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- Hisense. Hisense has been steadily moving up the ranks in TV market share in the U.S., thanks to an affordable line of 4K and HD TVs. But the most interesting development for the company this year could be a new TV design it calls a "dual-cell" TV.
- Konka. You probably don't recognize the Konka TV brand, but the company is hoping to change that this year. A top-five TV brand in China, Konka plans to make its mark here in the U.S. this year with its first OLED TVs, along with a line of QLED LCD TVs that utilize quantum dots.
- LG. The big news items for LG in 2020 are that it will have more 8K TVs this year, OLED TVs in new screen sizes (including a small, 48-inch 4K model), and more powerful processors and AI to help optimize picture and sound quality.
- Samsung. Samsung's 2020 lineup includes some new larger screen sizes, a broader 8K lineup, and the launch of an exciting display technology that hasn't appeared before in consumer televisions.
Nov 30, 2020 · The Panasonic HZ2000 - Best Home Cinema TV 2020. The result is an OLED TV with class leading peak brightness and superb just above black detail retrieval, resulting in one of the best SDR and HDR images we have seen this year.
Aug 7, 2024 · Check out Consumer Reports' list of the best TVs of the year for performance and price, from Hisense, LG, Samsung, Sony, TCL, and others.
- The Samsung The Frame TV (2020) is a facelift for this fashion-first designer TV
- Two-minute review
- Samsung The Frame TV (2020): availability and price
- Samsung The Frame TV (2020): design
- Samsung The Frame TV (2020): smart TV (Tizen)
- Samsung The Frame TV (2020): art mode/ambient mode
- Samsung The Frame TV (2020): picture quality
- Samsung The Frame TV (2020): audio performance
- Verdict
- Also consider...
Reviews
By Henry St Leger
last updated 23 June 2022
(Image: © Samsung)
Samsung The Frame TV (2020) is a TV that puts great design front and center. There are dedicated modes for accessing iconic artworks or ‘ambient’ imagery. As well as sleek cabling solutions, wall-mounting and bezel options that make it look like an actual picture frame.
The Samsung The Frame TV (2020) we're reviewing here wasn't the first version of The Frame. When we reviewed the previous version of The Frame in 2018, we found it to be a gorgeously-crafted television that nonetheless suffered in the picture department, with issues with color and brightness that stopped it feeling like a living room essential.
Samsung The Frame (2020) specs
Screen Sizes: 32, 43, 50, 55, 65, 75-inch | Tuner: TVPlus | 4K: Yes | HDR: Yes | Panel technology: QLED | Smart TV: Yes, Tizen | Curved: No | Dimensions: 1121(w) x 642(h) x 458(d)mm | Weight: 13.3kg | 3D: No | Inputs: 4xHDMI 2.0, 2xUSB, ethernet, optical, terrestrial, cable input, satellite input, CI slot
•Samsung QE32LS03T The Frame (32-inch) at Walmart for $547.99
Two years and two model iterations later—including a QLED panel and a host of new sizing options—Samsung The Frame (2020) is a much better proposition, even if some minor complaints with brightness and off-color images remain. You can read our Samsung The Frame TV (2018) review to find out more about how they compare.
•Available in six different sizes, from 32-inch to 75-inch
•$1,299 / £1,399 / AU$1,799 for the 50-inch reviewed here
•Cheaper 2019 model still available
Samsung’s The Frame is available in the UK, US, and Australia—with some slight differentiation in sizes between those territories. The smallest 32-inch size is only available in the US for $599.
The 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch models can now be found in all three territories, though.
We reviewed The Frame in its 50-inch size ($1,299 / £1,399 / AU$1,799). For other sizes, you’ll be paying $999 / £1,199 / AU$1,559 for the 43-inch, $1,499 / £1,599 / AU$2,295 for the 55-inch, $1,999 / £2,199 / AU$2,695 for the 65-inch, and $2,999 / £3,499 / AU$3,995 for the 75-inch.
•Excellent design
•Highly customizable
•OneConnect box is great for hiding cables
The most important aspect of The Frame is, naturally, the design.
More so than any other Samsung QLED TVs, The Frame is a television that puts appearances first. The idea is that, even if you’re a regular TV-watcher, there are probably hours of the day when you’re stuck with a big black rectangle dominating your living room—which is why The Frame has so many features designed to help it blend in with your home decor.
The base body of The Frame is a polished black metal: classy up close, but not very attention-grabbing from a few meters away. For a small addition to the cost of the television, though, you can buy a variety of bezels that attach magnetically for a full-on picture frame aesthetic: colors include white, black, brown, beige, burgundy red, and clay beige.
•Tizen OS as great as ever
•Alexa and Bixby support
•Samsung TV Plus is an eye-sore
Samsung’s Tizen smart TV platform is one of the best in the business, and there’s little really to cover in this section.
Tizen makes use of a straightforward row of apps and services—which overlays over whatever app or content you currently have playing on the television—with a second content row that pops up above whatever app you’ve selected containing the programming available within it.
The app selection is customizable, too, meaning you can pin, delete, and rearrange what’s on show—so if you want Disney Plus ahead of Netflix, Rakuten TV between YouTube and Apple TV, or otherwise, that’s all right with The Frame. We might have expected a more streamlined or distinct layout, given the design focus of The Frame, but there really isn’t that much that could be improved (aside from the rather untidy Samsung TV Plus app, which is permanently half-visible at the bottom of the home screen, and a bit of an eye-sore).
•Unique offering
•Hundreds of artworks (if you pay for them)
•News, clocks, and screensavers available in Ambient Mode
One of The Frame’s most distinctive features is Art Mode: a setting that displays artworks, paintings, landscapes, or your own personal photos instead of a black TV screen.
Notably, Samsung has partnered with a number of renowned museums and galleries, including the V&A and Saatchi Gallery in London, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, and plenty others from around the world. Out of hundreds of artworks, you technically only get 20 for free, and you will need to upgrade to a paid monthly subscription to get a wider variety of paintings and the like—but there’s plenty of other background fodder to use without paying a penny.
The app’s layout could be improved, though: selecting Art Mode brings you automatically to a screen asking you to pay for the premium option (£3.99 per month in the UK), and the most useful sections—brightness and motion sensor settings, for one—aren’t visible unless you scroll down to ‘Spotlight’ and sift through the tabs that appear. Overall, though, Art Mode feels distinct and curated enough to make The Frame feel different from Samsung's other TVs.
•Excellent upscaling
•Low brightness
•Some color issues
Samsung The Frame (2020) may be as pretty as a picture, but the actual picture quality isn’t always up to scratch.
It’s still a notable improvement on the 2018 model, helped by a newer Quantum Processor 4K, which ensures Samsung’s usual upscaling excellence is fully on show— with both HD and 4K sources looking crisp and detailed on The Frame’s 50-inch UHD screen.
Motion is highly smooth, too, with the action sequences in Scott Pilgrim vs The World looking as polished as we hoped, whether skateboards were raining down on the hero’s head or swords and hammers were swinging across the screen. The Frame automatically uses a Picture Clarity mode to aid with this, though we found motion entirely passable even without it.
Samsung The Frame TV may look good, but how does it sound? You’ll get a pretty standard 20W output here, without Dolby Atmos surround sound or any fancy built-in driver arrays (as with the Q950TS).
The Frame is more for looking than listening—but the sound still holds up for general usage. Dialogue is brilliantly clear, too, with an overall balanced sound, though you can start to hear some audio distortion when you get to higher volumes. This last point isn’t a huge issue, but enough to mean you’ll want a dedicated soundbar if you want to use The Frame for loud music or big-impact movie scores. Take a look at our best soundbar guide for our top recommendations.
There might be a new Samsung Frame TV in town, but the 2020 version we're reviewing here is still a solid option. It's best for those who want something a little different from their TV as it's designed to look great with a unique Art Mode for showcasing iconic artworks from museums and galleries around the world.
It'll also blend in with your decor thanks to the variety in sizing and coloring that'll help you match it to any home— its tidy OneConnect box helps matters too.
If you want a cinematic TV for movie nights, look elsewhere. Black crushing is an issue, especially for daytime watching—while the low brightness and meagre 20W audio means this isn’t the best home theater system out there.
This TV is for people who prioritize form over function. There are plenty of good TVs out there—plenty that are cheaper, too—but few have the style, or the artistic mindset, of The Frame TV.
If our Samsung The Frame TV (2020) review has you considering other TV options, here are three alternatives for you to check out.
LG GX Gallery Series OLED
The wall-mounted GX Gallery Series OLED from LG is also an artwork-minded television, but with 60W Dolby Atmos audio and an OLED panel thrown in. You’ll be paying around twice the price for an equivalent size—it's only available in 55-inch, 65-inch, and 77-inch—but the GX seems like a sensible upgrade if you have the cash to spend.
Read our LG GX Gallery Series OLED review
Samsung Q80T QLED TV
The Q80T is similar to The Frame TV, but has a wider viewing angle, which is good news if you're putting it in a space where it won't be solely enjoyed from a settee in front of it. It also has local dimmer and can get much brighter than The Frame TV.
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Aug 19, 2024 · Each Consumer Reports TV review features a list of the top TV brands based on predicted reliability and owner satisfaction.
