A few months ago, I got the opportunity to see what it was like to use a washing machine that wasn’t bought in 2017 from the ‘sale’ section of Harvey Norman’s discount factory, and a dryer that wasn’t sitting in the washroom cupboard of a rental since it was built two years prior to that. That washing machine and dryer was from Samsung’s Bespoke range, and they’re both smarter than I ever thought a washing machine and dryer could be.
Samsung put me up overnight in an Airbnb on Gadigal and Bidiagal land a few months ago. During that stay, I got to speedrun review the Samsung Bespoke AI Front Load Washer and Bespoke AI Dryer, as well as the Bespoke Mirror AirDresser. I also ate breakfast by Bondi Beach. It was nice seeing how the other half live, mostly the ultra-high-tech washing machine and dryer part (but the beach was a nice touch).
Housekeeping out of the way, it’s time to talk about keeping house.
Samsung Bespoke AI Front Load Washer & Dryer
The Samsung Bespoke AI Front Load Washer is a 12kg washing machine that retails for $1,699. The Samsung Bespoke AI Dryer has a 9kg capacity and retails for $1,999. The idea behind the two is to chuck your load on and not have to worry about a thing until it’s done – as long as you’ve got the Smart Things app on your phone you can go do whatever you want while the washing machine takes care of everything.
The Bespoke AI Front Load Washer is the most intelligent washing machine Samsung has ever brought to market – almost too smart.
It has an energy rating of 5, uses 123L of water per wash, a water efficiency rating of 4 stars, 72dB spin noise, is Wi-Fi enabled, and of course, has 24 cycles (such as quick wash, AI wash, bedding, etc).
If we zoom into this ‘AI wash’ thing for a second – the machine has five types of sensors to detect the clothes/laundry’s weight and calculate the optimal amount of water and detergent that’s needed for the wash. A turbidity sensor monitors the level of soiling/dirtiness in the items and ADDS MORE DETERGENT (sorry for yelling, this is just too much for me and my 2015-spec washing machine to grasp). It also adds more rinsing time if needed, too. And if the load is small, ie under 2 kg, the fabric sensor will optimise the amount of bubbles, the speed, and rinsing to the type of fabric.
Now, Gizmodo Australia is a tech website, so of course I’m going to hyperfixate on the tech elements to the washer, but there are so many more – auto dispense will auto dispense the detergent and softener, AI Energy Mode will use cold water to conserve energy, and Samsung is also limiting the amount of microplastics that make their way from your clothing into the drainways.
Throughout my night with the Samsung Bespoke AI Front Load Washer, I washed a secondhand Cashmere jacket that I felt too good to wash in my machine at home – this was the result.
I also washed and dried the bedding at the Airbnb, as well as the jeans and jumper I had worn to the office the previous day, among a few other things. To say it worked would be pointing out the obvious, and that was never really in question, what was in question was whether you need all of these smarts.
On top of the washing machine is of course the Samsung Bespoke AI Dryer. It’s a ‘heat pump technology’ dryer that uses ‘digital inverter compressor technology’ – which means it heats the air not using electricity and it is more gentle on your clothes (not burning or fusing the fibres together like my shitty one at home does). It’s got a 9-star energy rating, too.
Samsung reckons the dryer also uses steam to attack bacteria, mites, and allergens on that which is put in it, with its ‘Hygeine Care+’ cycle sanitising both dry and wet items.
To be honest, the sheets came out of the Samsung dryer feeling fluffy, and not scorching hot or feeling thin from the material getting too hot. My jumper was also still soft, and it just smelled nice.
Almost too smart
I said just before, the question was never if the washer and dryer both work, it was whether they need to be this smart.
Samsung loaded up a Galaxy S23 with the washer and dryer signed in via the Smart Things app. At home, I use the Smart Things app for my Samsung TV and soundbar, when I reviewed the Versatile Plus AX46 air purifier and the Bespoke vacuum cleaner, it was a sinch to control them from the app, too. So it came as no surprise the app would be involved quite a bit with the washer and dryer.
It was really cool, actually, to be sitting on the lounge and knowing whether I should bother getting up to take my plate to the sink now or wait that extra 2 minutes until the dryer was finished. Lazy? Yes. But don’t tell me you wouldn’t also like to know this. Of course, you can do way more with the washing machine/dryer from the Samsung app – fiddle with settings, see what the AI settings have determined of your load, pause the wash cycle, etc. You can also do everything from the app that you can on the washing machine/dryer’s physical display.
But… Between the washing machine, dryer, and AirDresser, boy did Samsung wanna give me so many notifications. I was obviously stress testing these things, but the Samsung notification sound is a punish at the best of times.
Should you buy the Samsung Bespoke washing machine and dryer?
I’ll answer it this way: Both machines are really good at washing/drying and Samsung has certainly gamified the experience to make it seem less like a chore. I feel you can’t have one without the other (well, you can, you’ll just miss out on some of the ecosystem smarts), so it’s a $3,698 investment. If you want it, I hope you’re on Santa’s Nice List.