What Family Hub? LG's InstaView puts Alexa in a fridge
LG just doubled down in the battle for best smart fridge.
After quietly showing it at IFA in Germany in October, LG rolled out its Smart InstaView Refrigerator in earnest today at CES 2017. Like Samsung's Family Hub refrigerator, the InstaView has a large touchscreen that allows you to track your groceries and expiration dates. The InstaView's touchscreen is 29 inches on the diagonal, and as an added bonus, if you knock twice the screen turns translucent, so you can see inside the fridge without letting out all of the cool air.
Now that it's being launched at CES, the InstaView has a few changes. The touchscreen used Windows previously and worked with Cortana. Now, LG's touchscreen runs on the company's own WebOS and works with Amazon's digital assistant Alexa.
Impressively, the InstaView will offer full Alexa integration -- meaning you'll be able to use the voice assistant made famous by the Amazon Echo to order groceries or start a to-do list with your voice. You should even be able to use your fridge to control your smart home.
The touchscreen also lets you play music, and the fridge will take a picture of your groceries -- like the Samsung -- when you close the door. Using LG's app, you can double check that you're not overstocking while you're at the grocery store.
We're looking forward to testing this fridge in our appliance lab to see how well it measures up to the Samsung Family Hub.
