Fancy features, asymmetrical doors from Frigidaire's newest fridge
Along with a drawer that can double as an extra freezer, this high-end French door fridge features an extra-wide right-hand door.
- 10 years product testing experience with the CNET Home team
If you're in the market for a brand new refrigerator this year, then Frigidaire hopes that you'll consider the Frigidaire Gallery FG4H2277UF, a counter-depth French door model announced just in time for the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas.
Ringing in at a lofty retail price of $3,599 (but, as of 2/19/19, also on sale at outlets like AJ Madison for around $2,500), the fridge boasts two noteworthy features. The first is the "Custom-Flex Temp Drawer," which you can set anywhere from -6 to 45 degrees F. That's similar to the "FlexZone" compartment in top-of-the-line Samsung four-door fridges, a feature that lets you dial one half of the freezer up into fridge mode.
With Frigidaire, that flex compartment isn't part of the freezer, but rather, a dedicated drawer. Frigidaire calls it the first drawer of its kind to offer both fridge and freezer settings, and also says that its temperature range is the widest money can currently buy.
Frigidaire's newest high-end fridge is a little off-center.
The second feature of note: An asymmetrical design that gives you an extra-wide fridge door on the right. Frigidaire calls it the "OpenAccess Door," and the idea is that it'll let you reach up to 75 percent of your fresh groceries without needing to open both doors. That's not an awful pitch -- the fact that French door models typically require you to use both hands to open any more than 50 percent of the fridge is an understated shortcoming.
That said, this is kind of a goofy-looking refrigerator, right? I'd want to use it for myself before judging too harshly, but the off-center approach would certainly take some getting used to.
Part of the problem for me is that it looks to be a pretty basic-looking high-end refrigerator to begin with. Clad in the usual, smudge-resistant stainless steel and devoid of any other deviations from the norm as far as design is concerned, the asymmetrical build just seems to stick out to me.
Then there's the price. $3,599 is obviously really expensive, even among high-end refrigerators (you can get a four-door Family Hub touchscreen fridge from Samsung or a coffee-making smart refrigerator from GE for less). The drawer that flips between fridge and freezer modes is a nice, luxurious touch, but still, Frigidaire will need to deliver some very strong performance in order to justify the cost here.
That said, Frigidaire might simply be inflating the initial price tag a bit so that retailers can give it as steep-looking of a discount as possible. In fact, as of writing this, the FG4H2272UF is already available from a number of retailers for more than a $1000 less. We'll keep an eye on it and tell you more as soon as we get a chance to test it out.