LG has created a little experience room at The Zabeel House where they showcase some of their latest home appliances. I had the chance to go and experience this for a night and try out, most of, the appliances. The devices we got to check out where the: LG C9 TV, InstaView Refrigerator, LG Styler, PuriCare Air Purifier, SIGNATURE TWINWash Washing Machine and the Objet Refrigerator
Zabeel House The Greens
To start off, let me talk a bit about the hotel itself. Zabeel House The Greens is a hotel run by the Jumeirah group and is located in, you guessed it, the Greens.
The location is pretty great, being closer to new dubai while also being relatively close to the older side of town. You can always travel around town via taxi or even hitch a ride to the nearest metro station is you want to travel more green.
Zabeel House has traditional room offerings for a comfortable, luxurious and chique staycation. The room we stayed at is called “The Apartment” and is the most luxurious and comfortable room that Zabeel House has to offer.
We had a lovely experience here, if you want to see more about the experience head on over to omnoms.ae for the complete hotel experience: https://omnoms.ae/travel/hotel/2019/staycation-at-zabeel-house-the-greens/
Let’s move on to all the tech we got to mess around with.
LG InstaView Door-in-Door Refrigerator
This is LG’s latest refrigerator offering with all the bells and whistles you can think of. A pretty big sized double refrigerator. As far as refrigerators go, it does look quite lovely.
The main draw for this fridge is the InstaView feature. You can do a quick knock-knock (yup a double knock, but who’s counting) on the glass panel and it will light up the insides of the fridge. This allows you to quickly have a look inside without opening anything. It’s a great feature as it can potentially save energy by preventing useless door opens while also keeping food fresh.
Another feature is it’s “Door-in-Door” capability. You can keep your daily items in this special compartment and then simply open that side of the fridge instead of the entire door. This is great for things like juice, milk etc. Since you need them all the time. This concept isn’t new but its definitely a plus as it again helps reduce wasted energy in loss of cold air.
The rest of the fridge is as you would expect in a top of the live unit. It has an in-door icemaker and cold water dispenser. You get a decent amount of space while also being well lit. This might seem like a small thing, but for me the vertical lights are an absolute must, because when the shelves start to fill up, this light keeps everything well lit. More traditional fridges have top lights, which always get blocked out by things on the top shelf.
LG says that the InstaView comes with something they call Hygiene Fresh+. This is an air filter which they claims will remove bacteria by up to 99.999% and minimises odors. While the unit was showcased in the room, we didn’t really get to use it. Beyond the InstaView and Door-in-Door features. But if the build quality is anything to go by, you can’t go wrong with this fridge.
Model: GR-X257CSAV
AED 7,599
Available at Sharaf DG, Lulu Hypermarket, Carrefour and ACE stores.
LG SIGNATURE TWINWash
This is LG’s stylish washing machine. It is a rather unique concept as it comes with two parts. The main area where you can do your heavier/bigger loads. The second is what LG calls the TWINWash Mini, a very small section for smaller or special loads.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to use it, but we did play around with it and can definitely see the potential it has.
LG says that the TWINWash has a new inverter Heat Pump Drying technology which takes better care of your fabric, and also consumes up to 50% less energy.
Model: FH6G1BAPK22 – FH8G5XDNK3
AED 15,749
Available at Sharaf DG and Emax stores.
LG Objet Refrigerator
Object is LG’s premium brand to position some of their more bespoke items. Here they showcased a rather unique and small refrigerator. At first glance, since it was put right next to the bed, it looks just like a regular side table. Only when you get close do you realise it’s not what it seems.
This fridge is designed with some beautiful wood and aluminium, making it fit seamlessly into the side of any bed or in any room. It even has some mood lighting to keep things interesting.
Probably my favourite feature was the inbuilt wireless charger. There is a little piece of fabric on the top surface on which you place your phone. Wait for a beat and your phone is happily charging along.
The Objet Refrigerator will be available late 2019.
LG Styler
I have got to be honest, when I first heard of the LG Styler, I had no clue what to think. The only thing that popped into my head was Bomfunk MC.
When I finally saw it and got to try it out, it just feels like a no-brainer. Surely built more for the busy executive or the most high-end of clients. The Styler is about giving your clothes a mid-dar siesta so they can be fresh and ready for the next thing on your agenda.
If you are going to a party and want to freshen up your party dress or if you are in between meetings and need to freshen up your suite and shirt. This is exactly what you need.
I can see busy CEOs come into their office after a meeting and hang their suite and shirt in the LG Styler. Wait for about 40 mins (or less) and you will get clothes which feel like they have just been laundered and delivered to you.
The LG Styler does Steam Cleaning which not only takes our wrinkles but also helps reduce odours from the clothes. Perfect to have you ready and crisp for your next meeting.
For our staycation I wore the same shirt on both days by putting it through the LG Styler a couple of times. My shirt came our clean and wrinkle free. Absolute lovely.
Now LG can you make something that also makes me breakfast and ties my shoes?
The cool think is that LG says their TrueSteam technology, consisting of water only and no chemicals, to keep your clothes clean and bacteria-free. Additionally, TrueSteam uses a low-temperature drying system and dries clothing faster than air drying, preventing shrinking and damage caused by heat.
Yeah I am a fan and can’t wait for the LG Styler to come out later in 2019.
LG PuriCare Air Purifier
Speaking of fans, the LG PuriCare is an Air Purifier built to look great in any house.
The PuriCare is quite big and is a stand alone unit that can clean air upto 7.5m away. It is also supposed to clean dust upto 74% faster than most other air purifiers. It’s probably due to its size and huge fans.
The purpose of such a device is to get rid of pollutants and give you a cleaner environment to live in. While we didn’t have the tools on hand to test it, we definitely felt confident that there was some improvement. We can usually start to feel a bit stuffy in a room like this, but with the PuriCare we felt quite fresh.
There are two fans on the PuriCare. The one on the top sits flat for normal use, or can even tilt up and then swivel around. The whole system looks pretty cool. It was fun to play around with but it also acts as a fan if you need some fresh air.
The second fan is about midway down. LG does claim its Baby Care feature is perfect for toddlers and babies who tend to live close to the floor. We assumed this fan was for that purpose.
The price might seem quite steep, but given its size, design and functionality it might just be worth it. But you would need to have a decent amount of space to house this.
Model AS95
AED 5,249
Available at all LG showrooms, Emax and Sharaf DG stores.
LG C9 OLED TV
Now it’s time to talk about the TV, and let’s be honest this is probably the thing we were looking forward to the most. We also happened to use this the most.
The model in the room was the beautiful 65 inch model of LG’s top of the live Smart OLED TV.
Thankfully LG already had the Netflix app setup for us to jump right into consuming some Ultra-HD content. If you didn’t know, Netflix does support some of the highest quality streaming possible, even with HDR. To add to that, Netflix even supports Dolby Vision and Atmos.
In order to enjoy all those lovely techy words for your eyes and ears, you need a TV to support it. The LG C9 does just that.
Being the latest and greatest in LG’s line of TVs, the C9 has all the bells and whistles that one would expect. From a beautiful and thin design to a huge array or ports, it has it all. Even the remote is a stand out feature (that pun will make sense in a bit).
This panel is very high end and you can tell from the quality. The blacks are really black and the colours are vibrant without being overly boosted in contrast. While we couldn’t perform an in-depth test, suffice to say most people will find this to be a perfect screen.
We only got to test the in-built speaker, and it was not disappointing. For the few episodes we watches, it was almost enough. Sure an audiophile would miss out on the crystal clear sound a good 5.1 system would get you, but for an inbuilt speaker system its good.
With WebOS, LG supports pretty much all the apps you could want on your TV. For me that starts with Plex and ends with any other streaming (video or audio) app that I might fancy at that time. The C9 supported everything.
Netflix and Amazon Prime are supported out of the box, there are even dedicated buttons on the remote. But you can get Spotify, Deezer, Plex, HBO, StarzPlay, just to name a few. I’m going to stop at this because if I started naming the apps this article would get quite big (and boring).
A great feature of the C9 is the remote. The remote feels like a multi utilitarian device because it acts like a mouse. Seriously, you point it to the screen and a cursor appears. The cursor follows you based on your movement.
I remember using this a few years ago, and feeling like the concept was great but felt a bit laggy, even in the most ideal scenarios. Well LG has come a long way, the latest remote is brilliant. After a minute of use, it just becomes second nature and you are left wondering why doesn’t everyone do this. Thanks to the cursor concept, even typing on the screen becomes quite easy.
The remote also support voice, simply press a button and start narrating. Also, the design of the remote is pretty cool. It’s sleek and quite nice to look at. You can also prop it up to stand upright instead of laying down like other remotes. Another cool idea which I haven’t seen done by anyone else.
You can get the C9 in a few sizes, here is the list:
77 inch: OLED77C9PVB.AMA
AED 24,999
65 inch: OLED65C9PVA.AMA
AED 10,999
55 inch: OLED55C9PVA.AMA
AED 7,999
ThinQ
One of the underlying features that LG didnt highlight at Zabeel House was ThinQ, which I felt was a bit of a shame. ThinQ is LG’s virtual Smarthub, if I may call it that. It’s what Samsung calls SmartThings, and was iCloud+HomeKit+Siri is for Apple.
The cool thing with this is that ThinQ works not only with the obvious things like a TV, but also with your Refrigerator or the BomFunk Styler (sorry couldn’t help myself, talking about the LG Styler) or even the AirPurifier. Yeah they are all IoT devices and ready to work with the ThinQ App.
Unfortunately we didn’t thinq about using the ThinQ app and so don’t have the hands-on experience. But with Alexa support and the ability to remote control your devices I think this should be something anyone with a ThinQ enabled device should start using.
Did I mention that the LG C9 essentially acts like your ThinQ hub and can be used to control the various devices as well. Well done LG.
Summary
Overall the experience was pretty great. We wish we could use all the appliances to get a complete picture, but what we did get to use we loved.
In some cases you might feel like the prices are quite high and part of me agrees. But if you look under the surface you are getting good value for your money.
