Samsung RB7300T fridge freezer review

Price When Reviewed

Not available in the US

There’s a reason why most of us always use the same laundry programme on our washing machines, regardless of what we are actually putting in the drum. We just want stuff to be simple.

Perhaps you don’t need a water dispenser tank that needs refilling every day, or an automatic ice box that requires you to empty it after 48 hours of non-use. Maybe you don’t want to read the manual to figure out how to set the salad bin’s humidity, nor do you want to wipe down different snack boxes and drinks bins every week.   

And if you feel like that, this Samsung 70/30 fridge freezer could be for you.

The simplicity begins on the outside. The stainless-steel doors are flat, the handles recessed, and the appliance has a flat back, so there’s no coolant pipes or bits of compressor sticking out to collect dirt or dust.

Its design has further benefits. The fridge freezer holds 344 litres of shopping and weighs in at a ridiculously low 66kg (145.5lbs). So you won’t need a team of burly movers to jostle it into position, nor will it be a struggle to manoeuvre this appliance into an apartment building service lift.

And, with a height of 185cm, it’s tall enough to host a decent amount of storage capacity, but not so tall that the people in your household can’t reach the top shelf.

Plus it has a reversible door.

What’s not to like?

Operating volume

• 35dB operating volume

As with most modern fridge freezers, this appliance is quiet. Samsung says the operational sound is 35dB and this pretty much means that you just can’t hear it. Yes, it has a door alarm – a perky series of ten double “bings” – which is enough to alert you but not make you jump out of your skin.

Besides, it’s pretty hard to accidentally leave the doors open. We tried the door bounce test several times with different levels of force, and we couldn’t provoke any bounce back at all.

Running cost

• Uses 256KWh per annum    
• E energy rating

This fridge freezer has an E rating on the new 2021 energy rating scale (A++ in the old system), and Samsung states the total annual energy consumption is 256 KWh/pa. So you’re looking at roughly £37 a year to run the appliance, although this depends on your payment scheme, supplier, and where you live in the UK. 

Control panel and power cable

• Easy to use digital control panel

Keeping with the theme of simplicity, the control panel for the fridge freezer is a small digital panel on the left-hand side of the internal fridge cabinet. It’s easy to reach, and easy to use. You press the mode button to select either the fridge or the freezer, and then just scroll up or down to set the temperature you require.

In this way, you can select “holiday mode” by keeping the freezer temperature at -17C while raising the fridge temperature. You can also create a super cool and super freeze function by scrolling through to the lowest temperature settings.

The only slightly strange thing about this appliance is that the power cable is located at the top of the unit, rather than half way down the back – obviously to allow for the “flat back” feature, which is a very clever idea for those of us who loathe the annual ritual of cleaning behind the fridge.

We did not find this top tether to be a problem in terms of reaching a wall plug point, but be aware that it is a consideration if your plug point isn’t directly behind the appliance.        

Cool down and warm up

It took an hour for the fridge to cool from 19°C to 5°C in an atmospheric temperature of 23°C, and under two hours for the freezer to go from 21°C to -19°C. This is pretty impressive, to be honest, and we found temperatures to remain consistent across all cabinet zones throughout our appliance testing period.

Samsung states that the warm up time for this appliance is 18 hours, so your food is safe for a decent chunk of time in the event of a power cut.

Lighting

A top LED, 20cm by 3.5cm, lights the internal fridge cabinet well. There isn’t a freezer light, but such lights are rare in a 70/30 combination model.

Fridge capacity

• 230 litre fridge capacity

There are 230 litres of capacity in the fridge, which equates to 11.5 conventional supermarket shopping bags. Samsung has designed this appliance with its “SpaceMax” technology so that the cabinet walls are thinner than you’d expect. It allows engineers to squeeze in extra storage space per footprint and height, although you’ll notice the benefits of this concept more in the freezer cabinet than the fridge. 

Samsung’s “All-Around Cooling” means that every part of the cabinet is kept chilled, and we certainly noticed this consistency of temperature – there was no discernible difference in temperature between the top and bottom of the fridge.   

Shelf storage

There are four tempered glass shelves, with the fourth functioning as the top of the humidity drawer at the bottom, but there’s also a ridged plastic wine shelf that sits below the top shelf. The idea here is that the ridges on this shelf will hold different bottle sizes, but not limit the shelf so that it can only be used for bottles alone – you can, for example, use it to store wider items such as pizza boxes.

It’s a decent concept and works reasonably well, although we suspect that most households either specifically want a wine shelf or have no use for one, so there’s not much need for a compromise of this kind.  

What is awkward, however, is that you can’t adjust the shelves up or down; you are limited to the configuration that Samsung has designed into the cabinet interior.

Now, to some extent, fussing about this non-adjustability is pointless because there is only so much you can stack onto a fridge shelf before removing items becomes a tactical operation. However. sometimes, that extra inch can be the difference between storing a few sauce bottles on a shelf, rather than in the door, at times when you really need that flexibility.     

Fridge drawer

You only get one humidity drawer in this appliance. Interestingly, Samsung has put a viewing pane into the lowest shelf that allows you to see into the drawer below, which is a nice feature.

We measured a 19.5 litre capacity for this humidity drawer, which suggests an entire bag of shopping. In real-world terms, we put two double packs of romaine lettuce, 1kg of carrots, one cucumber, one pack of eight vine tomatoes, and a pack of three peppers into the drawer to discover we had about 50% of the drawer space left, so there is definitely adequate space for most households’ needs.

Again, simplicity is key here, so you can’t change the humidity setting of the drawer. 

Door storage      

The fridge door has three racks: all non-adjustable. The bottom rack is the only one you can use for taller bottles, and it holds two supermarket six-pinters of milk, or three supermarket four-pinters.

The middle rack hasn’t much height, although it will hold a large number of conventional 250ml bottles of juice or 330ml cans of soda – we managed to fit eighteen bottles of juice along the rack. Be aware, however, that there isn’t the height on this middle rack for large sauce bottles, so you might have to use the wine shelf for this purpose instead.

The top shelf fits seven 400g jars of pickles, and won’t be too tall for anyone but the youngest children. Samsung also gives you an egg tray with space for ten eggs.              

Freezer

• 114 litres of freezer space

You really notice the benefits of Samsung’s “SpaceMax” technology when you get to the freezer cabinet. This model boasts 114 litres of storage, which is over five and a half conventional supermarket shopping bags: a large capacity for a 70/30 appliance. 

Aside from being no-frost, so you never have to plan a switch-off to deal with ice formation, one notable thing about the freezer in this appliance is the excellent build of the three freezer drawers. They are sturdy and solid in a way you don’t often find. 

Samsung has put a load-bearing glass shelf between the middle and bottom drawers, so you can remove the top two drawers and use the shelf to store an unusually bulky item, say, a frozen turkey.        

In real-world terms, the drawers hold a substantial amount of frozen goods. We found the middle drawer took five 1kg bags of fries with room to spare for a couple of 350g bags of frozen risotto. Though the top drawer is significantly shallower than the other two, it still held eight 500g bags of frozen veg. 

You don’t get an ice caddy with this Samsung model, but there is a traditional ice cube tray. 

Price and availability

This appliance is available from Samsung, among other retailers, and comes in titanium silver, black or white. Generally, the white model is slightly less expensive. 

Verdict

If you want a combination fridge freezer with no fuss or frills, then you can’t go wrong with this Samsung model. It comes with a ten-year warranty, has a good amount of freezer space, looks nice and tidy, and does what it is supposed to do: it keeps stuff cold.

For more fridge freezer options, check out our round-up of the best fridge freezers we’ve tested.