Samsung Frame TV Review: More than just your conventional TV

Art mode that brings alive your pictures

Art mode is the feature that makes Frame TV smarter than its counterparts. It's a thoughtful implementation for your investment that turns the usual lifeless TV (when not in use) into a digital frame. Through its Art Mode feature, The Frame TV can display your favorite works of art or pictures captured by you, in customizable layouts, which can be controlled via a mobile device application.

Samsung has added a couple of sensors under the TV that measures the intensity of light in the environment and the motion to control the frame's picture output. These sensors help The Frame to know when someone enters or exits the room to enable/disable the power saving mode. The sensors are near accurate and keep the frame feature's functionality in check. The TV switches off the display to preserve the electricity consumption if the sensor finds no motion in the space. The display also reduces the brightness and adjusts the colors as per the surroundings to display your pictures and art work.

 

Exclusive Samsung Art Collection

While you can select your personal image libraries to showcase on the panel screen, the Frame TV comes with ‘Samsung Collection', a repository of art pieces and pictures that you can choose from. The collection includes more than 100 exclusive works of art by renowned global artists across 10 different categories - including wildlife, landscapes, drawings, digital art, still life and more. You can also build your personal art collection by signing up for Frame's Art Store membership. The free trial offers one month free access to a collection of art works, post that you can pay Rs. 299 per month to continue the membership.

The thoughtful idea is actually quite good for photographers and artists who would love to show their work to family and friends. Unlike a real wall mount frame with a permanent display, Frame TV is one time investment with life time variety of pictures and art pieces to suit your mood and the ambience of your interior space.

Design

At first glance, the Frame TV looks just like a regular big screen panel; but on a closer look, you will find that it is built by keeping in mind the elements of modern home and work spaces. Once hung on a wall, it indeed looks like a mounted frame and leaves no empty spaces in between the panel and the wall. This is achieved by Samsung's unique ‘No Gap Wall-mount', which brings the TV flush against the wall, allowing it to hang like a real picture frame. The no gap wall bracket is included in the package.

The Frame TV also ships with a regular stand-mount that can be used to place it on a table of required width. While the Frame TV looks impressive in both the setups, the idea of a TV that doubles as a picture frame is best achieved by mounting it on a wall.

Indeed like a Frame

As the name suggests, the look and feel of the TV resembles a typical wall mounted frame. My review unit shipped with the standard Charcoal Black bezels; however Frame TV comes with customizable magnetic frame plate options including Walnut, Beige wood and White, providing you with the flexibility to match the look and feel of the TV as per your interior's decor. But be ready to spend an amount of Rs. 14,000 per set for additional customizations.

The TV also has a noticeable width unlike other smart TVs in this price segment that follow a sleek panel approach. But overall, I liked the minimal design approach and the overall idea of a TV that doubles up as a frame when not in use. You can also consider the 65-inch variant depending upon the size of your living room or office space environment.

Connection and Setup

It is fairly easy to setup Frame TV, though you would need some assistance. Unlike other wall mounts, the no-gap wall mount does not go tough on your walls and asks for little efforts. It also holds the heavy frame firmly. All the action lies in the ‘One Connect' box as it serves as the central hub for Frame TV. The optical cable (standard 5m length) connects the One Connect box to the TV. One cable from TV and the other from the One connect box goes to the main supply. So, in total you would have two main cables to connect to the power source to power up the TV. All other third party devices such as USBs, Blue Ray player, gaming consoles, etc. needs to b connected to the One connect box, which is indeed a neat solution.

Hassle free setup

The One connect box simply eliminates the messy cable's issue with one single optical cable. However, the cable needs to be handled carefully. The installation engineer mentioned that the optical cable is quite fragile and costs approximately Rs. 7,800. So make sure, you take proper care of it while installing or moving the Frame TV from one spot to another.

Picture performance

Samsung has set the display standards too high with its industry best AMOLED panels. Resultant, the edge-lit LCD panel on Frame TV might not please users who are long time AMOLED display users. Though Frame TV delivers super sharp video playback and features a super bright panel, the Blacks are not as deep as we expect from Samsung products. The content looks washed out at peak brightness levels which hamper the viewing experience in pitch dark environment. Even the light emitted by subtitles can interfere with the overall video in action. You have to reduce the brightness levels to some level; otherwise the Blacks will mostly come out as Grey. I mostly used the ‘Movie mode' as it applies the best color settings to offer a balanced viewing experience.

Vibrant Color delivery

Thankfully, the LCD panel does not restrict itself from punching vibrant colors and everything you watch will look lively and well saturated. Besides, you will also not face any issues while streaming contents of various standards, be it SD, HD and 4K as the underlying picture engine is quite powerful. The Frame also comes equipped with a brightness sensor that seamlessly adjusts to ambient lighting. It helps the TV to blend into a user's space. Streaming HDR content in video apps like Netflix is a great experience on Frame TV, provided that you reduce the brightness levels to some levels.

Overall, Frame TV will suffice to requirements for most of the users but I really wish the edge-lit LCD panel has deeper blacks and slightly better viewing angles. Last but not the least; the panel performance also varies depending on the ambient brightness level at home so choose the spot carefully to experience the best possible picture quality.

Audio Performance

The audio delivery on Frame TV is managed by 40 W 2.2 ch down firing speakers. Frame TV also has a sub woofer and comes equipped with Dolby Digital Plus support. The audio fired by the speakers is loud and clear but its lacks some substance. If you are fond of watching action flicks, you might need some support from external sound accessories to create the required bass heavy cinematic experience.

What I liked about the Frame TV's sound delivery is its sheer ability to deliver clear vocals with ample loudness. I have installed the TV in a room which has the dimensions of 11x17 feet and the Frame TV was more than enough to fill the entire room without any external audio accessory support. There are three audio profiles- Standard, Optimized and Amplify which tunes the speakers with different equalizer settings to match your requirements.

Tizen OS is fluid and fast

We can all agree to the fact that unlike smartphones, smart TVs are mostly dumb and are not that easy to operate. Combined with poorly implemented remote controls, the user interface on today's so called smart TVs can give you nightmares. Thankfully, Samsung Frame TV does not belong to this category. It runs on Samsung's Tizen OS 3.0, which is surprisingly good and easy to understand. It is fast and smooth and comes with a support of variety of apps. You can watch your favorite series and movies from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Jio Cinema, Box TV, Sony LIV and a couple of other streaming apps. You can also stream content directly from the built-in internet browser.

Navigate effortlessly with Samsung's One Remote

The bundled smart remote, which Samsung calls ‘One Remote', is by far the best operating device I have used on a smart TV till date. It is fairly easy to use and comes with a minimal design. It makes the overall software experience quite effortless. You can navigate throughout the UI without any trouble, which I believe is the most important aspect of using a big screen smart TV.

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Conclusion

With Frame TV, Samsung has started a new category altogether. It is a premium 4K UHD TV with ‘Frame' technology as its core feature, which will certainly please niche audience who care a lot about aesthetics and art. Artists such as digital art illustrators and photographers would love to have Frame TV in their living room to display their art. The Frame TV also makes a lot of sense in creative spaces like art galleries and offices where it can serve as a customizable work of art. There's no other TV in the market that offers such technology.

As far as a standard TV experience is concerned, Samsung's intuitive Tizen OS, One Remote and One Connect Box deliver a seamless big screen user experience. The picture quality is good if not stunning. Audio could also use some tweaking but it will still suffice to user's requirement.

Overall, Frame TV is indeed one-of-its kind in the market and pushes the boundaries of traditional TV, but due to its exclusive Frame feature and not because of its audio-video experience.