Why You Can Trust CNET Samsung NE58H9970WS Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range with Flex Duo Oven review: Samsung's stylish induction range boasts futuristic cooking power
This premium Samsung Chef Collection induction range is big on performance and good looks yet is small in physical size.
Priced at a cool $3,699 and sitting at the pinnacle of Samsung's elite kitchen appliance brand, the Samsung Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range comes with all the bells and whistles a well-heeled customer might have on his or her checklist.
Samsung NE58H9970WS Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range with Flex Duo Oven
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Besides high-performance induction cooking surfaces, Samsung's oven comes with a dual-fan, twin zone convection oven. Labelled Flex Duo technology by Samsung, which we loved in the Chef Duo's electric predecessor , it comes very close to offering the flexibility of a double door oven but from a compact single-cavity machine. The range also includes a clever touchscreen interface plus sturdy front-mounted knobs. This range flaunts Samsung's Virtual Flame system too, distinctive blue LED lights which reflect against cookware to imitate the appearance of gas flames and provide a safety-oriented visual indicator to the induction cooktop.
Sure, close to four grand is a lot of money to blow in one place, especially since plenty of gas ranges provide many of this appliance's enviable features at a fraction of the price. That said, if you have your heart set on induction, especially shoehorned into a compact package, the Samsung Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range is tough to beat.
A real looker of a cooker
To say the Samsung Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range (model NE58H9970WS) is handsomely appointed would be a gross understatement. With plenty of sleek lines, sharp angles and a premium stainless steel exterior, not to mention an elegant black-ceramic cooktop, this Samsung range is a poster child for modern appliance styling.
These good looks help this induction range oven convincingly play the role of luxury appliance, which is exactly the market segment Samsung is going after with its Chef Collection series of products. Encompassing most of the major home appliance categories such as refrigerators, dishwashers and microwaves, the company confidently describes its fancy household lineup as "inspired by world-class chefs." To drive its point home Samsung has even signed on big-name celebrity chefs to promote the brand, most notably successful restaurateur Daniel Boulud.
The NE58H9970WS also sits at the top of both the Chef Collection range series and Samsung's line of induction stoves. No doubt to differentiate the pricey appliance from its own less expensive induction ranges that use basic back-mounted touch controls, Samsung equips this unit with four large front-mounted burner knobs. Despite their appearance, they're actually made of plastic, but they still feel well-made and sturdy.
The burner knobs are spring-loaded as well and naturally tend to settle on one of their 10 power level settings (1 through 9 plus P boost). I also appreciate how the dials spin all the way around, clockwise or counterclockwise, without a hard stop in either direction. The benefit here is greater flexibility and enhanced control, since you have the option to spin up or down using the fewest knob clicks possible. Keep in mind you must first push knobs inward to unlock it from their off position, a nod toward child safety that will at least thwart some younger kids.
What really sets this range (as well as other Chef Collection stoves for that matter) apart visually, however, is a massive touchscreen panel that Samsung calls its "Guiding Light Controls." A long, wide and glossy black rectangle on the oven's front face, this command center is decidedly futuristic. Indeed, the panel is designed to only display menu options pertinent to the cooking task at hand.
I found the screen easy to operate and interact with, even if its white and blue text and symbols seem more at home on a piece of home theater equipment than a kitchen appliance. Another issue to consider is because the Guiding Light panel uses touchscreen technology (most likely capacitive) similar to what you'd find in smartphone screens, you need to operate it with bare hands -- not gloved. This is a minor quibble but keep in mind that turning the oven off using oven mitt-covered fingers won't work.
Below the large touchscreen you'll find the main oven cavity, which offers a roomy 5.8 cubic feet capacity. The oven door itself is framed in the same luxurious stainless steel as the rest of the Chef Collection Induction's other metallic surfaces. The same goes for the solid and gently curved door handle. I also like how the big oven door window uses glass with an extremely dark tint, which lends the entire facade a clean, sophisticated look. Of course when you activate one or both of its pair of bright oven lights the inside of the appliance becomes quite easy to view.
Other nice extras bundled with this very tricked-out oven include not two but three metal racks. The first is the standard flat multi-purpose wire rack, which has been a traditional staple for decades. The second cooking apparatus Samsung provides is a nifty gliding rack that can extend completely out of the oven while its anchors remain securely in place. It lets you expose pots, pans and cookie sheets to open air without worrying about decreased stability of the rack. The third major oven implement is a recessed rack designed to accommodate large roasting pans.
Two ovens in one
The most interesting and useful feature this oven boasts is Samsung's Flex Duo technology. Essentially it's a fancy way of saying that you can slide in a special divider which effectively splits the oven cavity into two separate cooking zones. We tested this ability when we reviewed the Slide-In Induction's electric sibling and found it very useful. The Flex Duo partition slips into the fifth oven rack position from the bottom (number five of seven, or conversely the third from the top). Impressively the oven will automatically detect when you insert the partition and enable you to choose distinct cooking modes, including temperatures for the upper and lower cavities.
There are some minor trade-offs to using the oven with its partition installed. The most notable being that both baking and roasting modes top out at 480 degrees Fahrenheit. By contrast in the single oven configuration the maximum temperature reaches 550 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mitigating this slight shortcoming is the fact that the Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range packs two convection fans, one each for the upper and lower sections of the oven.
With so much cooking flexibility, this oven also includes a dizzying array of cooking modes and functions you'll need to navigate. For example there's Bake and Roast modes, which both use convection. A Chef Bake setting, on the other hand, switches off the convention fans for more conventional baking performance.
There's also a "Healthy Cook" mode designed to whip up lighter fare such as fish fillets, steamed veggies and rice. You can also save often-used oven settings by hitting the "Favorite Cook" button. The Chef Collection oven comes with its own temperature probe for checking the status of meats and large roasts in real time.
Induction, induction, how does it function?
As you might guess, beyond an expensive appearance and flexible oven abilities, the Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range's real draw is its state-of-the-art cooktop. One key difference with Induction technology is that it doesn't rely on open flame (as in the case of gas) or metal heating elements (electric ranges) to transfer heat to cookware.
Instead induction stoves uses electrical power to create a localized magnetic field within its cooking surfaces. This field then excites ferrous metals within magnetic pots and pans, thereby "inducing" heat. The upside of this approach is efficient heat creation (only the pot and its immediate surroundings gets hot), and markedly increased burner performance and responsiveness. Ideally when using induction to cook you should experience quicker boil times than electric or even gas ranges can deliver.
Spanning 30 inches across by 26.3 inches wide, the smooth black top surface of the Slide-In Chef Collection Induction range houses a total of four circular burners. Specifically there are two 7-inch hot zones on the left side (front and back), while the righthand portion holds a smaller 6-inch burner (in back) plus a massive 11-inch burner up front.
Additionally a small, rectangular digital display indicates the power level (separate from labels on the burner knobs themselves) of all four cooking areas. It will also highlight whether a particular burner contains residual heat (with a lower case "h").
What's really wild though is how Samsung has added a string of blue LED lights embedded around parts of each burner, termed "virtual flame". The idea here is for these lights to reflect off of your premium stainless steel induction cookware, creating the illusion of gas flames. In practice I thought the effect was quite striking though I wish the LEDs could increase or decrease brightness depending on the power level you've selected.
Be warned though that if you love to cook off lots of pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausages or other breakfast treats, this may not be the stove for you. That's because unlike its gas-powered cousin the Samsung Slide-In Chef Collection Gas Range , it lacks a large center oval burner or bundled griddle pan. Compared with gas cooktops, however, and similar to electric ranges, this smooth induction surface is a cinch to wipe down and keep clean. This is especially true since the appliance's countertop experiences indirect heat, not direct heat like conventional ranges.
Performance
In keeping with the promise of induction's greater cooking power, the Samsung Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range demonstrated impressive cooking capabilities. Using the appliance's 7-inch burner, boiling 67.2 ounces of water (to 209 degrees Fahrenheit) took an average of just 5 minutes 43 seconds. Likewise the stove's large 11-inch burner brought 112 ounces up to 209 degrees Fahrenheit (just below boiling point and starting at 75 F) in a mere 7 minutes 24 seconds.
This is the first induction range we've tested, so we need more context to judge this Samsung unit among other induction cooktops, but next to the standard electric ranges we've tested, this Samsung has the swiftest boil times we've yet measured. We will update this review as we test more induction ranges, as well as gas cooktops, but Samsung has at least delivered on the promise of faster boiling through induction compared with standard electric ranges.
Achieving blazing hot temperatures is just part of this range's story. One of my favorite aspects of cooking with induction are the extremely low power levels you can select. The ability comes in especially handy when simmering delicate cream sauces or melting chocolate and butter, ingredients which either scorch easily or break if you're not careful. For example, I was able to crack a couple of eggs into a pan with the burner set to "simmer" (number two on the dial) and turn my back to wash a few dishes while they cooked.
This is a technique I would never attempt with an ordinary electric range since by nature their design (using a heating element which in turn heats a ceramic hotplate) is horribly unresponsive compared with comparable gas or induction cooking surfaces.
The Induction Chef Collection's oven also had its bright spots, specifically thanks to its Flex Duo partition worked. Just like the Samsung NE58F9710WS Slide-In Electric Range , which also featured the same technology, I was able to prepare two radically different food types in the oven simultaneously. In my case it was broiling a tray full of bacon (at 400 degrees F) while baking blueberry muffins (at 325 degrees F). To my surprise neither the bacon nor the muffins exchanged flavors or aromas despite plenty of smoke and oily sizzle on the bacon's part.
I was much less wowed by the Chef Collection's convection baking performance. Double racks of biscuits I baked using the standard Bake mode (with convection) were mostly uniform, though very underdone. It was a far cry from convection results we saw from the Dacor Renaissance 30-inch Wall Oven . Dual racks of biscuits the appliance produced were both evenly and pleasingly browned.
Dual rack biscuit bakes (without convection) displayed the usual weaknesses of many ovens, namely uneven cooking. In the Chef Collection's case the top rack tended to be more browned than the bottom. I also roasted chickens in the Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range for good measure and the results confirmed the oven can reliably cook a tasty bird without any issues.
On our tests the Slide-In Induction proved to be better at broiling hamburgers than baking biscuits. The oven had the power to complete cooking six hamburger patties in an average of 14 minutes 54 seconds. That's a tad slower than the LG Single Electric Oven, but faster than many other ranges, including the GE Artistry Series Electric and GE Free-Standing Electric . I also noticed that burgers the Chef Collection produced were nicely charred on the outside yet still moist and juicy inside -- a trait I personally relish.
Conclusion
Samsung's $3,699 Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range is certainly a luxurious step up from its less expensive sibling, the $2,499 Samsung NE58F9710WS Slide-In Electric Range . Not only does the appliance sport the same attractive stainless steel design, premium controls and handy Flex Duo split oven abilities, it brings the enhanced performance only induction technology can deliver, including fast boil times and responsiveness -- once the sole domain of gas-powered ranges.
Of course you can't deny that the product's sky-high price tag is sure to be a stumbling block for all but the most die-hard fans of induction cooking. If you want induction at a lower price, there are alternative appliances such as GE's Profile Series 30-inch Slide-In Induction and Convection Range ($3,200), which can be had for a little less cash. The GE range also packs its fancy cooking technology into a compact 30-inch frame just like the Samsung. Still, if money is no object, you love induction cooking and you're turned on by this oven's Flex Duo multi-tasking capabilities, then the Samsung Slide-In Induction Chef Collection Range is the clear choice.