Samsung's split-hinge oven door made one oven into two at the press of a button

Samsung's NE59J7850WS Electric Flex Duo range attacked a standing tradeoff in ovens. Dual-door models let you bake a tray of cookies and roast something large at the same time in separate compartments, but they are poor when you want one big cavity; a standard single oven has the opposite problem.

The trick is the door. It opens like any other oven door for full access, but hold a button on the handle and a hinge releases in the middle, letting you open just the top half. Combined with a removable divider inside, that turns one oven into two tiny ones cooking at different temperatures — or, with the divider ripped out, back into one big oven.

The compromise Samsung accepted is honest: there is still no way to open the bottom compartment alone, so checking on what is cooking below releases heat from the top portion. Fast Company flagged that tradeoff when covering the range in 2015, calling the door clever rather than perfect.

The hinge turns the door — the one component every configuration shares — into the switch between modes.

A removable divider plus a split door covers both use cases without doubling the appliance's footprint or price class.

The button-actuated release keeps the normal single-door gesture intact for everyday use.

When a product forces an either/or, redesign the shared component so it can act as both — one door that behaves like two beats buying two appliances.

The Flex Duo shipped as a real range; no sales figures are reported in the source, and the bottom-compartment access limitation remained.