CES 2016: Samsung's new 'Family Hub' smart fridge has a giant touchscreen on the front

Fridges with small screens are nothing new, but Samsung appears to have stuck a full-size TV on the front of their new device

Who could live without a giant tablet on front of their fridge? (Samsung)

As if you didn't have enough screens in your life already, Samsung has advertised a new 'smart fridge' with a giant 21.5-inch vertical touchscreen at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Unusual internet-connected home appliances are a dime a dozen at CES, but Samsung's new fridge stands out - smart fridges with small touchscreens are nothing new, but the one on the Samsung fridge is enormous, looking more like a vertical TV screen than a compact built-in tablet.

Images of the fridge were released on the company's Korean Flickr account, and the hefty device was emblazoned on banners hung up around the CES venue.

An entire panel of the fridge is taken up by the huge screen (Samsung)

Samsung hasn't revealed too much about the 'Family Hub refrigerator' - there's no videos of the touchscreen in action, but it looks a lot like a giant Android phone, complete with touch-sensitive 'Home' and 'Back' buttons at the bottom. There even appears to be a microphone button, suggesting you'll be able to communicate with the fridge through voice commands.

Images from the CES banners show a mock-up of what the screen displays - it looks like owners will be able to see the weather, read the news, create shopping lists and leave electronic notes on the front of the fridge, as well as listen to music and order groceries through the touchscreen.

It's also fair to assume that the fridge will be able to log what's in it and alert you when something is running low, like most other smart fridges.

You could do all of this on your phone or laptop, of course, but if you want to realise your dreams of living in a futuristic techno-dystopia, the Family Hub fridge could be for you.

There's no word on the fridge's release date, regional availability or price at the moment, but we might learn more if Samsung formally unveils it when CES kicks off on 6 January. Based on the pricing of similar models, The Verge estimates that the fridge is likely to cost something in the region of £2,700.