These days, almost every kitchen will have a microwave oven. These appliances can heat, reheat, defrost and a whole lot more including softening butter, popping popcorn or melting chocolate! Especially newer models can do fancy stuff like sensor reheating or using inverter technology.
Panasonic and Samsung are two big names for microwave ovens and they’re going head to head here. This article will review and compare the two brands to give the best consumer choice for your money. We’ve researched areas like features, ease of use, reliability and safety to give you the best deal possible.
Panasonic’s newest range of microwave ovens offer an outstanding array of features along with power output that’ll give you rapid cooking times. Throw in fantastic reliability backed up by a comprehensive one-year warranty and you’ve got a microwave that will last and last.
Features
The Panasonic line of microwaves offers a whole bunch of features that’ll make cooking easier than ever.
First in line is the brand’s patented Inverter Technology which delivers a steady stream of low power. Most microwaves on low power actually just turn off and on over and over again to simulate it. The Inverter Technology can improve reheating and defrosting modes giving more consistent and reliable heat.
The Genius Sensor is another super useful trick in modern microwaves which uses humidity to automatically cook and reheat food – no guesswork to work out a time to key in, just set it off and come back to perfectly heated food. Throw in the Turbo Defrost which can defrost in much quicker times than normal and you’ve got a whole lot to be thankful for.
Full list:
– sensor reheat
– turbo defrost which thaws food faster
– 3-level popcorn button
– smart controls + LED interface
– 10 power levels
Samsung microwaves are gorgeous and come with a scratch resistant exterior which, with its “Easyclean” surface, will keep the microwave looking beautiful for years to come. The interior is just as nicely thought out with a solid feeling ceramic turntable as opposed to the more normal glass turntable.
Another common features with many Samsung microwaves is a built in grill element that can be used on its own as a replacement for your broiler, or in tandem with the microwave oven. This second option gives you an “all-in-one” package that can get crispy textures on bread and melt gooey cheese while you’re heating or reheating in the microwave.
Other features are:
– many auto cook presets
– soften / melt function
– auto defrost
– turn off clock button
– sound on/off button
Winner: Panasonic
Both brands of microwaves are chockablock with useful features but the Panasonic edges this one with the more practical and useful ones.
Power / Size Options
Panasonic have a consistent high wattage for all their microwaves of 1200-1250W. This blows most home microwave ovens (typically in the 700-900W range) out the water with super fast cooking times.
This is the same for all its microwaves too. The only disappointment in the Panasonic line is there is no option for a small microwave with the smallest model offered at 1.1 cubic feet which is of medium size.
Samsung, on the other hand, aims for the middle of the range.The microwaves occupy the power output range of 900-1050W, solid if unspectacular cooking times. And size-wise you’re looking at between 1.1 to 1.4 cubic feet. All quite narrow really and not ideal if you like microwaving large amounts or you simply don’t have much space.
Winner: Panasonic
This category is a clear victory for the Panasonic microwaves which are much more powerful (=fast cooking times) than the Samsung range and also have more variety in size of microwaves too.
Ease Of Use
The Panasonic microwaves use a standard keypad input with LED display for a timer although some models do offer a dial input if that’s what you prefer so you can spin to add time rather than press buttons.
You have lots of “quality of life” additions including a “quick 30” button for adding 30 seconds to the time with just a button press and a button to switch between the standard microwave clock but also a timer that you can use for other cooking purposes.
Samsung microwaves are a joy to use with their gorgeous black mirror aesthetics and ceramic interior. The keypad user interface is simple but clear, entering what you want is very easy. Lots of extra buttons to help you around the kitchen including a “+30s button”, kitchen timer and even a sound on/off button.
Winner: Draw
Both microwaves come out well in terms of ease of use, the Panasonic edging ahead with its dial input but the Samsung clawing things back with a sound on/off button. Overall, both are so good that it’s impossible to separate them on this one.
Reliability
Panasonic has a stellar reputation when it comes to microwave ovens and this is backed up by a superb average 4.3 rating on Amazon with a reassuringly few number of breakdowns, faulty parts or other issues.
Panasonic offer a 1-year warranty on parts and labour with a 5-year warranty on the magneton itself. The warranty can be “mail in” or “carry in” depending on what you prefer.
Samsung have a decent if disappointing reputation with it comes to its microwaves with surprisingly large amount of issues. This can be seen through a total average rating on Amazon of 3.8 stars – not terrible, but this is one of those appliances you’d prefer to be rock solid for years and years.
Winner: Panasonic.
Another clear victory for Panasonic in the reliability stakes with far fewer consumer reports of issues with their microwave ovens.
Overall
Putting it all together, we can see that Panasonic wins three of the categories and the other category is a draw making the Panasonic microwaves a clear winner.
While the Samsung are no slouches, it’s simply a huge range of useful features combined with a stellar reputation for reliability that make Panasonic the right choice in this instance.
Check out their range here, I’ve linked to the most popular model but you may like to browse around the choices of size, power, dial input etc.
