How To Mess Up the Perfect Refrigerator

Finally, only at CES in the Samsung booth, the T9000 LCD is on display, featuring apps to help families stay organized and connected in the kitchen. In particular, the T9000 LCD includes the Evernote app, which allows consumers to share photos, videos, and even recipes with family and friends. The T9000 LCD also includes calendar and weather apps, and more.

And here is where Samsung loses me. Yes, a 10″ display on a refrigerator sounds cool and is going to generate some hype at CES … but you know what is cooler? A 10″ display that has more functionality and isn’t tied to a 7′ x 3′ x 3′ (est) 300 lbs anchor. These are called tablet PCs. They’re great, you can take them anywhere you want. You can pick one up (+ refrigerator) for much less than the T9000 is going to cost.

Not only is the LCD a questionably useful gimic, but it’s possible that it’s going to negatively impact the useability of the appliance. Imagine trying to cook dinner while the kids are playing Angry Birds on your refrigerator. Then of course there’s the energy efficiency you’ll achieve when the freezer drawer is extended for hours at a time as a make-shift seat for their gaming experience. The more I think of it, the worse this feature gets.

This is why we have living/family/rec rooms, to keep the couch zombies and hyper-active from blocking hallways and kitchen cabinets. (Do we still have rec rooms? I know we had them growing up but I haven’t heard the term in a while … If we still have rec rooms I want a food disposal integrated with my foosball table! Then when I lose all the balls we can just use Cheeto Balls, Crunch Berries, or hard boiled quail eggs. Cleanup will be a snap with my FoodsballTable™!)

The Samsung T9000 Four-Door Refrigerator (Model: RF32FSQDBSR) will be available in late Spring 2013 for an MSRP of $3,999.

The $3999 price point seems reasonable for a refrigerator with all these features. Even though it will surely be available for a lower street price, the Samsung T9000 is still rather disappointing in that such a useful feature as the fridge/feezer adaptable compartment will be stuck with such a price-tag inflating gimic as the Android LCD display. I hope that Samsung offers their adaptable compartment on lower-end models so that that convenience can be more affordable to the average consumer.

So what do you think about Samsung’s new refrigerator? Let us know in the comments below …