I just moved into a new apartment on Tuesday.
One of the biggest and most notable changes is a massive steely-looking refrigerator made by Samsung.
It's much bigger than the refrigerator in my old apartment, which was made by LG.
Here's the thing though. I've been in my new apartment for only about a day, but the Samsung fridge is already creeping me out.
Every so often, the refrigerator makes a short buzzing sound — like someone's at the door or something. There's no pattern to it; the noise is always unexpected. My head instinctively whips towards the fridge every time I hear it.
I've fully inspected my fridge for any kind of technical oddities, and everything works fine, although at this early juncture I cannot confirm or deny the existence of ghosts.
That said, I find these noises equally strange and amusing.
Samsung and LG are two of the biggest rivals in technology. Both companies are from South Korea, and both companies make a similar array of consumer technologies: smartphones, displays, TVs, and yes, even refrigerators.
To me, though, this fridge issue highlights one of the reasons I typically prefer LG products over Samsung's.
Samsung makes big, bold, beautiful products, there's no doubt about that. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is a sight to behold, but even my Samsung fridge is highly attractive compared to most refrigerators — there's a ton of space inside, and I mean a ton, but it's also got a few nifty "smart" features like an automatic ice machine and a digital display on the front to let you know the respective temperatures inside the fridge and freezer.
LG's products, in my opinion, do the little things right. A few years ago, I was in the market for a new TV and I chose a non-smart TV from LG over an equally priced smart TV from Samsung, and I've never looked back. I love my dumb LG TV; I don't really need or care about the superfluous "smart" features, I just want something that provides a great experience with the least amount of interference.
So, the new Samsung fridge is great, but it doesn't nail the basics — like, you know, not loudly buzzing every so often and freaking me out in the process. My advice to all refrigerators: If you're going to make noise, make it quiet and continuous or make no noise at all. My old LG refrigerator nailed it in this regard, even if it didn't have all the bells and whistles as the new Samsung one.
Ghosts in the machine aside, I still really like the new Samsung fridge. I have yet to confirm the source of the buzzing — my best theory is that the automatic ice machine is trying to work but it's not connected to a water source just yet, so it's scraping an empty container for ice. But either way, my first impressions of the fridge are similar to other Samsung products: It's gorgeous and has a ton of features, but little things hold it back from being truly great.
