CES 2022: Smart Fridge Showdown—LG Smart InstaView VS Samsung Family Hub 2.0

When it comes to refrigerators, LG and Samsung brought their A-games to CES 2022. Both had several refrigerators in their massive booths, simply I had been on a mission to find the acme-of-the-line high-spec models.

CES 2022 Bug In LG's booth, I spent some time with the LG Smart InstaView (above); over at Samsung, I checked out the Samsung Family Hub two.0 (below).

Eyes On: LG Smart InstaView Vs. Samsung Family Hub 2.0

The touchscreens of the two serve as interactive bulletin boards for the home, letting you go out notes for family members or yourself. They tin be used to browse recipes and even read those recipes out to y'all, so you don't have to go on pressing on the screen with your dirty paws when you're cooking.

The webOS-based LG InstaView runs Amazon's Alexa digital personal assistant and will do things like play music and tell you the weather. Those with Amazon Prime tin place orders from the site, similar groceries, using this artificial intelligence platform or add together items to a shopping list. Y'all can even incorporate any number of Amazon Alexa skills into the LG InstaView and utilise it to request an Uber, ready kitchen timers, and more.

LG also has a Windows-based InstaView that taps into Cortana.

Samsung's fridge besides has voice controls—only say "Howdy Samsung, play Pandora," for example—but it taps into Samsung voice tech rather than Alexa.

Basically, if you're in the market for a tech-savvy refrigerator with all the bells and whistles, the LG InstaView and Samsung Family unit Hub 2.0 are both great picks. Nonetheless, if I had to cull, I'd go for the LG InstaView.

This is the LG SmartInstaview fridge that talks to you pic.twitter.com/OhzF9zTngZ
— Angela Moscaritolo (@amoscaritolo) January 5, 2022

In terms of aesthetics—which, let's confront information technology, is super of import when you're picking whatsoever piece of tech, especially the focal point of your kitchen—I similar the LG InstaView meliorate. The whole upper-right door is basically a 29in screen.

The Samsung Family Hub 2.0 also has a big screen, but at 21.5in, it'southward not as big as what LG offers and the interface looked a tad more than cluttered.

Here's the Samsung Family unit Hub 2.0 fridge working correctly. #CES2017 pic.twitter.com/DTbC0T1ryF
— Angela Moscaritolo (@amoscaritolo) January 5, 2022

Some other issue: unfortunately, non all the Samsung Family Hub 2.0'due south fancy features worked as expected when I checked information technology out at CES 2022. A spokesperson showing off the unit tried to pull up some recipes but had been given an error message proverb the "All Recipies server is down." I sympathize demos don't always go according to plan: "Death by demo," the apologetic spokesperson said. Even so, that's not a good expect and it made me question: if this is happening on the CES show flooring, what's the likelihood of it happening in my habitation?

The Samsung Family Hub two.0 refrigerator is having technical difficulties. #CES2017 pic.twitter.com/1mG2xNIPoe
— Angela Moscaritolo (@amoscaritolo) January five, 2022

Almost Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag'south expert on fitness and smart home products. Teaching yoga for about 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fettle trackers, eye rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, force training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to name a few.