Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP French-door Refrigerator Review

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The Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP is a French-door style refrigerator. Unlike a traditional French-door with a bottom-mount, drawer freezer compartment, the RF23A9675AP features two lower-level, separate compartments that open with doors. On the left side is a dedicated freezer space with a dual ice maker, while the right compartment offers flexible temperature settings, allowing it to act as either a refrigerator or a freezer space, hence the “4-door Flex” in its name.

The top-level refrigerator compartment of this counter-depth model opens wide with four shelves in the main cavity and two crisper drawers. The left side features a beverage center that sits between the outer door and an inner door, allowing you to use the water dispenser and water pitcher without releasing much cold air from the fridge’s main compartment.

About the Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP

• Dimensions: 73” x 35.875” x 28.75” (H x W x D)
• Capacity: 23 cu. ft. (14-cubic-foot fridge, 8.8-cubic-foot freezer)
• Depth: Counter depth
• Finishes: Custom selection (glass, steel)
• Special features: Dual ice maker, 4-door Flex temperature flex compartment, LED lighting, flex crisper, water filter
• Dispensers: Cold water dispenser
• Smart capabilities: Built-in Wi-Fi
• User manual: Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP user manual

What we like about the Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP

The looks of this fridge have been designed with intention

Samsung’s Bespoke fridge was made for the person who appreciates intentional design choices.

The fridge’s front is a sleek, flat rectangle, marred only by quartering lines for the French-door refrigerator and freezer compartments. As a consumer buying a Bespoke model, you can customize this facade by choosing from steel or glass door panels that are available in a variety of colors, including white, navy, and sky blue. There are even limited-edition, artist-created panels available from time to time.

When we ordered our fridge for lab testing, we selected two different sets of panels: champagne rose steel for the larger, top compartments and black matte steel for the lower freezer compartments.

The overall visual effect is a subtle transition for the eye, and an artful aesthetic that will fit right into many upscale contemporary kitchen designs.

Not only are the steel panels pretty, they passed our fingerprint test. We pressed our hands all over them and couldn’t leave a streak or fingerprint however hard we tried. We even wet our hands and ran them across again; after a few minutes, the water droplets had evaporated without much of a trace save for a few dry water spots that were too faint for the camera to capture.

Inside the fridge, “Flex Crisper” and other words are written in a sans serif font in complementing weights. Textured patterns abound, too, including stars on the door bins, vertical lines on the back of the beverage center, and M.C. Escher-esque geometric shapes on the freezer shelving.

Inside the beverage center, the boxy water pitcher mimics the shape of the fridge itself. If you want to make a statement in your kitchen, the Samsung Bespoke volunteers for the job.

The fridge is easy to use

From opening the door to removing bins for cleaning to operating the water dispenser, the RF23A9675AP is pretty straightforward. The temperature control panel, located inside the refrigerator compartment on the lower left of the side wall, offers a bright digital temperature reading.

Even installing the front panels is incredibly easy. One pops on and stays put thanks to two large, long magnets on the back of each panel. It takes about 2 seconds to do—and I mean that literally. To remove it, you just need to catch the top with a fingernail, pull toward you, and it’s out.

Also, after you’ve had the door ajar for too long, a rather insistent alarm sounds indicating you should close the door.

Storage capacity and storage options are flexible

As one of Samsung’s trademark 4-door Flex models, this French-door fridge has one large refrigerator compartment, one smaller freezer compartment, and then another compartment that can either be set to perform as either a refrigerator or a freezer. It’s also a counter-depth model, which puts it slightly shorter on space that its standard-depth equivalent.

When we did our testing, we measured the flexible compartment as freezer space. As such, the RF23A9675AP provides more freezer storage capacity than the average French-door refrigerator, but slightly less than average space in the fridge.

However, if you take the flexible compartment and turn the temperature up to refrigerator conditions, it boosts the fridge storage capacity way above average for a French-door.

What this means is that you’ve got options. If you only have time to do a big food shop once a month and take the opportunity to stock up on frozen-fresh Alaskan salmon and rice and veggie bowls, you may want to use the compartment for frozen food storage. If you’re having a dinner party and need some space for extra appetizer plates and cans of sparkling rosé, use it as a fridge. You can switch it up as you see fit.

Crispers hold on to humidity

When it comes to retaining moisture in the crispers, the RF23A9675AP performed like a pro, scoring really well. Any produce stored within will stay fresh for longer and not succumb to flopping leaves or shriveled skin.

Onions are no match for the deodorizing filter

Ever had your strawberries taste like last-night’s Indian takeout? The transference of the smell and/or taste of one food in your fridge to another is just gross. Fortunately, this is unlikely to happen with the RF23A9675AP. The Bespoke fridge features a Triple Cooling feature that Samsung describes as “keeping the air in your fridge fresh day after day with a built-in deodorizing filter…that reduces odor from the air in your fridge, while UV technology continuously cleans the filter itself.”

To test this out, we put in a dish of rubbing alcohol in the fridge. After an hour, our lab staff did a sniff test and concluded that the filter is more than enough to deal with average household odors like onions.

What we don’t like about the Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP

Temperature performance isn’t great

When it comes to a refrigerator, you want to keep a consistent temperature in the refrigerator compartment below 40°F to prevent bacteria from growing and spoiling perishables too quickly. The RF23A9675AP achieves this goal temperature on average, but only barely. Over 72 hours of testing in our lab and when set to the manufacturer’s specified temperature, the internal temperature of the refrigeration compartment averaged 39.89°F.

A fridge that is running warm with inconsistent temperature readings increases the chance of food spoiling more quickly. Unfortunately, the RF23A9675AP’s 39.89°F was not a stable temperature, running as high as 43°F and as low as 37.8°F across the three days. This means that if you turn over food quickly, you'll be fine, but if you habitually push the limitations of sell-buy and best-buy dates on perishables and leftovers, you may be asking for stomach troubles.

To counteract these warm temps, you can set the internal temperature of the fridge lower than the manufacturer’s recommended setting and you'll get cooler readings overall. However, you’ll still experience the fluctuations, as we did.

On the other hand, the freezer compartment had excellent average temperatures during testing—five-tenths of a degree below 0°F. But again, consistency with maintaining this temperature for extended periods seems to be a struggle for the RF23A9675AP. This type of temperature swing can lead to freezer burn on your food.

This data is also troubling because it seems to deviate from Samsung’s intention, which claims a “premium cooling system featuring three evaporators for ultimate freshness and providing precise temperature and humidity controls in all three zones.”

The beverage center feels disjointed

If you’ve never had a French-door fridge with a door-in-door beverage center, you may not know how to open it. On the RF23A9675AP, you feel for a lever on the underside of the door midway across, which opens the outer door to reveal a water pitcher, water dispenser, and two shelves for drinks. The pitcher holds 48 ounces of water, and it removes easily from its docking station. There is also a dispenser that you can push to fill up a cup of water.

We can appreciate the different use cases for a water pitcher and a water dispenser, so we’re OK with there being both. Unfortunately, ice is not addressed in the beverage center, and instead, you have to retrieve it from the ice maker in a separate freezer compartment. The two ice trays, where you have a choice of ice cubes and smaller-sized ice bites, are at the very top of the lower level freezer, and you’ll have to bend or squat to access it—hard for someone with a back problem, mobility challenges, or trouble with reach.

Warranty

From date of purchase, Samsung offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor, a five-year warranty on parts and labor on the sealed refrigeration system only, and 10 years parts and five years labor on the digital inverter compressor.

What users are saying about the Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP

Given that the Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP is a brand new model in a brand new line, there aren’t many user reviews. However, the ones we’ve read at major appliance retailers indicate that consumers are largely pleased with this fridge, especially the dual ice options, its sleek look, and its ease of use. Complaints seem to fall to delivery delays, which is not reflective of this fridge itself.

Should you buy the Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP?

Maybe, if you value aesthetics over temperature performance

If you’re looking for a sleek, design-oriented refrigerator that will get your friends talking enviously at your next dinner party, or if you want a refrigerator that you can modify to fit your ever-changing personal mood and the aesthetics of your showy kitchen, then there’s nothing else like the Samsung Bespoke. And, even with the shaky temperature performance, if you shop for food often, eat a lot of fresh veggies, then you’ll do alright with the RF23A9675AP.

The RF23A9675AP excels when it comes to usability and presentation, but it lags behind other French-door fridges when it comes to temperature consistency, a common trait we’ve historically noticed with other very high-end models.

“It's the sleekest presentation I have ever tested,” Reviewed’s senior lab manager Jonathan Chan says. “The design is a marvel, but the performance is that of a luxury fridge, which is not great.”

We want to emphasize the uniqueness of the Samsung Smart Bespoke RF23A9675AP in just about every way. But, its downfall is a biggie in our eyes. Cool, consistent temperatures are the point of a refrigerator after all, and you should have that without compromise in a fridge at this price point.

For about the same money you’d spend on the Bespoke, you can get our highest-rating French-door fridge, the Frigidaire Gallery FG4H2272UF, which, unlike the RF23A9675AP, is a pro at maintaining cold temperatures. If you want to stick with Samsung brand and like the Flex compartment, check out the Samsung RF23J9011SR, although it will cost you a bit more than the Bespoke RF23A9675AP.

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.