It's time. The Frame 2021 is here, and we broke it down to find out if it's worth the money. Check out the full review on Redaktor.co.
There are TVs, and then there’s The Frame. It’s a gorgeous bit of kit that’s easy to set up or hang on the wall, and blends in seamlessly to your space.
Samsung has created something really special with The Frame, and continues to innovate on it each and every year. This year there are a few things we like, and a few things that could be better.
First, the design.
Design has always been where The Frame has excelled. Where other TVs are just a big black rectangle in your living room, The Frame has always done well at blending in. With this year’s model, it does it better than ever.
The 2021 model is super, super thin. It’s a little over an inch thick now, which matches the thickness of most average picture frames. Stick this on a wall with a bunch of your favourite art and it’ll blend in better than ever.
There’s still the discreet One Connect box too, which means that everything connects to your TV with just one clear cable.
And speaking of design, Samsung has also overhauled the remote. Instead of a curved white affair as in previous years, this year’s Frame remote is sleek and black, with a solar panel in the back and a USB-C charging port at the bottom, just in case your room doesn’t catch the sun.
The Frame has always been powered by Samsung’s QLED technology.
The Q in the name stands for “quantum”, as in quantum dot technology for better colour and deeper blacks than a standard LED TV.
Here’s where The 2021 Frame is kind of let down: it’s the exact same panel as last year’s model. That means if you’re looking to upgrade, it’s better to wait for new technology like MiniLED instead, which Samsung is using on some of its other models.
Because it’s a little long in the tooth, you miss out on features like Dolby Vision which is disappointing, but HDR10 and an Adaptive Picture Mode is there to pick up the slack some.
It’s still a great-looking picture, and you wouldn’t really notice the difference unless you stuck it side-by-side with an OLED, but we wish it had some of the new hotness other Samsung models have this year!
The pivotal feature is Art Mode, which transforms your TV into a virtual picture frame, with a subscription service offering some of the best curated art in the world. You get a short free trial period with The Frame 2021, but after that it’s around $6 per month.
Art Mode frames can be highly customised so it looks natural in your space. This is where Samsung really has the edge over models like the LG Gallery TV series.
The brightness and colour temperature of the light can be customised to your space, making it look more natural overall. You can also choose for your art to sit on a virtual “mount”, or just fill the frame edge-to-edge.
The best part is that you can add your own pictures to The Frame 2021 via the Samsung Smart Things app.
This is the big question: is it worth the money?
Sure, it’s the best-looking TV out there, but the use of last year’s QLED panels may put some cinephiles off.
From a tech standpoint, it’s not the best TV you can buy. But that’s the wrong question to be asking. If you’re someone who wants a TV that is good enough, but doesn’t look like a hulking massive TV in your space, then you absolutely cannot go past The Frame in 2021.
