X-Zone Master

Conventional household washing machines process all laundry in a single drum, making it difficult to separate laundry by color or degree of contamination, and raising concerns about cross-contamination (e.g., bacteria from workout clothes transferring to baby clothes).

Some households purchase additional small washing machines, but this poses significant cost and space issues.

Furthermore, washer and dryer combinations are bulky and lack installation flexibility, burdening modern households with small laundry rooms. In other words, there were concerns such as, "Can't we do separate laundry without having multiple washing machines in one house?" and "Can't we change the arrangement of the washing machine to fit the structure of the house?"

X-Zone Master is the world's first expandable modular washing and drying platform. The basic main unit is a large-capacity (13kg washing/9kg drying) drum, to which several small modular drums (around 2kg) can be freely attached, either side-by-side or stacked underneath.

Users can add as many modules as they want to process multiple types of laundry separately at the same time, or expand the system as their household size changes.

Technically, the main drum is equipped with the Zeus hybrid heat pump drying system for energy-efficient drying of large loads, while the mini-modules use a fresh air condensation drying method for safe drying of delicate clothing. For example, baby clothes can be low-temperature dried in a dedicated mini-module, while towels can be high-temperature dried in the main drum.

In addition, the separated laundry zone concept prevents cross-contamination, improving hygiene, and AI voice control linked to the ConnectLife app allows easy control of laundry settings. This infinite scalability and user-customized configuration is an innovation not found in existing washing machines.

B2C individual households are the main buyers. In particular, households with newborns, pets, or families who exercise frequently and have a variety of laundry types will find it appealing.

It is also useful for urban residents with limited laundry room space, allowing residents of small apartments or condos to flexibly arrange modules to save space.

For B2B, small lodging facilities or gyms with large laundry volumes may consider it, but it is basically positioned as a consumer premium appliance.

Since the X-Zone Master itself is a platform that emphasizes scalability, Hisense can grow this ecosystem by releasing various module types in the future (e.g., sterilization-only modules, shoe-only modules, etc.).

Protected by 66 global patents, it is difficult for competitors to imitate in the short term, and Hisense's global distribution network will help to develop demand in large family cultures or hygiene-conscious cultures such as North America and Europe. Overseas expansion is also easy if the modules are diversified to meet the electrical and water standards of each country.

However, the price is likely to be high, and market education is needed as the module concept is unfamiliar to general consumers. If successful, this could be a turning point in the trend of modular design spreading to kitchen appliances (e.g., refrigerator modules, etc.).

It received attention as the winner of the Best of Innovation award in the Home Appliance category at CES 2026, and home appliance experts praised it as an "innovation that accurately addresses the practical problems of modern households."

In fact, there is a large market consensus on the idea of adding/separating laundry modules, with reactions like, "Why didn't we think of this sooner?" Increasing installation flexibility (placing it side by side or built-in, etc.) was also evaluated as an innovation in space efficiency.

In terms of technical completeness, the combination of Hisense's drying technology (heat pump) and small module drying is said to have achieved both energy saving and delicate drying.

On the other hand, there were realistic criticisms that the price burden would be considerable for actual consumers to purchase additional modules, and that noise/vibration management is important when operating multiple drums.

Overall, it received unanimous praise as the "best innovation in the CES 2026 appliance category" and instilled expectations in the market that the washing machine design paradigm could change in the future.