is a senior reviewer covering TVs and audio. He has over 20 years experience in AV, and has previously been on staff at Digital Trends and Reviewed.
Let’s get this out of the way: The Samsung Frame is not a good TV. None of the displays that I’d classify as art TVs are — at least not in the ways that we usually think about TVs. They only get a fraction as bright as comparably priced TVs, picture quality is middling, black level performance is bad (even for an LCD TV), and color accuracy out of the box leaves a lot to be desired. But that’s not why people buy art TVs.
Close friends of mine love The Frame on their living room wall and have asked me about Black Friday sales so they can buy another for the bedroom, even after I gave them a list of cheaper TVs that are better at being actual TVs. I get it, though. Even when it’s off, a 65-inch (or larger) TV is a dominating presence in any room, a black hole of wasted potential. But have it display a classic work of art, and now the room has a focal point. A conversation piece. Something classy. Many TVs and streaming boxes have screensaver modes that cycle through artworks and photos. Still, because of its glossy, reflective screen and obvious TV bezel, a regular TV displaying art looks like a regular TV. An art TV looks like art.
Samsung invented the art TV category in 2017 with The Frame, which, until recently, was the only option available. Now there are four, and I called in all of them: a 65-inch Samsung The Frame ($1,799.99) and 75-inch The Frame Pro ($3,199.99); a 55-inch Hisense CanvasTV ($999.99); and a 55-inch TCL Nxtvision ($1,299.99, originally released as the Nxtframe). All are edge-lit, matte-screen TVs specifically made to live most of their lives as framed pieces of art. I set them up in my living room, one after the other, to see which are the best at being art TVs, which are the best at being regular ones, and if you can spend less than the cost of The Frame and still be satisfied.
Art TVs versus regular TVs
Unlike a full LED backlight layer behind the LCD layer of a standard TV, an edge-lit TV’s LEDs are, as the name suggests, around the perimeter. This allows it to have a slimmer, uniform profile that can be mounted close to the wall and looks more like a picture frame than a TV frame. Edge-lit TVs are also generally more energy efficient, since they have fewer LEDs to power.
Regular TVs with glossy finishes show reflections. A lamp can cause rainbow reflections across the screen or a streak of light that can easily distract from the image. The matte finish on art TVs, though, mitigates reflective issues and makes lamplight less obtrusive, almost blending into the image. It also adds to the illusion of the TV being a textured canvas rather than a flat piece of glass with light behind it.
Installation
All of the art TVs are designed to be mounted flush against the wall, and for a streamlined look, should have any power or connection cables run through the wall.
They all include wall mounts and use the same mounting method: two TV brackets with hinges slide into two wall-mounted brackets with hooks. Strong magnets in the TV mounts hold the TVs tightly against the wall mounts. With the included paper templates, you should be able to find adequate locations to attach each wall mount to a stud, although YouTuber Snazzy Labs ran into issues with the installation in his 130-year-old house.
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