Bosch introduces a super-sized and spruced-up fridge lineup at IFA
Bosch showed off a new fridge lineup at IFA with extra capacity and advanced temperature controls designed to keep your food fresher for longer.
Bosch's new fridges are getting bigger, smarter and more precise. The new refrigerators announced at IFA today will be added on to Bosch's series 4, 6 and 8 lineups. The different series mark Bosch's price points, so the new models will be spread out among the company's selection of fridges. All of them will get a size upgrade and will have a mixture of temp control drawers, humidity sliders and other add-ons.
New smarts
Each new fridge will also be compatible with Bosch's Home Connect Interface, which will allow them to be controlled by the iOS and Android Home Connect app. In a corresponding announcement today, Bosch introduced an expansion to the app allowing it to control fridges, washing machines, dryers and coffee makers, in addition to the ovens and dishwashers already in the app's wheelhouse.
The new app-enabled fridge features include the ability to check on your groceries from afar via a connected camera inside the fridge. It's a clever solution to smart inventory management. If you don't remember if you still have milk while you're at the grocery store, you can just pull up your Bosch app on your phone and check. I'm somewhat doubtful of a single camera's ability to see everything in your fridge clearly. Placement and field of view will be key elements of this feature's success.
Finding freshness
The camera also wasn't specifically mentioned with regard to the new fridges. The Home Connect compatibility was, but the camera will be one of the features reserved for the more expensive models in the Series 8 line as opposed to the more budget-friendly series 4 or 6 models.
All of the new fridges will supposedly have a redesigned control system and tout both NoFrost and VitaFresh temperature management. Plenty of fridges promise to keep food fresh, so we'll need to get Bosch's models into our testing chambers to see if those features are just fancy buzzwords, or if they actually mean something in terms of real-world use and food maintenance.
Outlook
The new fridges will have drawers with humidity controls and the Series 8 will have a separate drawer with it's own temp controls. Again, we've seen lots of fridges with both, but Bosch can stand out by combining the interesting new smarts of a connected camera in the fridge with competent temperature performance.
No release date for the fridges has been announced yet. All models will be bottom freezers (the fridge on top and the freezer at the bottom) and promise expanded capacity. In particular, models designated as XXL fridges supposedly have 50 percent more room for groceries. Judging from the current price ranges, expect the series 8 models to cost around $3,000 (around £1,959 and AU$4,260 for our readers in the UK and Australia) with the other two series trending down from there.
For more of the best of IFA 2015, see CNET's complete coverage.