It's fair to say that washing machines haven't changed a huge amount over the years, from the outside at least. Every washing machine review we've ever done has been on a machine with a front control panel, a drawer where you put the detergent. With the Samsung WW9000 that all changes, as the company full embraces the 21st century and even adds in Wi-Fi and smartphone control to make this the first smart washing machine.

One of the first things you'll notice about this washing machine is that the front is conspicuosly clear of a detergent drawer. Instead, you poor your entire bottle of detergent into one internal dispenser and the entire bottle of fabric conditioner into another. When you put on a wash, the WW9000 determines how dirty your clothes are and how much softner they'll need. The washing machine can hold around a month's worth of cleaning fluids, which means you can just throw your clothes in and start getting the clean without any hassle. If you want to use powder, there's also a detergent capsule provided with the machine, which you put into the drum with your washing.

Gone is the usual dial and controls, replaced instead with a 5in colour touchscreen. It's a brilliant addition and makes choosing your wash type really easy, plus you can clearly see on-screen exactly which options you've selected. If you find yourself using certain settings a lot, you can just tap the 'Star' icon and the WW9000 will add that wash to your list of favourites, where you can quickly recall it next time. With up to four custom wash cycles, there's enough for most people. Given how much easier the touchscreen makes it to use the washing machine, we'ere a little suprised that it's not a more common feature.

With the touchscreen taking over the job of setting up the wash cycle, there are only two physical buttons on the machine: a play/pause one and a power button. Of course, the screen shows you the time remaining for your wash.

Samsung WW9000 phone control

One of the most exciting things about the WW9000 is that it's the first washing machine we've seen that can be controlled by your smartphone. To get this feature to work you first of all have to connect the washing machine to your home wireless network. It will connect to any 2.4GHz network and supports all of the common security protocols. Joining a network is fairly straightforward using the control panel, which will list all networks within range, before getting you to enter your password.

Once you've got your washing machine online (a Wi-Fi icon appears on the screen to let you know it's all working), you can remote control it via the Samsung Smart Home app, which is available for Android phones and, later in the year, iPhone smartphones , running iOS 7 (we recommend iOS 7.1 ). If you're on the same network as your washing machine, you can simply just remote control it. The app lets you set the wash type, start and pause the machine and view how much time is left on a wash. It's this latter feature that's particularly useful, as you don't have to get up to find out how long's left before your washing is finished.

If you want to control your washing machine from outside of your home, you have to register your washing machine to your free Samsung account, which you'll be prompted to create if you don't have one. Outside of the home, you can do all of the same things that you can from inside. This is pretty clever, as it means that you can just throw your clothes into the machine before, say, you head out to work, without worrying about detergent. Then, when you're about to leave you can turn your machine on, so you that you arrive to freshly-clean clothes that haven't been sat in the machine for ages; it's a better system than using a delay timer, where you still have to guess roughtly when you'll be home. To see the app in action, you can view the Samsung video below.

Samsung WW9000 capacity

As well as being one of the most technically advanced washing machines we've seen, it ranks top for capacity, with a massive 10kg drum. This means that there's plenty of room, not matter how big a load of washing you want to do. This kind of capacity can also be useful if you want to wash larger items, such as duvets and blankets. As always, this kind of machine tends to work out best if you try and use it to full capacity, so anyone doing more regular, but smaller loads, may want to look for a slightly smaller machine.