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LG's Door-in-Door smart fridge is surprisingly subtle

The Wi-Fi-enabled LFXS28566M doesn't wear its smarts on its sleeve -- is an unassuming connected kitchen worth over $3K?

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Ryan_Crist2.jpg
Ry Crist
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1 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

You might not know it from looking at it, but this is a voice-activated smart fridge from LG. Specifically, it's the LFXS28566M, and it costs $3,350 -- click through to see what all it offers.

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2 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Matte finish

The "M" at the end of LFXS28566M stands for "matte," as in "matte black stainless steel." It's a new finish from LG, and it falls right in line with the current trend of dark-tinted metallic appliances.

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3 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Smudge-proof?

It also does a good job of repelling fingerprints, or at least concealing them.

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4 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Open up

Inside, you'll find about 28 cubic feet of total storage space, along with the same basic interior as previous generations of LG French door fridges.

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5 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Sliding shelf

You get one shelf that slides in to make room for tall items below -- pretty standard fare in this class.

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6 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Pantry Drawer

You also get a pantry drawer at the bottom of the fridge with three temperature settings. They didn't seem to make much difference in our tests, though -- drawers like these perform a lot better when they're separated out from the main body of the fridge.

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7 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Freezer

There's the freezer. Nothing exciting down there, though it was very steady in my performance tests.

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8 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Door-in-Door

The marquee feature in the body of the fridge has to be the Door-in-Door compartment. Push the button on the right handle, and you'll open the front panel of the right door, exposing the in-door shelves without actually opening the door itself.

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Inner door, too

If that doesn't sound like enough doors for you, don't worry -- there's another door on the inside of those shelves to help keep the cold air in.

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10 of 14 Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET

SmartThinQ app

Sync the fridge with LG's SmartThinQ app, and you'll be able to control settings remotely, regulate energy usage or even opt in for alerts when the doors get left open.

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11 of 14 LG

Voice controls

You can also sync the fridge with the Google Assistant to check the fridge status or change its settings using voice commands. The syntax is pretty clunky, though. You have to say "talk to LG" before giving your command.

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12 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Default performance

These are the average temperatures in each section of the fridge over a 72-hour test at its default setting of 37 degrees. The main body and left door did fine -- but that Door-in-Door compartment is way too warm.

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Coldest setting

We even found hotspots in the Door-in-Door compartment at the fridge's coldest setting of 33 degrees F.

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14 of 14 Chris Monroe/CNET

Door-in-Door openings

We ran the coldest setting test a second time, but instead of opening and closing the doors for 5 minutes twice a day to simulate usage, we opened and closed the Door-in-Door compartment for 5 minutes twice a day. Very little changed, which suggests that the Door-in-Door compartment doesn't make much of a positive impact on performance.

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