Skip to main content
DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

BUY NOW
  • Introduction

  • Design & Usability

  • Features

  • Performance

  • Conclusion

  • Science Introduction

  • Temperature Performance

  • Moisture Retention

  • Freezing & Thawing

  • Storage Capacity & Energy Efficiency

  • Other Tests

  • Introduction
  • Design & Usability
  • Features
  • Performance
  • Conclusion
  • Science Introduction
  • Temperature Performance
  • Moisture Retention
  • Freezing & Thawing
  • Storage Capacity & Energy Efficiency
  • Other Tests

Introduction

Aside from the controls, you’re essentially looking at a $3,699 refrigerator that offers average performance, average energy efficiency, and average storage capacity. It looks and feels great, but even with online sale prices as low as $3,150, it just doesn’t seem like the best investment out there. Still, keep an eye on the technology; if Samsung can push the wireless capabilities further, we definitely intend to come back and revisit our opinions.

Design & Usability

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

With versatile compartments and a fancy control panel, the Samsung RF4289HARS is a fridge designed for the top of the line.

This very fancy French door fridge boasts even more access points than normal. You’ll notice the traditional double doors on top that open out to grant access to the fridge. At the very bottom, you’ll find a pull-out freezer drawer—also par for the course. Between them, however, is an additional pull-out drawer that serves as a separate storage compartment with its own independent thermostat.

On the left-hand door is an LCD screen that grants you access to a series of apps.

On the left-hand door is an LCD screen that not only works to control your fridge, but also grants you access to a series of apps. The two-paddle ice and water dispenser is located under the LCD control panel and has a cavity large and deep enough to hold almost any reasonably sized drinking glass—no gallon containers, please, unless you plan on holding them yourself.

Looking inside this Samsung, you'll see that everything is covered by a clean blue glow created by the LED lighting. The fridge interior offers up three half-width adjustable shelves that mount to hooks on the rear of the main cavity, with a smaller fourth shelf bridging the gap left by the ice maker. A full-width shelf that cannot be moved sits below all of these, with two crisper drawers at the very bottom.

With all the amazing little design touches, panels, apps, and switches you'll no doubt excitedly swing open the freezer to find... a boring old freezer. You have an upper pull-out drawer, as well as a lower section that incorporates a plastic divider. There’s a small storage compartment just on the inside of the freezer door, as well. You can use it to hold small items or open a small flap to create instant pizza box storage. Yawn, Samsung. Yawn.

{{photo_gallery "Front Photo", "Fingerprints Photo", "Handle Photo", "Handle Detail Photo", "Water/Ice Dispenser Photo", "Water/Ice Dispenser Controls Photo", "Water/Ice Dispenser Detail Photo", "Interior Photo", "Refrigerator Main 1 Image", "Refrigerator Main 2 Image", "Refrigerator Main 3 Image", "Water Filter Photo", "Refrigerator Door 1-1 Image", "Refrigerator Door 1-2 Image", "Refrigerator Door 1-3 Image", "Refrigerator Door 2-1 Image", "Refrigerator Door 2-2 Image", "Refrigerator Door 2-3 Image", "Freezer Main 1 Image", "Freezer Main 2 Image", "Freezer Main 3 Image", "Freezer Door 1 Image", "Freezer Door 2 Image", "Freezer Door 3 Image", "Ice Maker Photo", "Back Photo", "Back Detail Photo", "Sides Photo", "Side Detail 1 Photo", "Side Detail 2 Photo", "Fridge Temperature Image", "Freezer Temperature Image", "Vegetable Drawer Photo", "Vegetable Drawer Controls Photo", "Ease of Access Photo", "Controls Photo", "Cleaning Photo", "Other Features Photo"}}

Features

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

The LCD controls have flash with only moderate substance.

We mentioned earlier that this particular model includes a WiFi-enabled LCD screen that works to control your fridge and even includes a series of apps. It’s essentially a built-in tablet for your fridge, complete with speakers and an SD input. The touchscreen is bright and vivid with an assortment of screen savers that you can set to remain active anywhere from one minute to over half an hour.

Using the controls can be a bit of a pain. The touch screen can be finicky and you can only use one app at a time. As of this writing, you can’t access your fridge information (such as the grocery manager) from your smartphone. It’s a step in the right direction, but hasn't quite reached perfection yet. At the very least, connecting to the internet was a breeze. The LCD display only works with wireless, though, as there’s no external port for a wired hookup.

Performance

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

An overzealous freezer only somewhat makes up for mediocre performance everywhere else.

The performance in this particular Samsung was all right, albeit not nearly as good we'd expect for such an expensive fridge. Inside the fridge cavity, temperatures only fluctuated a little bit, keeping things within an acceptable range that shouldn't cause any undue damage to food. Moving from top to bottom, you may notice things getting a little warmer, but this is normal; in fact, produce is typically meant to be kept two or three degrees warmer than other refrigerated items.

The freezer is like an over-achieving bookworm.

If the fridge is a laid back student putting in the minimum amount of effort needed to maintain average marks, the freezer is like an over-achieving bookworm—boring, staid, but acing all of his exams. Keeping the control panel set to 0, we found that this freezer plummeted to temperatures well below that. It seems like overkill to us, but at least you’ll never have to worry about your food thawing out. Also, you shouldn't notice too much freezer burn; the accuracy in this freezer was fairly solid.

When it comes to moisture retention, there are usually two kinds of results: mind-blowing performance that earns tons of praise, or lukewarm performance that just gets by. Unfortunately, the Samsung happened to fall in the latter category. Fresh fruit and vegetables will be fine for a couple of days, but don't expect them to last much longer than that just because you've bought an expensive fridge.

Conclusion

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

The RF4289HARS doesn't quite live up to its price tag.

After we examined the Samsung Smart Fridge at IFA, we were really excited about the potential that this new wireless technology might have in changing the way we shop, store, and cook food. Samsung is putting forth a vision of the future where the contents of your fridge are expertly managed, a world replete with RFID tags letting you know the precise moment your milk has turned.

While your nose will no doubt love the utopian future smart fridges promise, this is still a very underdeveloped—if promising—technology. Aside from that, however, the fridge proved to be a little disappointing. The freezer was freakishly cold, but fridge temperature, moisture retention in the crispers, and freezing time all came back with mediocre results. For $3,699—or $3,150 if you can get it on sale—we wanted more. At the full price, it's easy to label this a high-end novelty product; even the best sale price we could find ($3,150) is far more than this fridge is worth.

Science Introduction

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

The Samsung RF4289HARS is not a bad refrigerator, but it does underwhelm for its price. Poor moisture retention and surprisingly mediocre freezing times make us question the high price tag.

Temperature Performance

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

This Samsung smart fridge boasts acceptable performance and a freezer that seems to embrace the term "overkill."

Temperature shifts in the refrigerator compartment were quite minimal: less than half a degree on average. It's not the best we've seen, but it's decent. There was a slight temperature increase from top to bottom (from about 37 degrees in the top and middle down to about 39 near the bottom), but this is fairly common and so not a huge concern.

Since it's in a detached compartment, we also measured the temperature of the extra drawer. We inserted a fourth temperature sensor, set it to the lowest setting used for meat and fish storage and got results that were quite strong. The internal temperature of our test material came back at about 31 degrees—two degrees warmer than the thermostat indicated—but the fluctuation over time was a mere 0.15 degrees (with three days worth of data). That's truly spot-on performance, thermostat issue aside.

In the freezer, we found the opposite occurred. We set the thermostat to 0 degrees Fahrenheit; what we got was a freezer that averaged anywhere from 10 to 14 degrees below zero. Temperature fluctuation over time did vary from top to bottom, with a higher rate of change—about three-fifths of a degree—at the top. Again, like the fridge, it's decent; we'd be more understanding if the fridge itself were cheaper.

{{photo_gallery "Science Section 1 Images"}}

Moisture Retention

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

Dried carrots and wrinkly peppers will be in your future.

We expect really good fridges—or, at least, really expensive ones—to do a great job preserving food. With an average moisture loss rate of 0.23 grams per hour, this fridge falls on the slightly poorer side of average. For high-quality fridges, we've seen—and have come to expect—performance that loses as little as half that amount.

{{photo_gallery "Science Section 2 Images"}}

Freezing & Thawing

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

The icy cold freezer will keep your food chilled, but it takes a decent amount of time to get food to that point.

As cold as the freezer kept our test materials, it took a long time to bring them down from room temperature. After placing our sensors into the freezer, it took the Samsung one hour and 45 minutes to get them below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a rather long time, long enough that the texture of thawed meats and fish may be affected. Given how cold the freezer got, we had no concerns about how well the Samsung would do with the power loss test. After 36 hours without power, the internal temperature hadn’t even cracked 25 degrees.

{{photo_gallery "Science Section 3 Images"}}

Storage Capacity & Energy Efficiency

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

Substantial space and strong energy ratings deliver a good overall package.

Taking into account the space taken up by items like the ice maker and water filter, we’ve determined that the amount of usable storage space in the fridge—including the separate temperature-controlled drawer—totals 12.15 cubic feet. That makes it a fairly spacious fridge, but no more or less than similarly designed models. The freezer holds a similarly average-sized 5.6 cubic feet worth of frozen goods. That's not a lot, but also no more or less than what a consumer would hope to find.

As far as energy efficiency goes, most large fridges are going to cost a fair amount to operate, and the Samsung is no exception. Using a standard rate of $0.09 per kWh, you can expect this particular model to cost you about $63.39 per year. Given the expansive storage capacity, that translates to about 0.13 kWh per cubic foot of usable space. It’s not a small price to pay, objectively speaking, but in the context of models this size, it’s actually quite standard.

{{photo_gallery "Science Section 4 Images"}}

Other Tests

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

{{photo_gallery "Other Tests Images"}}

Meet the testers

Matthew Zahnzinger

Matthew Zahnzinger

Logistics Manager & Staff Writer

@ReviewedHome

Matthew is a native of Brockton, MA and a graduate of Northeastern, where he earned a degree in English and Theatre. He has also studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and spends most of his free time pursuing a performance career in the greater Boston area.

See all of Matthew Zahnzinger's reviews
Josh Fields

Josh Fields

Staff Writer

@reviewedtech

An enthusiast of all things tech, Josh is one of Reviewed.com's resident television experts. When he's not looking at bright TV screens in a dark room, he's probably reviewing a laptop or finding a new snack at 7-11.

See all of Josh Fields's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

Shoot us an email

Up next