My clever new fridge saves me hundreds on food AND electricity bills – it even has a cool Ring doorbell perk
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FRIDGES and freezers are getting in on the smart stuff these days - and they can save you a heap of money in the long-run too.
The latest flash model from Samsung has done just that for me, both on food and my electricity bill.
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The Sun's Jamie Harris gives a hi-tech fridge a go
Credit: Jamie Harris / The Sun
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Answering Ring doorbell calls is my favourite trick
Credit: Jamie Harris / The Sun
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It will help you save loads on food shopping too by cutting down on waste
Credit: Jamie Harris / The Sun
There are a number of mind-boggling techy features your everyday fridge can't do too.
Some are better as party tricks to show off to friends but the majority of them have turned out to be super handy in my house.
The exact Samsung model I'm trying is the 621L Bespoke AI Series 9 Side-by-Side Fridge Freezer with AI Home (RS90F64EDTEU).
So what's so special about it?
Read on in my review below to find out.
Samsung Side-by-Side Fridge Freezer review
The fridge door has a little display which is your portal to a number of apps.
More and more fridge freezers are adopting these sorts of screens - and at one point they were quite big.
This one is small and unimposing, allowing you to access things like Spotify and YouTube.
It's touch screen and voice powered, so you can essentially do away with having an Alexa or similar digital assistant in your kitchen, especially as the speaker can go pretty loud.
The voice assistant is Samsung's own, Bixby, so you'll have to say "Hey Bixby" to summon anything.
Samsung reveals genius way to help you save money on food using AI in your FRIDGE
For the most part, I just use the touch screen - but there's one special trick that's very much Bixby's.
And that's the ability to open the doors for you.
At first, I dismissed this as a bit of a gimmick (and was what I referred to as a "party trick" earlier).
However, truth be told, there have been times when I've been cooking, I have my hands full with items and suddenly this feature has come in handy.
The handles do have sensors on them too that automatically opens the door for you when you simply hover your hand over it - I also thought was just plain lazy initially but I've grown to make that the norm all the time now.
A minor annoyance to mention, sometimes when I opened the fridge door my elbow passed the sensor for the freezer door causing it to open too.
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The screen is a perfect size
Credit: Jamie Harris / The Sun
Saving money on food and more
What I really care about is saving money and I'm shamefully aware that my food waste could be a whole lot better.
Sometimes you forget, other times you have no idea what to do with that one ingredient.
Well, Samsung's SmartThings helps you cut food waste, thereby reducing how much I spend on shopping.
You can log items via the app on your phone - which is available on both Android and iOS, not just Samsung's handsets - or tap them in on your fridge screen, along with their use-by dates.
While it's very manual, I've resorted to treating it as my shopping list app as opposed to just using my phone's notes feature as I did before.
The fridge will also suggest recipes based on the ingredients logged for some easy ideas, crafted by the likes of Jamie Oliver and more.
There are other ways the fridge helps you save money too.
For instance, it learns your usage patterns so that energy is optimised at the right times.
You can even tell it when you're on holiday so it'll go into an energy saving mode.
The screen will tell you exactly how much electricity the fridge has used too (last month it was just shy of £10).
And as there is a water and ice dispenser, the tech tells you when it's time to change the filter too.
Inside
When it comes to the primary function, keeping your food chilled and frozen, the inside is perfectly ordinary.
In the fridge there are five shelves, as well as two fruit and veg compartments at the bottom. And there are four shelves with two storage draws along the bottom of the freezer.
Another thing to note is that it's pretty quiet as a fridge freezer goes, despite being a pretty big appliance.
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A look inside the fridge and freezer
Credit: Jamie Harris / The Sun
Ring doorbell trick
My favourite trick of all, arguably, is the simplest.
And that's integration with Ring doorbell.
SmartThings is compatible with hundreds of smart home brands, not just devices made by Samsung, which is a rare treat.
Once you've linked your Ring doorbell into the SmartThings app it means the fridge screen will alert you when someone is at the front door.
You can even answer the call there and then, so another reason not to have another smart hub sitting around your kitchen.
Samsung Side-by-Side Fridge Freezer: conclusion
At £2,239, the 621L Bespoke AI Series 9 Side-by-Side Fridge Freezer with AI Home doesn't come cheap.
But it's worth noting you get five year warranty for parts and labour, as well as 20 year warranty on digital inverter compressor.
You can also knock up to £100 off if you recycle an old appliance with Samsung when making the purchase.
But for £2,239 you get a premium, slick and feature-packed appliance that should save you hundreds - if not thousands - in the long run with those food and energy management features.
Rating: 4/5
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