Latest and greatest smart fridge adds Amazon's digital assistant to the mix
Samsung has revealed the latest Family Hub smart fridge model (6th-generation, if you were keeping count) and there’s a major new inclusion on board… Amazon Alexa.
While you could use an Alexa Skill with previous-gen Family Hubs, this is the first time that we’ve seen a Samsung smart fridge with Alexa built-in.
(It’s not the first smart fridge with Alexa built-in though, LG has been offering both Alexa or the Google Assistant on its ThinQ fridges for a few years now.)
As well as Alexa (and Bixby but, who cares?), the new Family Hub is an absolute monster of kitchen-based tech which is capable of streaming music, mirroring your TV, showing pictures, searching recipes and ordering groceries.
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At the heart of the 2021 Family Hub, as with previous models, is that huge 22.5-inch touchscreen; essentially a Tizen-powered touchscreen tablet built into the door.
The interface has been revamped, now offering four customizable theme screens: smart home, entertainment, family, and cooking.
You can post videos, leave notes for your family members, and sync your calendars – and multiple users and profiles are supported. It’s also compatible with the new SmartThings Cooking platform.
The Family Hub also works with SmartThings and there are great SmartThings widgets available, making it easy to control and monitor your connected smart home devices.
However, it’s not a SmartThings hub, annoyingly – you’ll still need a SmartThings smart home hub (or the new hub from Aeotec) to attach devices to your SmartThings system.
The price is dependent on your configuration; expect to pay northwards of $3,000.
The good news is, if you’ve got a 2nd-gen Family Hub onwards, Alexa and the new UI will land as a software update soon.
