Have you ever entered a room whose walls have been adorned with paintings? Of course, most of us have. But have you ever been asked to spot a TV in a room full of paintings? Well, we were and while it may sound an innocuous question as TV sets are pretty vibrant these days, it's tough to spot the Samsung Frame TV in one such room.
Earlier this year, when Samsung launched its flagship QLED TVs, they also showcased a one-of-its kind product called the Frame TV. Dubbed as a 'Lifestyle TV', Samsung has designed the Frame TV, which essentially works as a digital photo frame, in collaboration with Swiss designer Yves Bahar.
Launched in India in May, this TV comes in two screen sizes - 65-inch and 55-inch at Rs 3,99,000 and Rs 2,74,000 respectively. We reviewed it for a for a few days and here is our review:
Design and display
Earlier this year, when Samsung launched its flagship QLED TVs, they also showcased a one-of-its kind product called the Frame TV. Dubbed as a 'Lifestyle TV', Samsung has designed the Frame TV, which essentially works as a digital photo frame, in collaboration with Swiss designer Yves Bahar.
Launched in India in May, this TV comes in two screen sizes - 65-inch and 55-inch at Rs 3,99,000 and Rs 2,74,000 respectively. We reviewed it for a for a few days and here is our review:
Design and display
The Samsung Frame TV is quite different in terms of design as compared to other TVs from the South Korean tech giant. While the last two Samsung TVs that we have reviewed exhibited dominance and luxury and were the most-attention grabbing object in any room, the Frame TV is subtle and soft and sort of blends in the look and feel of the room.
The 65-inch Frame TV sits in a matte wooden frame, which by default is black when you buy the TV but Samsung lets you change that as you can buy white, beige wood and walnut frames.
As we have seen before in other Samsung TVs, the Frame TV too comes with a OneConnect box with an 'Invisible Connection' wire cable, continuing Samsung's streak to make the TVs cable-free. The optical fibre cable is very thin, transparent and comes in lengths of 5 or 15 meters. This wire then goes on to connect to the OneConnect box that has all the connectivity ports of the Frame TV. The OneConnect box has four HDMIs, three USBs, Ethernet and one component. Over that, this TV hub has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as other connectivity options.
Users have three options to place this TV. Firstly, there is an option to hang it up on a wall and thanks to the No Gap Wall mount, the Frame TV is placed right on the wall without any gaps giving it a cleaner premium look. Secondly, there is an option to separately purchase a studio stand from Samsung which kind of resembles an easel. Lastly, there's the old school option of the basic stand -- it comes with the Frame TV - on which you can mount the unit on.
The TV comes with a smart remote with minimal buttons like we have seen with other Samsung TVs.
The Frame TV has a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160-pixel resolution) display. The HDR technology further enhances the details and colours of the visuals. In our testing, we found the picture quality of the Frame TV simply amazing. The 4K content was life-like and the colours turned out to be vivid and extremely accurate. Even the black levels were impressive.
The Frame TV also comes with an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the screen's brightness and colour tone in accordance to the light in the room.
PerformanceThe Frame TV comes with a special feature called the Art Mode. The TV, when turned off, displays a picture of your choice and turns the TV into a digital photo frame. By default, Samsung already has over 100 artworks -- both digital paintings and photographs -- from renowned artists across multiple categories such as landscape, architecture, wildlife, action, drawing. However, just in case if you aren't satisfied with the default collection, Samsung is offering a subscription for an Art Store to buy more such artwork.
The TV comes with a motion sensor which, when detects an empty room for a long period of time, will turn the TV into Art Mode.
There is also an option to select your own images using the Samsung Smart View app which operates only when the Frame TV and your smartphone are connected on the same Wi-Fi. The whole experience works quite smoothly.
Powered by Samsung's own Tizen OS, the Frame TV offers SmartTV experience similar to that we have seen in other Samsung TVs previously. The Smart Hub menu provides easy access to all the apps - some come preloaded while others need to be downloaded. Some of the pre-installed apps include YouTube for Kids and BigFlix. It comes with features such as Apps Platform that lets you use software such as Facebook on TV, On Screen Display (OSD) language options and mirror casting.
The smart remote is compatible with majority of universal remote controls and apps. The remote supports voice commands and worked well as it could understand the instructions. The Smart Hub interface is also available on smartphones through Samsung's Smart View app and provides an overview of all the available content on the app's home screen.
The TV is powered by a quad-core processor and comes with Dolby Digital Plus-enhanced speakers which offers crisp and loud sound.
VerdictThere is no doubt that the Frame TV catches your fancy when you place it in a room, explicitly because of its Art Mode. But that is not all what this TV is about. It brings in best of the features from Samsung's flagship QLED TV such as no-gap wall mount, One Connect box and the Invisible cable.
Samsung's attempt to aesthetically manufacture a smartTV is commendable. If you are looking for something more than a smartTV, go for this.
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