Samsung Touchscreen WiFi Refrigerator
by Andy Morales on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Samsung will release the RF4289 refrigerator in May, with an MSRP of $3,499. Samsung will be the first in the industry to introduce a refrigerator with a WiFi-enabled touchscreen on the door panel. Loaded with kitchen relevant applications such as Pandora, Epicurious, Google Calendar, AP News, Twitter, Weatherbug, a photo album and a memo pad, Samsung hopes to connect to the connected. Use your finger on the touchscreen to scribble grocery lists, family notes, or the nights menu. You can use the LCD to control the fridge temperature and even the shape of the ice cubes. The touchscreen isn’t the only high-tech aspect of this fridge as it also features a food preservation twin cooling, dual evaporating system delivering commercial-grade food preservation. The Samsung LCD Touchscreen refrigerator is a nice entry into the digital kitchen, but is it already outdated?
While it is great that the refrigerator already comes preloaded with certain applications, with zero access to an “app store” the customization is limited. Pandora is awesome – but what if you are a last.fm fan instead? People want to use twitter, but wouldn’t an application of Facebook be more applicable to the housewife or family caretaker? The current setup does not allow any specifications of the application that you wish to use, and therefore the technology in this fridge is already constrained. The unit does at least offer a SD card port, allow you to stream pictures from your wireless Picassa, and it does promise some software upgrades in the future, but will that be enough? Will Samsung address the functionality and the flexibility via software pushes or, will they reserve those options for future units and upgrades?
A refrigerator with a touch screen panel is a great idea. Technology is always evolving, and users are quick adapters. It is great that Samsung wants to tap into that consumer base. However when the refrigerator is not a flexible tool, then you have already lost the interest of the tech-savvy individual. The familiarity for touchscreen technology is abundant with Droid and Apple users and Samsung hopes to tap into that. However, until they come out with a better product, the tech-savvy will still be hungry.
I agree that flexibilty is important. I wonder why they don’t just have something similar to an Android tablet built-in and then add a few custom fridge oriented apps?
I bought the Apps Fridge, and I can tell you that I have never been so disappointed with an applliance. This is my first refrigerator in about 20 years. My last refrigerator was a Kenmore and was still working when I purchased the Samsung. I took delivery of the new unit on a Sunday morning, It took the best part of the first day to get the apps working. By the evening of the first day, the unit was leaking from underneath. On the second day, the apps were erratic and the freezer setting increased to 42 degrees, and I could not get the setting (even in Power Freeze) to hold, so I had to switch my food in the freezer to a backup freeser, but not before my ice cream had melted. By the third day, the refrigerator was still working, but the temperature settings would not hold b=above 42 degrees.
I spent my entire 4th of July holiday weekend dealing with this unit. I love the space and the new age technology that it promises to provide, but I dont think Samsung has gotten all the “BUGS” out of it just yet.
I am working on selecting another unit from another manufacturer. I don’t trust this one!
Thanks Joan for the feedback. That sounds like a nightmare. The idea of the fridge is a great idea, but they need to develop a better product with more flexibility
With all that door space, they only give you 8 inches. No one will appreciate the small screen. The cost of the appliance is not worth its functionality being that technology changes so quickly. If you were lucky to get the frige to last 15 years, your hardware would be out-dated in a matter of 6 months and definately within 2 years. So how would Samsung deal with upgrading hardware easily without affecting/disrupting the home? Having the technology perm. affixed to unit is not a good idea an attachment would be much better.
Ipad + Velcro = One Awesome refrigerator