I've been zapping through the endless advertising stream on the TV lately, and there was one ad that particulary caught my eye: The one about the Samsung Frame TV. As it's catchy marketing phrase "TV when it's on, Art when it's off" suggests, it is essentially a flatscreen LCD that 'hides' itself as a canvas containing a piece of art. Almost certainly targeted towards people seeking a more avant-garde lifestyle or art lovers as we are, it takes a new approach to stylizing your living room in a way that is aesthetic and harmonizing. That's it for the theory - but can this LCD, marketed as "the most beautiful TV you've never seen" really hold up to its promise?
Let's get the most important thing out of the way. The 55-inch version adds up to 3299 US$ and the 65-inch model costs 4699 US$. That's a big bunch of money, if you're asking me. The reason why I want to emphasize these numbers beforehand is that they play a major role for the cost-to-value proposition of the product, and therefore ultimately frame my opinion about the new fancy TV by Samsung. To make it short, they are way too expensive - but bare with me.
Image SourceNow I'm not much of a tech guy here, but I've read some reviews and the TV part of the deal seems actually pretty decent. It has a 4K edge-lit LED display and features a 100Hz refresh rate and a 200Hz motion rate, making a clean, crisp, and luxurious image. And if you're really into buzzy tech terms, it also got HDR Pro, and runs on Tizen 3.0, the latest version of Samsung's proprietary operating system. Basically you can do whatever you've been doing with any smart TV, like install apps and access the internet.
There's also an app to control the TV's Art Mode. The Frame comes with 100 works of art from 37 artists, and there's an art store where you can buy more through a dedicated smartphone app. You can also upload your own photos or images to display on the screen when the TV is in Art Mode, again, by using the smartphone app. - Gizmodo
But the actual selling point of it is, in my opinion, not about its specs - it's about the combination with it working as a medium for artworks. There are many, substantially cheaper Samsung TVs with a similar display quality out there. For me it just feels like you're paying a big premium to get some pretentious avant garde hardware.
Sure, the Frame TV is a graceful object -- I'll admit that. It's essentially looks like an obelisk, is around two inches thick and flat on the back so that you can mount it against the wall by using it's no-gap mount. I am sure that almost everyone can at least appreciate the minimalist appeal of the product, as it certainly looks as clean as a painting in a mid-century art studio.
Image SourceOut of the box, the Frame therefore comes with a thin, black bezel, but you can buy a customisable bezel with a walnut, beige wood, or white finish for an extra $299 that snaps right on to the TV by using magnets. But again, you're paying a bunch of dollars for essentially some pieces of decorative metal.
All that said, I can't get past the fact that Samsung is trying to sell you a TV that doubles as a display for art - but the Frame TV just doesn't work for that. Why you ask?
The screen itself has that dull glossy sheen like most of the TVs today. So even when it's in Art Mode, it's pretty obvious that it's just a digital image on an edge-lit display (You remember these digital picture frames? It's essentially a bigger one). Even worse, if you install the TV anywhere near a window, you're almost always going to see a glare on the screen. So there's really no way of fooling me or my visiting friends that there's now a painting where my TV used to be.
Image SourceIt just looks like a really nice TV.And for some people, that might be ok. I can see the Frame installed in hotel lobbies or in fancy restaurants.
From a distance, the Art Mode's effect on the Frame is somewhat uncanny, as if you were looking at a weird print in a shiny package.But once you get close up, the illusion falls apart completely.
Image SourceFor me, the Frame TV is about as pretentious as a television could be. Neat idea, i'll give it that, but inevitably, it is still just a television wrapped in a fancy sales pitch. So it's not that Samsung made a bad product, it's more about all this buzz for nothing. It's the fact that the Frame's marketing doesn't quite live up to the product's promises -- or price.
