About the Touch-Start Button:
Yes, it's not very easy to see it even in a brightly lit room. The symbols should have been more prominent. The touch-buttons are written in a shade of grey on the Inox body color of the machine and it's not easy to pick up at times on a quick glance. I also would have liked two separate touch buttons for Start and Hold separately.
This is what I mean:
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About Load Detection:
Yes, both machines have Load Detection. I will have to check if it specifically has detection on the Cotton cycle or not on Mom's machine but it has it on Daily wash cycle which I have tried. On my Wi-Fi enabled machine it has load detection on cycles I have tried so far which are Daily, Cotton and Towels:
Cotton Cycle Load Sensing
Towels & Bath Mats Load Sensing
This is the normal message that pops up on the display after a full wash is completed:
However, last evening I decided to let AI do it's thing and choose a wash cycle for me. Got a different message after the full cycle was completed:
On a side note... to think back to the early winter mornings circa 1990's when I had to hand-wash my daily clothes in terribly cold water before heading to school at 6AM. Some three decades later here I am keeping track of my laundry being washed by AI while I can sit back, relax and game:
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Life has come a long way... 
