The Frame is still an icon, but it isn't automatically the best art TV to buy for every single household.
By
Leah Stodart
Senior Shopping Reporter
Leah Stodart is a Philadelphia-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable where she covers and tests essential home tech like vacuums, TVs, beauty devices, and eco-friendly hacks. Her ever-evolving experience in these categories helps her make thoughtful recommendations for how to spend your money during shopping holidays like Black Friday, which Leah has been covering for Mashable since 2017.
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Credit: Samsung
Samsung said what many of us were thinking with the release of The Frame in 2017: TVs are kind of ugly when they're just idly taking up wall space in a carefully-styled room. As much as we'd all love for Jeremiah from Queer Eye to personally install a remote-controlled TV-hiding tapestry in our home, the best art TVs are an alternative to that black plastic void we once accepted as non-negotiable living room decor.
Now that the other big TV brands have created their own art TVs, there's a lot more to consider: backlight differences, frame design, the cost of art gallery subscriptions. So, should you still just buy The Frame? Or should you opt for the best Frame dupe instead? Keep scrolling to find out which art TV we recommend in 2026.
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What's different about an art TV?
Any old smart TV can play a 10-hour-long YouTube slideshow of famous paintings. True art TVs have a few unique characteristics that separate them from the average flatscreen:
A flush mount: Art TVs come with a special mount that allows them to hang flat against the wall, just like a framed photo or print. From the side, you won't see any metal arms holding the TV up.
A matte display: The original versions of the world's famous paintings aren't displayed behind traditional shiny glass — if they were, you'd be able to see your own reflection better than the artwork. The Frame brought elite glare-free displays to the TV category to better replicate the authentic museum experience. The best art TVs use anti-glare coating so you can enjoy TV, games, and artwork even in bright sunlight.
Interchangeable bezels: The decorative picture frame-esque border is the other half of the "not a TV" illusion. Different art TVs use different frame colors, but all have the option to swap the traditional black outline for a white or wood-like finish.
So while the Hisense Déco TV that I tested and loved has a pretty curved white frame, it doesn't meet any of the above criteria — it's more of an artsy TV than an art TV by the books, though you may still want to consider it as an alternative to The Frame. If you're looking for a small bedroom TV that won't clash with your decor, I highly recommend the QLED Déco TV. We'll call it an honorable mention for this list.
LG and TCL are dropping new art TVs soon
Competition between the best frame TVs is about to stiffen up in the second half of 2026. Preorders opened for the pricey OLED LG W6 Wallpaper TV and the full-array mini-LED LG Gallery TV with Frame at the end of April, so release dates should be coming any time now. TCL has also confirmed that a pro version of the NXTVISION TV is on the way. I'll update this guide accordingly as each model becomes available for purchase.
- Generally brighter than the Hisense Canvas
- Samsung Art Store gallery is unparalleled
- Anti-glare matte coating is phenomenal in bright rooms
- Lays VERY flat against the wall
- Lots of HDMI ports
- All frames but the black one are $200 extra
- Expensive for meh contrast
- Some people like the old 2024 remote better
Samsung's The Frame will be an easy choice for anyone who would simply feel most comfortable investing in the OG. The Frame is quite a bit more expensive than its beloved dupe, the Hisense Canvas, in every size. But the Frame's best-in-class anti-glare display and higher peak brightness will fare better than the Canvas if your framed TV is going to be in a room that gets heavy direct sunlight.
Yes, it's mildly annoying that access to the Samsung Art Store requires an extra subscription. But the gallery is massive, featuring a curated array of masterpieces from famous museums and even Art Basel, plus gorgeous digital Disney-themed artwork. If you can see yourself using Art Mode more than watching TV, or being serious about switching up the aesthetic vibe on a regular basis, the premium Samsung experience will probably be more satisfying than what Hisense offers.
Well, I have to mention the classic art TV in this list — its massive popularity says a lot about how well Samsung has perfected the design over the years.
Compared to the 2024 and 2025 models (which are also great, and often on sale), the 2026 The Frame TV (LS03HE) has a faster processor, a more realistic matte display, and richer color accuracy through Pantone Validation. It also furthers the framed art fantasy with AI-infused Art Mode, which intelligently tweaks picture quality for an even realer in-person museum feel.
Aside from the Hisense Canvas, The Frame Pro is the other immediate comparison that comes to mind. The Frame Pro is generally more vibrant, offering nearly 1,000 more nits of peak brightness thanks to a strip of mini LEDs along the bottom of the screen. But that's the thing: The Frame Pro's mini-LED lighting isn't full-array local dimming. You're not getting the precise contrast that you would when thousands of tiny LEDs are arranged in zones across the entire screen. Since Samsung ironically doesn't include a nice frame (past the standard black one) with The Frame models for free, the Frame Pro feels unnecessarily steep when it's all said and done.
If you're trying to decide between The Frame and The Frame Pro, my advice would be to save a bit of money and go with the standard Frame — or wait for the mini-LED LG Gallery TV with Frame to release (it's already available to preorder). If you need an art TV smaller than 55 inches, the 2025 Frame TV comes in 43 and 50 inches.
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- Free access to full art gallery
- Incredible value for the price when on sale
- Same refresh rate as The Frame Pro
- Comes with teak frame
- Ambient light sensor accurately adjusts to lighting in the room
- Not bright enough to take advantage of Dolby Vision
- Contrast isn't great
- Occasional slow app load times
The Hisense CanvasTV is a beloved affordable art TV for those who don't want to near the $1,000 point — you can go as big as 65 inches and still pay less than $900 if it's on sale (it often is). Not that a ton of hardcore gamers who strictly play graphics-heavy games would be in the market for a lifestyle TV over an OLED, but the 144Hz refresh rate does make the Canvas a zippier choice for gaming than The Frame or the Ember Artline.
It's also a great choice if you're looking for the best art TV without a subscription (the Amazon Ember Artline also has a free art mode). Why should you have to pay to take advantage of your art TV's most important feature?
The most well-known dupe for The Frame, the Hisense Canvas' value is hard to pass up if budget is a consideration at all.
The Canvas is known to be every so slightly dimmer than The Frame, but its ambient light sensor still does a fabulous job at adapting the display's brightness and tone to naturally match the lighting in the room. Casual TV watchers probably won't care about the small vibrancy difference as long as their TV is doing its job of looking like a real frame on the wall. The teak frame is the default that comes with the TV, saving you another $200 over Samsung if you're adamant about avoiding the all-black look.
Hisense's Art Mode offers subscription-free access to more than 1,000 works of art (some famous, some not so famous), plus some GIF-like immersive screensavers. The smaller gallery won't be a huge deal if you'll be displaying your own photos like a true picture frame, and transferring those to the TV is super easy.
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- 10 frame color options, and one of your choice is free
- Neutralizes glare very well
- All 2,000+ pieces in gallery are free
- Dedicated brightness setting for Ambient Experience by itself
- Cool AI "Match the Room" feature
- Not thin enough to lay completely flat against the wall
- Surprisingly low refresh rate
- Contrast isn't good for watching in dark rooms
- Art selection is spotty
The Amazon Ember Artline is the art TV for the crew who's very partial to the Fire TV layout. The Ember Artline frame also comes in 10 colors, and the one of your choice is already included in the price. (Samsung and Hisense aren't so generous.) If you're more hyped on the aesthetic possibilities of a fig-colored or gold frame than you are about the sit-down cinematic or gaming experience, you'll be content with Amazon's lifestyle TV.
Being so late to the art TV party, the Amazon Ember Artline had to do something different to stand out. So, Amazon decided to remedy one glaring complaint that many shoppers have with Samsung: that you have to pay $200 extra for the white or wood-look frames that everyone associates with art TVs, which feels wrong for a TV literally called The Frame. While Samsung locks you into black (and Hisense locks you into teak), you can choose from one of 10 Ember Artline colors, including unique ones like fig (purple-ish burgundy), midnight blue, and pale gold.
Amazon's art gallery is also free. You're free to choose a piece of art on your own or display your own photos, or let the "Match the Room" feature suggest something. Just upload a few pictures of your space and the AI-powered tool will make recommendations that mesh with the surrounding colors and decor style. Plus, for the price, the Ember Artline's reflection handling is top-notch.
Then again, "for the price," the Ember Artline has a few weak spots that the cheaper Hisense Canvas doesn't. (The 55-inch and 65-inch CanvasTVs can almost always be found on sale for several hundred dollars less than their Amazon counterparts.) The Ember Artline's refresh rate maxes out at 60Hz, and its contrast is subpar. Perhaps the biggest letdown is that the Ember Artline doesn't actually lie completely flush against the wall. You may not notice the inch that it sticks out if you never see the TV from a side angle, but it's definitely a miss for the framed wall art illusion.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Surprisingly, Sony doesn't currently have a dedicated art TV, and the company recently announced it will transition its TV business line to TCL. However, both the Sony Bravia 7 and Bravia 9 models can essentially be turned into art TVs with the Sony x Leon Speakers StudioFrame: A wood-look bezel with a built-in motion sensor and light sensor.
Like a traditional lifestyle TV, the StudioFrame gives the TV the ability to activate Art Mode when sitting idly (Sony has its own art gallery app). The StudioFrame can be retrofitted to existing Bravia XR70 and XR90 mini-LED TVs. It starts at $895 and comes in four colors.
Senior Shopping Reporter
Leah Stodart is a Philadelphia-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable where she covers and tests essential home tech like vacuums, TVs, beauty devices, and eco-friendly hacks. Her ever-evolving experience in these categories helps her make thoughtful recommendations for how to spend your money during shopping holidays like Black Friday, which Leah has been covering for Mashable since 2017.
