Samsung Bespoke Series 6 NV7B6685AAN/U4 Oven with Dual Cook Review
Huge flexibility, excellent cooking results
Verdict
Well priced, the Samsung Bespoke Series 6 NV7B6685AAN/U4 Oven with Dual Cook has a huge range of features: it can act as two smaller ovens, it can steam cook, it has a temperature probe and it connects via SmartThings. If you want the ultimate in flexibility, and great cooking results, this is a top choice.
Pros
- Can split the oven into two separate units
- Two sliding rails
- Lots of accessories
Cons
- Only one wire shelf in the box
Availability
- UKRRP: £1199
Key Features
- CapacityThis large single oven has an internal capacity of 76-litres.
- SteamDedicated reservoir allows for steam cooking.
- Smart featuresIntegrates with Samsung SmartThings for remote programming.
Introduction
To truly cook great dishes, it’s about having the right tools to give the right results. That’s what the Samsung Bespoke Series 6 NV7B6685AAN/U4 Oven with Dual Cook offers in spades.
This oven is smart, can steam food, and can be split into two different compartments. It’s also surprisingly good value, given everything on offer.
Design and featuresI
- Can be split into two ovens
- Only the one wire shelf in the box
- Temperature probe and steam cooking
Although it’s not quite as striking as the Samsung Infinite Range – Dual Cook Steam NV75T9979, the Samsung NV7B6685AAN is hardly an ugly oven. Finished in a lovely navy blue, my review sample looked gorgeous. And, this model has a bigger window than the Infinite Range oven, so it’s easier to use.
The build quality on this oven is excellent, with a soft close door. It’s such a great feature, and something that I really missed when I went back to my normal oven that doesn’t have this (there was a lot of slamming).
Inside, there’s a total of 76-litres of space, which is about as big as you can reasonably get in a regular oven. That’s quite a staggering amount of space, and large enough to take big cuts of meat, or to cook for a lot of people.
There’s only one tray and one wire shelf in the box, which feels a little bit mean: this is an oven that can clearly take three shelves.
I do like the dual sliders, though. Being able to slide a shelf out of an oven makes adding, checking and removing food a lot easier than on ovens with static shelves.
Samsung provides its steamer accessory in the box, too. This can be used with the special Steam Cook programme to steam food, such as vegetables.
This oven has a steam option, too. Just slide out the water reservoir at the top, fill it up, and the oven will fill the cavity with steam to get crispy food, while retaining moisture. I found this reservoir much easier to fill than the fixed one on the Hotpoint SI9 S8C1 SH IX H.
The Dual Cook option is as good here as it is on other Samsung ovens. Slide the divider in, and the oven splits into two: one top and one bottom. Each oven can be used independently, so you can either save money by using half the space, or go for flexibility while cooking different dishes in each section.
With the divider in place, the top oven has a wide choice of cooking modes: Convection, Large Grill, Top Heat + Convection, AirFry and Auto Cook, where you choose the type of food you want to cook (scones, salmon, chicken, etc) and its weight, and the oven picks the best setting for you.
The bottom oven has the choice of Convection, Bottom Heat + Convection, Bottom Heat, Steam Cook (so you can steam veg here and roast food in the top oven), Steam Convection, Steam Bottom Heat, and Auto Cook.
Take out the divider and you get the same range of cooking programmes, plus Eco Grill, Fan Grill, Air Sous Vide (this sets a target temperature for the oven, and maintains it to cook foods, such as meats, to the same temperature throughout), and Pro-Roasting. There are a few special modes, too, including plate warming, keep warm and dough proving).
Not enough for you? Well, there’s also a temperature probe that you can stick into food, with the oven shutting down when the target has been hit. You will need to look up ideal temperatures, as the oven doesn’t offer advice for common foods, such as steak and chicken.
All of the modes are easy to select using the clean interface, which shows the options on the bright LCD screen. When cooking, you can set a cooking time, with the option to shut down at the end, or switch to keep warm. Plus, the oven lets you quickly add another five minutes of cooking time, which is great for finishing of a dish that isn’t quite ready.
There are three cleaning options: Steam Clean (for the main cavity), Descale (for cleaning the water system) and Drain (for removing water left in the reservoir). This model doesn’t have the more advanced pyrolytic cleaning option that the Infinite Range model has, although there are 6 Series models that do have this (NV7B6675CAN/U4 in Navy and NV7B6795JAK/U4 in black).
SmartThings integration is available, which gives remote control, and lets you send programmes to the oven. It’s quite useful, particularly at first, as each cooking mode has a short description. There’s also a large recipe selection that helps you prepare food, while sending the right cooking instructions to the oven.
Performance
- Excellent results from the temperature probe
- Good energy-saving options
- Steam cooking can improve many dishes
I started by cooking some oven chips at a temperature of 210C. Ignoring the warm up energy required, this action used 0.533kWh (around 18p assuming a cost of 34p per kWh). Dividing the oven in half and using just the top oven, the energy usage dropped to just 0.36kWh (12p). That shows how much money you can save when you only need to do a little bit of cooking.
I then cooked chips using the Air Fry option using the provided basket. This wasn’t quite as quick as using a proper air fryer, and the chips weren’t quite as crispy, either. But, they were evenly cooked, and they were better than traditional oven chips cooked in a convection oven.
Next, I cooked a chicken breast using the temperature probe, setting the oven to 75C. As soon as the chicken was ready, the oven beeped, and I removed it. This chicken was perfectly cooked through, and the oven had stopped before the chicken had a chance to start drying out.
I tested the grill using six slices of bread spread out over a wire shelf. I found that the end result was excellent: the bread was evenly toasted all over.
I measured the oven’s performance using trays full of ceramic beads. With the oven set to 200C, I measured the front of the shelf at 201C and the back at 209C, on the top shelf. As you can see from the thermal shot, the heat is well distributed across the back of the shelf, but cools towards the front. For longer cooks, turning food part way through would help.
On the middle shelf, I saw a similar thermal pattern, although the temperature variance was slightly less: 201C at the front and 210C at the back.
Finally, I cooked a baguette using the steam option. This helped crisp up the outside of the bread, while maintaining a soft interior. Evenly cooked, this was a great result.
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Should you buy it?
You want flexibility: Acting like a double oven, with loads of cooking modes, this oven can work well in practically every kitchen.
You want pyrolytic cleaning: If you end up with a very dirty oven, then the lack of this feature may point you at a different choice.
Final Thoughts
Although pushing £1000 isn’t cheap, the Samsung Bespoke Series 6 NV7B6685AAN/U4 Oven with Dual Cook is great value considering the features it has. I’d say that the Whirlpool W11I OM1 4MS2 H has a slightly better interface and it suggests the right temperatures for cooking with the probe, but this model requires the use of the whole cavity.
That’s fine if you’ve got another oven or cooking device, but if you don’t, the Samsung NV7B6685AAN gives you flexible cooking, acting like two ovens, and brilliant results.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every oven we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main oven for the review period
We use ceramic beads and a thermal camera to see how evenly the oven heats.
We use slices of bread to see how evenly the grill cooks.
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FAQs
A divider can be slid into place, which converts the single oven into a double oven, each compartment with its own set of controls.
As well as conventional cooking, this model has a temperature probe, smart app control, steam, air fry, air sous vide and more.
Full specs
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
