Each Photographer Wants This TV (Samsung The Frame)

There is quite a bit to hate about Samsung’s “The Frame” TV, however It’s nonetheless my favourite TV of all time.

The total concept behind The Frame is easy. When the TV is off, it turns into a chunk of paintings as a substitute of a black rectangle. Samsung makes use of an ambient gentle sensor to mechanically regulate brightness and colour temperature in order that the display matches the lighting in your room. In concept, it ought to appear to be a framed print in your wall, not a glowing show.

When it really works, it’s shockingly convincing. Guests often stroll into my front room and assume it’s a actual framed {photograph}. When it doesn’t work, it seems like a useless TV with a dim picture on it or a glowing TV in a vivid room, which is strictly what drove me loopy on my older mannequin.

The massive visible improve in current fashions is the matte display. You can immediately inform the brand new model from the outdated one. The older TVs have a shiny end that displays home windows and lights. The new mannequin is sort of reflection free. In a vivid room like mine in Puerto Rico with home windows in all places, this alone is a big enchancment.

Samsung has additionally lastly improved what issues most for this product: artwork mode accuracy. On my older Frame, the display was incorrect about half the time. It was both too yellow, too vivid, or too darkish. The new mannequin is just not good, however it’s a lot nearer. You can now manually effective tune each brightness and colour temperature whereas the TV is in artwork mode. Once you set it accurately for a sure lighting situation, the TV learns from it and adjusts mechanically because the room adjustments.

One of essentially the most underrated options of The Frame is the One Connect field. All of the inputs, energy, and brains of the TV dwell in a separate field that connects to the show with a single skinny cable. In most properties you’ll be able to run that by the wall. In my concrete partitions right here in Puerto Rico, I simply cover it with a plant. It retains the TV wanting like an actual image body as a substitute of a large number of cables.

Online reviewers like to hate this TV. They aren’t incorrect. It is pricey. The in-built software program is terrible. The picture high quality is just not class main. Compared to an OLED on the similar value, it loses on distinction and black ranges. All of that’s true.

But here’s what reviewers nearly by no means think about; my tv is off about 95% of the time.

I care way more about what my front room seems like all day than how good the blacks look throughout the one or two hours I watch TV. I’m an expert videographer. I’m extraordinarily choosy about colour. And even I’m keen to surrender some distinction if it means I by no means should stare at an enormous black rectangle on my wall once more.

Out of the field, the Frame seems unhealthy. Like many TVs, the default image modes are incorrect. Switch it to Movie mode, go into Expert Settings, and lift the brightness to match your room. Suddenly the picture turns into way more pure. No, it isn’t OLED. But it’s means higher than I anticipated and greater than adequate for informal viewing.

If you truly need it to appear to be artwork, there are three issues it’s essential to do. First, add a digital mat. The Samsung app allows you to add a white or coloured border round your photos. A medium white mat immediately makes it really feel like a framed print as a substitute of a TV.

Second, contemplate black and white paintings. We aren’t used to seeing black and white content material on trendy TVs, so it methods your mind into studying it as {a photograph} or print as a substitute of a display.

Third, arrange artwork mode correctly. Samsung hides a very powerful setting in a ridiculous place. You have to enter artwork mode, scroll all the best way down, and activate Art Effect. That allows the ambient gentle matching. Then all through the day you manually tweak brightness and colour tone so the TV learns what seems right in numerous lighting.

Once you try this, it truly works shockingly properly, at the least more often than not.

Yes, Samsung pushes a paid artwork subscription. I ignore it. I’m a photographer. I need my very own work on the wall. Uploading artwork by the cellphone app is gradual, buggy, and irritating, however when you do it, you most likely won’t contact it once more for a 12 months.

The smartest factor you are able to do is ignore Samsung’s software program fully and plug in an Apple TV. That immediately fixes the lag, the interface, and the reliability. The Apple TV distant even controls my soundbar and powers the whole lot on and off mechanically. When you employ the Frame this manner, it’s a nice TV.

I paid about eleven hundred {dollars} for my 2025 mannequin throughout a sale. That is just not low cost. But a single massive professionally framed print can simply price greater than that. I’ve an e-ink image body in my home that price $2500 and solely does artwork. The Frame provides me an actual TV and a digital gallery for lower than half of that.

The matte display is just not good. It reduces reflections and makes work look extra lifelike, but it surely barely washes out blacks and has worse viewing angles than a shiny panel. In my vivid room, it’s completely price it. In a darkish residence theater, perhaps not.

Samsung can be making some baffling choices. For 2026 they’ve introduced they’re eradicating the One Connect field from the usual mannequin, forcing folks to purchase the Pro model if they need it. The Pro model makes use of a wi-fi video hyperlink that at the moment interferes with Wi Fi 7 networks and has been broadly criticized. Hopefully they determine that out earlier than they launch these new TVs. 

And but, even with all of this, I might purchase this TV once more in a heartbeat. It is flawed. It is irritating. Samsung might make it so a lot better with easy software program fixes. But no different TV adjustments how a room feels the best way this one does. Yes, there are just a few different TVs with “Art Modes” however as of proper now, The Frame TV remains to be the best choice, however that might not be the case for for much longer. 

If you care about inside design, artwork, or how your private home seems when the TV is off, “The Frame” needs to be your subsequent TV.