I second looking at the Bosch benchmark. I liked the controls on the Bosch and the Wolf. They both seemed to do a good job recognizing small pots on large burners. I don’t own either but I have tested displays. I really disliked the Thermador Freedom. Reasons are: 1) I had trouble getting controls to react when I pressed them. The gaggenau version was worse. Even the salesmen had trouble. 2) Limited to four pots/pans. Most 36 inch cooktops allow 5. 3) it is not as free as you expect. If I recall, there are limits to how many items you can put on one side. If you turn up the heat on one item, it turns down heat on the other behind your back. Other cooktops have these restrictions also, but they are explicit. Here they are implicit which makes it very confusing whenthings don’t work or you discover 15 minutes later the water you set to boil is only simmering..... I have seen reports of problems with Miele controls but I have not tested them myself. This was several years ago when the 42 inch first came out. I love the idea of a 42 inch induction cooktop but I also think it’s too risky when only one manfacuturer makes one that size. I found the Bosch flexinduction cooktop the most flexible followed by the Wolf. Caveat: I tested these out several years ago. I don’t know what improvements/changes manufacturers have made since then.

@r, I thought I would chime in here to just say that I don’t think you are “obsessing“ at all regarding the use of knobs in this case. One of the most crucial variables in any kind of industrial design is the way we interface or interact with whatever the product is. Most of us utilize capacitive touch controls or infrared type touch controls on a constant basis with everything from iPads, smart phones, as well as any number of house appliances. But I would suggest that your instinct regarding cooktop or rangetop controls makes a lot of sense. Consider the difference in using a wall oven versus a cooktop. Most cooks in the kitchen can get the opportunity to wipe their hands in order to use touch capacitive controls on a wall oven. Of course, the case could be made that turning a simple dial, can be more intuitive, then going through a series of menus to get to where you want to go, since in the end, the mission of the wall oven has not really changed very much since our grandparents time which is essentially to bake the cake or roast the chicken. The reason I suspect that cook tops and range tops, as well as ranges are a particularly good candidate for knobs is due to the fact that the controls are often placed on a horizontal plane. Many people, especially those who are new to induction appliances for example, have learned a hard lesson as the very sensitive touch controls do not always take kindly to steam, water, droplets, and oil or gravy splatters. It is not hard to imagine why this is problematic because if you put any of these liquids on top of your smart phone screen, you would discover that the touch controls that works so beautifully such as the ones I’m using right now on my iPhone to create this post do not take kindly to having these substances on top of them. There are lots of examples of folks who have touch capacitive controls on these horizontal locations where the entire appliance is either shut down or thrown off its game. Of course, the majority of modern products that have knobs do not use the analog/mechanical controls of knobs of the past, but are in fact, “knobs“ that interface with micro control boards behind them. Still, there is an entire field of design that studies user interaction, and I do think that, at least, in some instances, such as with cooktops, knobs actually, do make a lot of sense. One can certainly debate where the best location for those knobs would be to avoid getting splatters on them since Cleaning knobs is not exactly, a fun time for most folks. Some people would assume that installing Touch Sensitive controls in all sorts of consumer products that once used knobs, levers, and buttons, is simply a design trend, and I’m sure there is truth to that. But a little voice inside also suggests to me, that one of the reasons they have moved away from knobs and especially the electromechanical kinds used in the past, is due to the cost of manufacturing. I do not have a data set to support this theory, but if you consider the labour and the bewildering amount of copper wiring that went into something such as a 1950 electric stove, some of which had lots of extra features, you can begin to imagine the cost savings of having a micro “motherboard“ taking the place of all that complex analogue electrical structure. I truly enjoy all of the benefits and possibilities that I have with my smart phone, laptop, iPads, etc. But I do think your instincts for knobs are not without merit, because sometimes, appliance designers attempt to answer questions that no one ever asked. My two. Cents 🤔.

It’s a dark gray. Definitely not black or a cool, bluish, light gray. The surface is very polished, so quite reflective. This means light and surrounding objects will affect the appearance somewhat. I see it as a relatively neutral gray. I’ve been using it (30”) in our new home since April and like it very much. I think it would look great in your kitchen!

I'd feel comfortable pairing the two. Like you said, different planes and not directly next to each other. The Thermador Freedom is a real "freedom" unit, with 48 smaller induction zones. If you lookup the schematics of the Miele 7000, it's just six larger induction units. Not to mention, Miele can't even ship their currently available 7000 products in the USA (without significantly and repeatedly lying to dealers and customers).