TVs
Samsung The Frame (2025) Review: The Honest Verdict
The Verge calls it "a nice compromise" between a conventional TV and framed art.
No single aggregate score — here's what the reviewers agree on, below.
The short version
The Samsung The Frame (2025) is for shoppers who care as much about the room as the picture. The Verge says its matte finish, framed appearance and Art Mode help it resemble displayed artwork instead of a dormant black screen. The trade-off is ordinary TV performance for the money: The Verge reports lower brightness, lackluster picture quality and color accuracy, and poorer black levels than similarly priced conventional TVs. CNET's cited discounts make that compromise easier to accept.
What reviewers loved
- Art Mode and the matte screen make paintings look more natural than they do on a typical glossy TV.
- The frame-like design turns an otherwise blank screen into part of the room rather than a dominant black rectangle.
- The single cable to the One Connect box keeps most source-device wiring away from the wall-mounted screen.
- Support for 4K at 144Hz and variable refresh rate gives current gaming hardware a high-refresh connection.
- CNET found substantial discounts on the 2025 range, including cited prices of $698 for 55 inches and $998 for 65 inches.
What held it back
- The Verge reports lower maximum brightness, weaker picture quality and less accurate color than similarly priced conventional TVs.
- Poorer black levels can reduce the impact of movies, shows and games, especially in darker scenes.
- The separate One Connect box reduces cable clutter at the screen but still needs somewhere nearby to sit.
- Its main advantage appears when you are not watching TV, so picture-first buyers are paying for design rather than class-leading video performance.
Buy it if you want a wall-mounted TV that can convincingly blend into a carefully designed living room, particularly when the 2025 model is heavily discounted.
Skip it if deep blacks, maximum brightness and the strongest movie performance for your budget matter more than Art Mode and interior-friendly design.
What the reviewers say
The Verge says The Frame's defining feature is what it does while you are not watching it. Art Mode, frame-like bezels and a matte finish help displayed paintings look more natural. Its One Connect box also moves four HDMI ports and other connections away from the screen.
The compromise is picture performance. The Verge's analysis found that art TVs generally trail similarly priced televisions in brightness, color accuracy, overall picture quality and black levels. CNET argues that the discounted 2025 models are easier to recommend, provided you do not mind accommodating the separate breakout box.
The competition
Samsung The Frame Pro 2026
The premium alternative adds newer screen technology and an upgraded art-TV experience. WIRED praised its anti-glare coating, picture quality and gaming performance, but PCMag reported mediocre contrast, poor black levels and excessive gaming lag on the Frame Pro it reviewed.
Hisense Hi-QLED S7 CanvasTV
CNET identifies the 85-inch model as another art-TV option. The supplied coverage lists a $1,899 sale price but does not provide a comparative performance verdict.
Should you buy it?
The Samsung The Frame (2025) makes sense when a conventional black television would spoil the room. Critics and published analysis agree that its matte art presentation and frame-like styling are the real reasons to buy it. Do not mistake it for the best-performing TV at its price, though. The reported weaknesses in brightness, color accuracy and black levels are meaningful for movie fans. It is most persuasive at the steep discounts cited by CNET. RightWei summarizes independent professional coverage and does not test review units ourselves.