Gadgetory

hi I'm Katie Southampton for CNET and today we're taking a first look at the Samsung any five eight F 9 7 1 0 WS 5.8 cubic foot electric range with a price point of $23.99 this range definitely sits towards the top of its category but Samsung has included a lot of features to give it a lot of bang for your buck one of the first things we noticed about this model and have been really impressed with since we've played around with it is the combination of the controls dials are used to control the smooth top stove and this touchscreen controls the oven you may wonder why Samsung did this it seems a bit of an odd choice but it's not when we're unhappy about I really like the confidence that that big heavy dial instills when turning on the stove and then turning it back off again as far as the smooth top is concerned it's fairly standard but Samsung has added again a couple of nice features one it's got a fifth burner that's used for warming and it also connects the two medium burners to form a bridge this bridge is really great for things like griddles because it keeps continuous even heat along the bottom rather than a cold spot in the middle of the two burners other than that the stovetop is pretty standard the oven is where Samsung has really loaded a lot of interesting elements what you're looking at right now is Samsung's flex duo oven technology we're really excited about this because in most ranges where two ovens are created in the space where one would traditionally be housed the ovens are separate and you lose the drawer on the bottom Samsung has seen this as a problem and has come up with a solution and giving you this divider that is made of the same material as the walls of the oven which when placed in the right position sensors activate and it recognizes that you are now using two ovens that Samsung claims will operate independently of one another at two completely different temperatures we're really excited to test that fully and see if it lives up to the hype but if you don't want to use the Flex duo divider Samsung has included your traditional sliding rack so that you can use the oven as one complete entity a trend we're seeing now with ranges is using the drawer on the bottom for greater utility some ranges use it for baking or broiling what Samsung has done is give a warming drawer that has three different temperature settings low medium and high we could see this being a really great feature particularly around the holidays if you have a lot of casserole dishes or a couple of pies that you want to keep warm but not take up any space in the oven as we said earlier the oven is controlled through this touch screen it's pretty responsive from what we can tell and seems to work well but we'll be sure to put this range through a full battery of tests to really see how it stands up and whether it is in fact worth that $23.99 price point stay tuned for our full review of the Samsung ne5 8 F 9 7 1 0 WS 5.8 cubic foot electric range but until next time I'm Katie toll canvassing