Samsung Frame Pro Review: A Good TV for a Pretty Living Room

Low-cost artwork subscription provides 5,000 images. A fantastic matte show makes artwork look ultra-clear and films look cinematic. High-refresh-rate gaming modes.

A/V receiver had a fewer glitches erstwhile utilized for HDMI switching. Middling section dimming. No Dolby Vision support.

Your tv is much than a portal for Netflix. For years, we’ve been capable to power surviving country lighting from our TVs with a elemental dependable command, punch up an Xbox crippled (with nary Xbox connected!), and play high-res euphony utilizing apps similar Tidal. Now, erstwhile you equine a alleged “art television" connected a wall, it tin amusement Andrew Wyeth paintings, AI-generated artwork, and adjacent caller abrogation photos.

Is it worthy spending up for an creation display? Maybe so, judging from a hands-on trial with the caller Samsung Frame Pro. I’ve go sold connected televisions that spell beyond simply being achromatic screens successful the inheritance erstwhile not playing the latest movies oregon shows. I wanted to spot if the artwork features made the Frame Pro a unsocial outlier among televisions, and I was not disappointed.

Getting Set Up

After unboxing what is different a precise normal-seeming TV, I snapped connected a acceptable of customizable bezels that accent the achromatic frame. The bezels are an awesome mode to fool folks into reasoning your TV is conscionable matte artwork, and determination are nary screws, nary measuring, conscionable superb design. Available successful White, Teak, Brown and Sand Gold, the bezels outgo $199 for the 65-inch exemplary I tested, and they drawback into spot successful seconds.

Oddly, galore of the idiosyncratic reviews for the bezels are negative, but that’s due to the fact that radical support saying they had shipping problems. The bezels are besides present interchangeable with Samsung’s archetypal creation tv called The Frame, which doesn’t person a breakout container for connections similar this 1 does (more connected this later).

I didn’t equine The Frame Pro connected a wall, due to the fact that I don’t person the space, but the included legs are casual to drawback into place. Unlike the TCL NXTVISION creation tv I person besides been testing, you don’t request screws. The wide plan of The Frame Pro is sleek and stylish, each achromatic with nary accents different than the bezels.

After the archetypal setup, I had a determination to marque astir the break-out box, which Samsung calls the Samsung Wireless One Connect. The slim achromatic instrumentality connects implicit a Wi-Fi 7 awesome (while the TV itself uses Wi-Fi 5 for much compatible streaming) from up to 30 feet away. The breakout container provides a batch of flexibility, not to notation less dangling cords if you equine The Frame Pro connected a wall. You tin stash the One Connect successful a furniture oregon by your couch, which makes it casual for the types of stylish rooms this TV is made for. Gamers mightiness similar having a PS5 oregon Xbox connected to the breakout container alternatively of connecting a agelong HDMI cable, and it allows you to link disc players this mode too.

However, I wanted to usage the unsocial Micro HDMI larboard connected the backmost of the TV. Both the One Connect and the Micro HDMI larboard link astatine 144 Hz, but I wanted to trim lag by utilizing a wired cable. Besides, I besides kept an Xbox X Series, a Google TV streamer, and an Onkyo TX-RZ50 receiver (with talker ligament moving everywhere) adjacent to the TV and the breakout box. The downside to truthful galore devices? The Acer Nitro 60 I utilized for investigating had to beryllium adjacent the TV arsenic well, with a agelong cablegram for my keyboard.

I did person 1 insignificant glitch: I archetypal connected each of my devices to an Onkyo AV receiver, which I past connected to the breakout container utilizing the eARC port. Big mistake: The TV kept turning disconnected the receiver and behaving oddly successful different ways. Samsung reps told maine the preferred method is to link each HDMI devices to the four-port Connect One container instead. I lone ran eARC to the receiver for sound, and aft that Dolby Atmos worked perfectly good with nary glitches.

I loved the remote, which has 1 main oval you usage to power the tv and has dedicated buttons for Netflix, Samsung TV Plus, YouTube, and Amazon Prime. For the champion streaming experience, there’s an Ethernet larboard connected the breakout box. However, with Wi-Fi, I ne'er experienced immoderate slowdowns oregon glitches during my trial period.

Becoming a Collector

Along the near broadside of the UI, you tin prime the Art enactment and past take from astir 30 pieces of creation connected a rotating basis. The amended enactment is an Art Store subscription that costs $4.99 a period and includes 5,000 works of art. Many of them are masterpieces, including my favourite Andrew Wyeth (Christina’s World) and respective Van Goghs.

The AI creation generator is amazingly susceptible (and free!). I selected a fewer keywords and ended up with a lush water country that was wholly unsocial to my display. You tin besides load photos from your telephone utilizing the SmarterThings app successful batches, but I stuck with the artwork.

The paintings looked stunning connected the Neo QLED matte display, which differs from OLED successful that it’s backlit but besides brighter and much colour close for HDR-compliant content. In fact, the show is Pantone certified. The Frame Pro automatically dims the show somewhat and goes into debased powerfulness mode aft a acceptable play oregon if the sensors observe you are not successful the room. In my walk-out basement with the prima pouring in, the artwork inactive looked wide and colorful.

During respective HDR10 demo tests, colors looked ultra-clear and accurate, particularly for tegument tones. The opposition levels connected the matte show person a realistic look—not overly bright, but precise natural. The anti-glare coating means images connected the TV often truly bash look similar carnal artwork successful a museum.

Art arsenic a TV

For streaming, I fired up a fewer of my favourite apps to trial retired video and sound. Using Netflix Premium (required for 4K and Dolby Atmos), I tested Unbroken due to the fact that it has my favourite situation dependable series during conflict scenes. The agleam sunlight, ricocheting bullets successful the broadside and rear channels, and heavy blacks were impressive.

I watched the movie Awake (also connected Netflix) due to the fact that it has agelong sequences astatine night, and I noticed that Samsung's AI companion (which tin optimize the show automatically) accrued the brightness levels a little, which helped. You tin besides usage Smart Calibration, which uses your telephone from lone an inch distant from the surface to drawback photos successful accelerated succession to set the show based connected your existent country lighting. That diagnostic made Awake a small much watchable, but support successful caput that OLED displays similar the Samsung S95F connection richer, deeper blacks, due to the fact that they person pixel-sized backlighting.

A connection connected backlighting: This TV features section dimming (where sections of the surface are independently backlit for amended contrast), but not successful the emblematic mode that you mightiness beryllium utilized to. Rather than putting the LEDs straight down the display, these look connected the bottommost of the framework and purpose up successful 24 vertical bands. This means much airy bloom down agleam objects connected a acheronian surface than you'll get from much affordable modern LED TVs, which person importantly much zones.

I besides tested movies utilizing the Mubi app due to the fact that I’m a fuddy-duddy movie fanatic, arsenic good arsenic a screener for Marty Supreme. Here’s wherever the upscaling, matte display, and AI genuinely shine: Marty Supreme is similar an aged ’70s flick, and The Frame Pro made maine deliberation I was successful a movie theater. The matte show gave the Mubi films a much cinematic look.

On an Xbox Series X, I watched the full Predator: Badlands movie utilizing the 4K Blu-ray version. It's worthy noting that though the colors look great, Samsung models don't enactment Dolby Vision HDR, alternatively going for modular HDR10+.

For a much axenic movie acquisition that disables immoderate optimizations oregon AI enhancements, I tested the Filmmaker representation setting. In 1 scene, you tin spot the idiosyncratic scales of the main character, which is awesome.

The Frame Pro has plentifulness of built-in unreality gaming features beyond immoderate consoles you link locally. I tested Cyberpunk 2077 utilizing the Steam app and besides fired up Senua's Saga: Hellblade II connected the Xbox app with nary issues. One flimsy glitch is that, erstwhile I connected my Xbox controller to the TV it worked fine, but past I had to brace it again to the Xbox Series X later. It gave maine a crushed to bargain an other controller. When I tried a Sony Dualsense Wireless Controller with Cyberpunk 2077, it worked flawlessly. Forza Horizon 5 connected my Xbox looked ultra-smooth, showing a Ford Bronco sliding astir successful the mud successful a realistic way.

The Frame Pro supports up to a 144-Hz refresh complaint from either the Connect One container oregon a Micro HDMI port, which makes it awesome for truly creaseless gaming. I tested Crimson Desert connected an Acer Nitro 60 gaming desktop, and the colors, scenery, and wide clarity implicit the higher refresh complaint looked stunning. If you person a stylish surviving country wherever you besides privation to game, this isn't a atrocious choice.

During a chaotic battle, with snowy mountains disconnected successful the distance, I felt similar I had jumped into 1 of the paintings. In the end, The Frame Pro is simply a fantastic TV for art—and conscionable astir everything else, arsenic agelong arsenic you don't privation the champion backlighting around.