Samsung Bespoke AI Family Hub RS90F66BETEU Review

Design and Features

• Auto open doors
• 21.5-inch screen
• Integrated water and ice dispenser

There was a point where American-style fridge freezers seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, taking up more space in the room. With the Samsung Bespoke AI Family Hub RS90F66BETEU, you get a good balance, as this is one of the company’s counter depth fridge freezers, with the main body just 620mm deep.

The doors protrude another 106mm (a total depth of 726mm), so they can open regardless of what’s next to the fridge freezer. That’s a good compromise, as there’s a total of 614-litres of space on this model, which is huge.

If you want something that sits flush with your counters (including the doors), then there’s the Hisense RQ768N4GVE. That does mean giving up some space, as that model has 591-litres of space inside.

As you may have spotted from the name, this fridge freezer is a Family Hub, with a large 21.5-inch screen on the front. Effectively a giant integrated tablet, the Family Hub screen can be used to show a shared calendar, be used for notes between family members, and for showing the current weather.

There are also apps you can install, such as the Ring one if you want to keep an eye on your security cameras, or YouTube for videos and Spotify for music via the slightly basic speakers (I’d stick with an external sound system, but it’s still nice to have the option of music).

It’s one of those features that you’ll either love or hate. If you’re the former, the bright big screen is a great focal point for the kitchen; if you’re the latter, buy a fridge freezer without a screen.

The Samsung RS90F66BETEU is the first fridge freezer from the company that I’ve seen with auto-open doors. Tap the sensor on the front of either door, and a motor pushes them open. It might sound like a gimmick, but it’s a brilliant feature.

When I’ve got dirty hands from cooking, it means I can tap the sensor with a palm and nudge a door open with a foot, so no more mucky fingerprints; when I’ve got my hands full, I can open the doors without having to put things down; and for anyone with limited mobility, this feature is perfect.

There’s also a secondary way of opening the doors: using Bixby, Samsung’s voice assistant. Built into the fridge (provided you’re connected to SmartThings), the idea is that you can ask Bixby to open the doors.

It works to a degree, but the implementation is a bit lacking. I said, “Bixby, open fridge door”, which caused both fridge and freezer doors to open. Trying “Bixby, open freezer door” instead, the screen showed that Bixby had understood my request, but instead of opening the door it turned on the power freeze option, which is when you want to rapidly cool the freezer compartment down, such as after a shopping trip.

Trying “Bixby open doors” doesn’t work and Bixby just says, “Due to safety reasons, that isn’t available yet.” I gave up with Bixby and used the touch sensors instead, which are far more reliable.

SmartThings support is useful for multiple reasons. At its simplest, SmartThings can be used to set the fridge and freezer temperatures and get notifications if something’s wrong, such as a door has been left open.

It also gives more control over the fridge, with some extra options, including how the internal lighting works; the option to turn on AI precise cooling, which monitors usage and adjusts compressor control to keep temperatures stable; an option to toggle the ice maker or stop ice being made at night; and control over the auto open doors and how far they should open.

I could also view the inside of the fridge via the integrated camera. This shows a slightly distorted view of the top two shelves, so it isn’t very useful for seeing everything that’s inside.

A regular water dispenser is built into the freezer door. It provides cold filtered water, via the in-line water filter, and you have a choice of fresh or crushed ice, which is automatically made.

Inside the fridge, there’s a large 389-litre compartment. It’s a well organised space, with four glass shelves, spaced so that most will take tall items, such as cartons of juice.

I really like the bottle rack, which can take wine or bigger items, such as 2-litre bottles of fizzy drinks.

There are then two pull-out fresh food drawers. There’s no humidity control for these, but you can at least split items by drawer.

Four door pockets are available, and they’re all a good size. The bottom one is deep and great for larger items, such a big milk containers.

Move up, and the other ones will take condiments, jars and tubs of butter, that kind of thing.

With the freezer, you get a good 225 litres of space. Four shelves are good for items you can stack, such as pizzas or boxed frozen food.

There are then a couple of drawers for other items, such as frozen vegetables or chips. There are two thin door pockets at the bottom, which are big enough for a pack of fish fingers or ice lollies. They’re handy for anything you want to grab quickly without having to rummage through the main space.

Performance

• Incredibly even fridge cooling
• Quality freezer control
• Low running costs for the size

I loaded the Samsung RS90F66BETEU up with freezer blocks to simulate a full load of food. I then added temperature sensors throughout and measured temperatures over a two week period, taking a temperature reading every 15 minutes.

Overall, the fridge maintained an average temperature of 3.51°C, which I just 0.49°C colder than the set temperature of 4°C. There was little variation between the top and bottom of the fridge, either: the top averaged 3.98°C and the bottom 31.6°C. That’s brilliant, as it doesn’t matter which shelf you use to store food.

Measuring temperature variation, I found that most temperatures fluctuated by +/-0.42°C, which is excellent. Anything under 1°C in this test is brilliant, and shows that there aren’t big spikes in temperature.

The Samsung RS90F66BETEU uses Twin and Metal Cooling, with a metal plate at the back that stays cold and helps even out temperatures.

In the freezer compartment, I measured an average of -19°C, which is 1°C colder than the target of -18°C. Again, there’s little variation between the bottom and top of the freezer either. I measured temperature variation at +/-0.77°C, which is very good again.

With my automatic door openers opening and closing the fridge door on a regular schedule, I measured power usage and estimated that this fridge freezer would cost £73.52 a year to run pr 12p per litre of space. That’s pretty good for the size of the appliance; to get lower running costs, you need a more efficient appliance, such as the incredible Samsung RM70F67RDR, which has an AI Hybrid Cooling System.

Similar to other appliances like this, the Samsung Bespoke AI Family Hub RS90F66BETEU is frost free, and I noticed no build up during my time testing it.

Should you buy it?