This post is not sponsored and all opinions are our own.
In 2018(!) we bought our first Frame TV, and we enjoyed it for years. It came with us through two moves! We got a 75″ Frame TV for our bedroom when we moved to North Carolina, and due to an accident, we had to replace the 65″ TV that moved with us in the bonus room, so now we have the 2024 model. We even got one for my parents when they moved to this area too! Plus we have two large Frame TVs in the CLJ Studio for meetings and presentations. That means we’ve bought…6 in the last 7 years!!
Samsung was really the first television company on the market to understand that people who love home design don’t want to sacrifice their beautiful interiors to a big black box on the wall! The old solution was those TV cabinets that actually closed like an armoire around the TV (remember those?). But the idea of turning the TV into a work of art? Genius.
Shop The Frame TV
There are so many pros to owning a Frame TV, but the biggest is that it genuinely looks like a piece of fine art. Part of it is the flush mount design of the TV, but part of it is how you use and adjust the settings. I’ll walk you through all of that in our review!
Perks of the Frame TV
I know there are other models of flat-panel TVs out there, but we’re very loyal to the Samsung Frame. First, we’ve had no issues in the 7+ years of owning various models. Let me walk you through all of the things we like about ours.
High-End Decor
My favorite thing about the Frame TV? It’s meant to look like high-quality art and the display quality keeps. getting. better. While our previous models have had a bit of a sheen to the screen, the newest model that we bought is designed with a matte display with zero glare. It’s incredible how realistic the art looks! Seriously, when it’s on art mode, it looks just like our other pieces of art around the house and the screen has very vibrant colors.
Responsive Display
The TV can sense motion and ambient lighting, so it knows when it can lower the brightness on the display in the evenings, wake up from sleep mode if you come into a room, or turn the TV off after a period of inactivity detected by its motion sensor. It’s very helpful and doesn’t burn out the display!
Smart Device Integration
I love that it works with our Amazon Alexa Echo (or Google Assistant), so I can tell Echo to open Severance (one of our current must-watches), and it’ll pull up the latest episode. To do this, go into your Alexa app and add a new device. It should recognize the TV if it’s connected to WiFi, and you can name the device “family TV” or “bedroom TV” in case you have multiple sets. I can also control the volume by saying, “Alexa, turn bedroom TV volume up 3,” while watching my favorite Netflix show.
The remote it comes with has a solar battery in addition to a USB-C port for charging, but in our bedroom, we don’t quite get enough sun to charge the solar. Whenever it is low on battery (and that takes a long time!), I can either charge it or be lazy and use the Alexa for a day or two.
Also, if you ask an Alexa device to announce something to your house, it will also speak through the Frame TVs. So helpful if you don’t have an Amazon device in every space. You can say, “Alexa, announce that it’s dinnertime” and your kids will see and hear the message on the screen in case they’re playing a game in another room and have their headphones on.
Fun fact: a dinnertime announcement is delivered by a dancing slice of cartoon bread on the TV…I’m serious, it’s charming.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Frame TV
For a truly museum-level experience, there are some tricks of the trade to making your Frame TV look like it’s a collected piece of art and not a multimedia appliance. I’m going to give you some of my top tips that make me happy, every time I see the TV!
Hide the One Connect Box
You don’t have to hide the One Connect Box, but it’s probably the No. 1 most important decision to make your wall-mounted TV a seamless part of your decor.
We’ve tucked ours away a few different ways. One way to hide the box is to feed the wire through the drywall behind the TV and then through the back of a piece of furniture below it, so you can tuck the One Connect Box in a drawer, like the picture above.
We’ve also utilized recessed in-wall boxes designed to house the One Connect Box. This allows the box to be tucked away within the wall cavity, keeping it completely out of sight. This method involves running electrical and HDMI cables within the wall, which can be daunting, but it’s completely worth it. An electrician can take care of this for you if you’re not comfortable with it.
Regardless of the hiding method, we prioritize clean cable management to minimize visible cords. It’s a very tidy look—we’ve done it on all of the TV walls in our home and even in Julia’s parents’ place when they moved to the area in 2024. We saved the whole process in a video for easy reference!
Get a Nicer Frame
When we got our first Samsung Frame TV in 2018 and went with the wood-look metal bezel frame that was one of the only ones available. It was very contemporary and modern. Now, you can find lots of options that are more traditional-looking—just my style.
I love the burlwood frame from Deco TV Frames that we put in our bonus room…it looks like a real painting I might have collected it in a French flea market! That just adds to the charm of the artwork you put on display. Here are some frames I love from Deco Frames.
Our Frame TV in the bedroom actually doesn’t have a frame on it yet because it’s not really “on display”—more tucked behind our door. But with our primary bathroom/closet renovation that spills into our bedroom, there will be an area where we can put a piece of furniture under the TV, so we’ll treat it more like a piece of art!
Download Fresh Art—Even Without a Subscription
You can find a lot of modern digital art and photography in the Samsung Art Store, but there is a world of options beyond your very fingertips. For just a few dollars, you can find vintage art on Etsy that is so captivating. Another place I love to shop is Juniper Print Shop, which finds original antiques and converts them into digital prints you can add to your Frame TV screen. (P.S. You can always find a full library of my favorite Frame TV art, organized seasonally, on the CLJ Shop!)
Year-Round Frame TV Art
If you’re more creative or on a budget, you can hop on The Met’s Open Access Collection and download backdrops that are just your style. These are works of art that are in the public domain and therefore free!
Make sure you’re downloading landscape art (doesn’t have to be an actual landscape, that’s just the orientation) that has a 16:9 aspect ratio (it doesn’t have to be exact if you don’t mind the edges getting cropped). It should have a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. which is the native resolution of the Frame TV, for the best quality and 4K display, but I’ve gone with lower resolution and it hasn’t been too noticeable unless you’re close up.
We’ll even make a Canva slide in the office for someone’s birthday or work anniversary, so it’s displayed right when they walk in. It’s so fun. I also love cinemagraphs, where a portion of the image moves. Over the holidays, the CLJ Studio had a hearth with a fireplace that looked like it was roaring as our backdrop…that felt so festive.
How to Add Art to Art Mode
I’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to add art to the app, because this can be a little confusing. First things first, if you’ve downloaded an art file that’s not already sized for the Frame, use a tool to go for the correct pixel dimensions and ratio above.
- Download your art and save it on your phone as a JPEG or PNG file (either in Photos or Downloads).
- When I’m shopping for digital art on my laptop or resizing it in Canva, I’ve airdropped it to myself afterwards—or email it to yourself, open the email on your phone, and save to Downloads.
- Make sure you’ve connected your Frame to your Wi-Fi network and have the Samsung SmartThings app installed on your phone or tablet, with your Frame TV added to the app.
- Open the SmartThings app and choose your TV.
- Select “Art Mode”
- Choose “Add Your Photos”
- Pick the photos you want to upload from your photo gallery or downloads folder.
- Tap “Save on Frame TV”
- Then you can select the photo you want to display and customize the look (see the next section for more on this!)
Adjust the Settings
The SmartThings app will let you maneuver the settings in Art Mode. I skip the mat because I want these to look more like oil paintings. Typically, changing the color and warmth will trick the eye into thinking it looks more like art and not like a normal TV.
Find out exactly the settings I use to do it in this post: 3 Tricks to Make Frame TV Art Look More Realistic.
So, Is the Frame TV Worth the Investment?
The Frame TVs we’ve purchased have an amazingly long life-span, the picture quality is very high definition (even 4K on the newer models), and most importantly, it allows us to enjoy our favorite shows and classic movies as a family while also satisfying my mantra: everything that’s out on display should be beautiful!
Now, there are some things that could be better, of course. The SmartThings app (Apple, Google) can be a little tricky to use. I wish SmartThings wouldn’t make you reconnect your devices after not using the app for awhile! And the decorative frames can often affect the motion and ambient light sensors (although there are ways around this with an additional sensor device).
To me, because the TV won’t burn out with the art on screen, and I’m most interested in the aesthetic of it, it’s still worth the investment. We just power the TV off manually when needed and leave it in art mode the rest of the time!
Shop The Frame TV
Why Choose a Frame TV Over Other TVs?
The biggest thing I’ve noticed about the newer models is that the screen is incredibly matte! There are a lot of TVs now that you can display art on, but there are a few things that makes the Frame stand out over the competition.
The Frame uses very low energy when it is in art mode, and as I mentioned, it won’t burn out the screen. I’ve seen other televisions display art, but it still looks like a picture on a TV. I can tell the difference. We’ve also had zero issues with the sound quality! No sound bar needed.
If you’re in the market, I highly recommend the Frame TV! It’s one of our all-time best purchases that fits our lifestyle as a family but also makes my home feel more like an extension of our style.