Samsung Malaysia Electronics is opening pre-orders for its Bespoke line of refrigerators. Samsung US YouTube channel published a video called Bespoke Home 2021 back in May of 2021. In the video, Samsung showcased their Bespoke line of fridges among many other Bespoke like of appliances.
What is a Samsung Bespoke fridge I hear you ask? Well, essentially, it as lifestyle focused fridge where you can customise the colour of the door panel to fit your kitchen. Furthermore, on select models, the fridge has a modular design. What this means is that you can combine several fridges with the same or different designs together. Samsung designed the fridge to work with minimal space beside them, therefore it gives the impression that it is one big, single unit.
Out of all the Bespoke line of fridges that were shown, only 2 models will be hitting our shores first. These are the Bespoke Bottom Mount Refrigerator and Bespoke 1-Door Flex Convertible Refrigerator.
Bespoke Bottom Mount Refrigerator
This a traditional design fridge with a top cooler and bottom freezer, with a total capacity of 339 liters. Since there are 2 doors, you can customise each door with a different colour. You can also change the direction that the doors open as the fridge comes with reversible doors. However, this is not as simple as the reversible center console lid on a Mercedes-Benz. Here you will need to move the hinge over to the other side, which requires you to remove the entire door. So, this is something you will decide on once and leave it.
Moving on. it comes with a few highlight features like Power Cool for the top cooler and Power Freeze for the bottom freezer. When activated, it causes the temperature to drop rapidly to the section’s lowest temperature. Samsung says this is good for quickly cooling drinks to be served cold or quickly freezing food like homemade ice-cream One downside is that the controls are only accessible when the door is open. This seems a bit counter intuitive to everything we have been thought about reducing the number of times we open the door by our elders.
Another feature that this fridge comes with is called Metal Cooling and it has nothing to do with the music genre. There is a long metal plate at the back of the fridge that helps maintain the optimal internal temperature when the fridge door is opened and closed. The cold metal plate compensates for the cold air lost while the door was open and helps to restore the temperature quickly.
Finally, the fridge features an All Around Cooling function that uses strategically placed vents to help circulate cold cool air throughout all levels of the fridge. This ensures that the temperature is even from corner to corner. Maybe this is why Samsung proceeded to place the controls inside the fridge?
Do note that from their marketing material, it seems that Metal Cooling and All Around Cooling feature is only available for the top cooler only for this model.
The freezer section has its own feature called No Frost technology which controls the air circulation and maintains a constant temperature. This prevents the build up of frost which not only requires energy to defrost to clean, but also damages food.
Bespoke 1-Door Flex Convertible Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, this a single compartment fridge with one door with a total capacity of 323 liters. There is only 1 door here for you to customise with a choice of select colours.
The fridge has a feature called Flex Freezer which can switch the operating mode of the fridge between cooler and freezer mode. Therefore, depending on your needs, you can expand your cooler or freezer capacity.
Those are the only difference from the Bespoke Bottom Mount Refrigerator because everything else is shared between the two. This fridge also has reversible doors, All Around Cooling, Metal Cooling, Power Freeze (no Power Cool) and No Frost Technology.
Both models also come with Digital Inverter Technology for optimal efficiency and is backed by a 10 year warranty.
Modular Design
These 2 fridges come with the ability to combine multiple units together. This is the reason why the fridge comes with reversible doors. When you have 2 fridges side by side, you can reverse the opening direction of one door so that the doors open like a coach or a standard 2 door fridge.
You can combine the same fridge design or combine one of each design. The number of units you can combine is limited by your imagination and more importantly, the availability of power sockets. According to a Samsung rep, each fridge will require its own power socket. This is an inconvenience if you are buying these fridges to fit your current kitchen as it may not have enough power sockets.
Alternatively, you can place the fridges, one on each side of your kitchen to match your kitchen layout.
Samsung created this concept to allow you to expand your fridge’s capacity without having to buy a new, bigger fridge when you run out of space. This is a good idea, however I have some concerns about this.
First is that you will need to design your kitchen to accommodate another unit down the line. Not just the space, but also the power socket needed to run another fridge.
Secondly is availability. Will the same model still be available to purchase when you decide to get one? If not, then will the new model be compatible with your current model?
Therefore, my advice would be to plan ahead and get the designs and number of units you require now if you can afford it.
Customisation
If you are already planning on creating a unique colour combination to match your kitchen’s colour palette, I have some disappointing news. Although there is a customisation tool on Samsung Malaysia’s website and you can choose the design, colour of the panels and configuration, you can’t proceed to place the order. The most you can do is preview your design. Clicking on shop now just redirects you back to their eStore.
As of now, you are stuck with the colour options and colour combination that Samsung has preset. So, you can’t really have a Bespoke fridge, at least not for the pre-order. Samsung might allow for customisation orders later in the year. So, you might get to mix and match from the 2 matte finishes: Satin Sky Blue and Satin Grey, and 3 high gloss finishes: Glam Navy, Glam Pink, and Glam White.
However, something you can’t do with these models is swap out the panels for another colour or design. That feature is only reserved for the bigger Smart Bespoke 4-Door Flex model, which is not officially sold by Samsung Malaysia. On top of the swappable panels, you get more colour option and finishes as well.
Pricing & Availability
If you like the preset colour option or just like this concept, here is how to get your hands on them. Below is the pricing for these 2 models.
Bespoke Bottom Mount Refrigerator – RM4,699
Bespoke 1-Door Flex Convertible Refrigerator – RM4,599
I assume to compensate for the lack of customisation service, Samsung Malaysia is bundling as part of the pre-order: Free Installation worth up to RM1596, Free Pairing Kit worth up to RM807 and Free eStore voucher worth up to RM500.
This promotion is only available through Samsung eStore and will run from 1st January 2022 to 31st January 2022. The fridges have an estimate ship date of 28th January 2022.
For more information on the Bespoke Bottom Mount Refrigerator click here.
For more information on the Bespoke 1-Door Flex Convertible Refrigerator, click here.
To find out more about the pre-order campaign, click here.
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