I've only had this fridge a couple of weeks, but so far I'm pretty happy. It is quite large, so my brain is still getting used to the amount of space it takes. But the features! I haven't really used many of the smart features yet, but my other new appliances were smart, along with most of my house, so I figured I might as well go for it. I didn't really find a need need for the Family Hub version, although I wanted to want it. It didn't really offer much more than having a tablet or smartphone onhand does, with the exception of allowing you to look inside the refrigerator without opening the door (but then you lose the door-in-door which i wanted more). Other than that, nearly all the other features can be handled by one of the many other devices you probably already have in your house or your pocket, and the Smart Things app. And for a 1,000 bucks, I can grab my tablet and keep it on the counter next to the fridge if necessary.
Pros:
1 - The the drawers slide easily, feel sturdy, and the water pitcher fills really fast. I like the detail of the flip-down metal arm to keep items on the right door from falling out when you open it. Also, the easy-access door has come in quite handy for quickly grabbing a protein shake, Gatorade or butter instead of having to open the entire door to grab one small item.
2 -The Flex Zone is really cool. It's great for dividing the drawer for each person in the house, different categories, etc. The sliding steel divider accommodates up to 28 1/4" x 16", or any dimension within that range, So if you have large deli platters or are marinating large trays of meat, this this is an ideal space to do it.. The drawer is only 5" tall, so you won't have have a lot of vertical space, but I'm able to store 2 1-dozen egg cartoons on top of each other with no trouble. I saw varying reviews and product descriptions before buying this fridge that mention that the Flex Zone can be used as extra freezer space. That is incorrect. It has a range of 41゚ down to 30°F, which is not freezer temperature (0°F).
3 - The freezer storage is really huge. I was unsure if the depth of the bottom drawer would be enough to hold, for example, a 24-pound frozen turkey. Happily, the bottom freezer drawer is quite deep, and with the movable vertical divider, you could even store a large box up to 15" x 15" on one side. And if your bird (or other other frozen item) is tall, the upper freezer drawer lifts out and allowing you a few more inches of vertical space (up to 18" tall). I would caution, however, that the drawers are made of plastic, so anything overly heavy might cause damage. The plastic is not thin, but I would worry about bending or cracking it if the item was too heavy in one spot.
4 - When opening the lower freezer drawer, the upper drawer comes out a little automatically to the perfect point so that you can easily access the items in the bottom bin, or reach in and side the top drawer to its full extent without much effort.
5 - The ice and water dispenser "window" is generously wide. I can hold up a medium sized saucepan to fill directly, but it did make kind of a mess with ice chips escaping behind the pot.
The only real cons are:
1 - The 2 shelves on the right side only have 3 positions available, and only 1 on the left (no options), And both left and right doors have zero bin placement options, so there's not much flexibility for your vertical storage space. The design tries to make up for it with a flip up shelf on the top left and a drop shelf on the lower right side which which converts that shelf into only half its depth so tall stuff can be stored on the front of the bottom level (blocking any items in the back). The flip up shelf on the left clicks into to the shelf on the right, However, if you have lowered the right shelf then that flip up shelf has no lateral support in the center. It does not hold much weight, so even though it is now the perfect height for canned drinks, the structure is not strong enough to stay level with much weight on it. The engineers could have added plastic or nylon straps from the ceiling to act as supplemental vertical support, or a metal rail on the right side of the shelf.
2 - The vegetable bins on the bottom of the refrigerator are not very deep (~6"). So if you are one to buy a huge head of lettuce, cabbage, or if you want you want to chill anything larger than a small melon, it is not going to fit in the drawer.
3 - The drip reservoir under the water and ice dispenser is shamefully shallow. I slowly dripped 2 oz of water into the trough. At exactly the last drop it spilled over. If the the water was not being added very carefully, it would have spilled over long before that. There's no reason that could not have been a bit deeper, especially since that is the most likely place where kids will fill up their cups.
4 - It is also a little disappointing that there's no easy-access ice bin that you can take out and dump into a cooler. Certainly you could make ice cubes with trays in the drawer. However, you will have to be careful opening and closing that drawer until the water has frozen over, and you won't be able to make very much at one time.
It will end on a positive note that is not specific to this refrigerator, but to the Samsung smart appliance line. The Smart Things app that you will use to connect your refrigerator to your smart home was extremely fast and easy to set up. Also, there are features in the app which which are available on the Family Hub version without having to pay an extra grand for a screen on your door. You can control the temperature in all of the zones, turn your ice maker on and off, turn on/off power cool and power freeze, monitor your energy use, self-diagnosis and technical support, and so much more. Some of these features are also accessible through your smart home assistant. For example, I can use Alexa to turn my ice maker off if I'm going out of town and I forgot to do it before leaving without using the Smart Things app, Or just ask Alexa to check and adjust my refrigerator temperature using my voice from the couch.
The main thing that it adds (that is a selling feature of the Family Hub version) is the ability to keep track of your refrigerator inventory with a photo, location (fridge/ freezer/Flex), and expiration date, with notifications available. This might not be useful to some people, but a reminder to eat that ice cream before it goes bad could make the difference between an average day and a good one. :)