More than a pretty (sur)face, here’s what Samsung’s Bespoke fridge & convection oven can do

Samsung is mostly known for its phones, TVs, and electronics. But the company has grown to become a reputable home and kitchen appliance brand as well. 

In completing the furnishing for our newly-renovated office, we recently welcomed the brand’s Convection Microwave Oven with HotBlastTM 35L and a BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator. 

To stand out from looking like just any other oven and fridge, Samsung lets you select these appliances to match your personal taste and kitchen interior, but more on this later. 

Convection Microwave Oven with HotBlastTM 35L

The pink Convection Microwave Oven with HotBlastTM worth RM1,899 we got has a capacity of 35 litres. It measures 528mm in length, 404mm in width, and 481mm tall and fits nicely on our countertop.

In its box, it came with all the necessary oven accessories, like two wire racks of different heights, a Pro Steamer, Crusty Plate, roller ring, and turntable.

Providing a premium look and feel is the oven’s easy-to-use glass touch controls with a white LED backlight, and a display for settings and durations in large and highly visible text. 

Of course, understanding what all the icons indicate requires some consultation with the user manual. A digital copy of the booklet can be found online via scanning the QR code that’s stuck on the oven’s top.

The “HotBlast” in the microwave oven’s name refers to Samsung’s new technology. Powerful hot air is blasted downwards, directly onto the food from 52 equally-distributed air holes. 

There are auto modes which are basically pre-set cooking programmes, making the oven a convenient tool for those who don’t have the skills or time to cook.

By choosing an auto mode on the control panel, you can toggle between numbers to select a preferred programme. This cooks certain dishes that are listed in the Quick Cooking Guide’s menu that comes inside the box.

It’s where you can find the right channels for cooking a roast chicken, homemade and frozen pizza, defrosting foods, or even proofing dough and making yoghurt. 

Something worth noting is that Samsung has given each channel a pre-set range for the weight of a food. 

For example, the microwave oven’s weight range for the frozen lasagna was within 400-500g, so we toggled it down a little to fit the product packaging’s description for a well-done dish.

With the auto modes, we could cook our frozen pizza and lasagna conveniently, and they turned out well. Their cheese was melted and crispy without their insides getting dried out.

Other than that, there is a mode that Samsung calls PowerGrill Duo, allowing you to enjoy evenly grilled foods. 

The wide grill heater claims to deliver significantly more power, up to a maximum of 2,300W, and it cooked our colleague’s chicken chop to crispy, juicy perfection after 12 minutes.

Air fryers have been raved about this past decade, and I’ve heard of people completely neglecting their ovens after acquiring a unit. Samsung’s Convection Microwave Oven with HotBlastTM is determined not to be left out.

Samsung’s Air Fry technology combines the heated Crusty Plate with hot air circulation that envelops food. 

Interestingly, there’s no specific icon on the control panel indicating the air fryer setting. But if you refer to the Quick Cooking Guide, it appears that the auto settings are already programmed to air fry certain dishes if you choose the right channel.

With it, we defrosted and air-fried frozen onion rings. Using no additional oil, we made perfectly crusty onion rings with tender and juicy insides.

Overall, the oven pretty much gives you the liberty to “set it and leave it”. So if you’re as hopeless at cooking as I am, or pinched for time, Samsung’s Convection Microwave Oven with HotBlastTM will serve you well. 

When it comes to cleaning, most of the heating components of the oven are exposed, which makes it easier to wipe down without having to dig into small and narrow crevices.

BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator

As mentioned, Samsung is now allowing customers to personalise their kitchen appliances. The BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator worth RM5,099 is where the customisation element really gets to shine. 

For one, you can customise the refrigerator’s front panels in pink, white, grey, sky blue, and navy with a glass or metal finish. 

You could also mix and match, a perk we went for by choosing white for the top, and pink on the bottom.

There are also options available to switch the freezer into a fridge, and back again. 

Furthermore, the BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator’s doors are reversible simply by changing the hinges, allowing you to switch which way the doors open, from left to right, or vice versa.

Addressing consumers’ need for more refrigerator capacity, Samsung’s 350L BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator is modular as well. 

You can combine multiple BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator units to fit your needs, lifetime stage, and kitchen size.

Of course, there’s more to the fridge than its looks. 

With an All Around Cooling system, the fridge and freezer portions have separate cooling evaporators so odours don’t mix. 

This held true, because we had a Musang King ice cream in our freezer for quite a while, yet its pungent odours didn’t even circulate within the freezer space, let alone the fridge portion. 

Samsung claims the fridge maintains optimal humidity between 65% to 75%, which is the ideal storage condition for vegetables, while frozen foods can retain their original flavours in the freezer.

With a metal cooling plate in the refrigerator’s rear wall, internal temperatures can be maintained, since it prevents cool air from exiting too quickly while the door is open.

A discreetly hidden display can be found on the top lining of the refrigerator, only noticeable when you open the door. 

It doubles as a control panel to adjust the temperatures between 1°C to 7°C for the fridge, while its freezer can be adjusted to be -15°C to -23°C. 

There’s also a power cool setting, which means the fan runs at maximum for two and a half hours to chill recently bought goods. It’s good for making ice in four hours too. 

Storage-wise, the 1,853mm tall, 669mm deep, and 595mm wide fridge has got multiple shelves and racks with wide spacing to store pizza boxes, groceries, leftover food, eggs, and more.

We’ve yet to fully stock up ours in the office, so we haven’t seen for ourselves just how much food this fridge can hold.

Mounted on the inside of the door is a wide and deep Big Guard that can hold big and tall bottles, fitting a 1.5-litre bottle of soda easily.

Part of the BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator’s storage abilities includes drawers for its freezer that can slide out fully, making it easy to store and take out large food items. 

Samsung claims that the freezer also has a No Frost Technology to prevent water drop formation on food which can lead to mould and bacteria production.

The BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator uses a Digital Inverter Compressor, which adjusts its speed in response to cooling demands. Hence, Samsung states that it uses up to 50% less power, and is backed by a 10-year warranty.

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We’ve not even had the Samsung Convection Microwave Oven with HotBlastTM and the BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator for a month in our office, so safe to say, there’s still lots to explore with these devices, particularly the microwave oven.

Its reheating capabilities aside, we definitely plan on utilising its HotBlastTM and oven functions a lot more for cooking simple, chilled, or frozen foods in the office easily and conveniently.

We’ve now got a couple of cake box mixes staring us down in our pantry, so we know we’ll be doing some baking soon and storing the leftovers in our BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator to see how long they stay fresh.

Find out how all this turns out in our next article of the Convection Microwave Oven with HotBlastTM and the BESPOKE Bottom Mount Refrigerator!