amazon SAMSUNG THE FRAME 2020 reviews
Belonging to Samsung’s “lifestyle” TV series, The Frame 2020 is not only a high-end smart TV but also a work of art that adds elegance and sophistication to the interior space, highlighting the personal traits as well as the taste of the owner.
Samsung’s The Frame TV series is not unfamiliar for technology followers. First launched in 2017, The Frame has brought about a whole new perspective on smart TV, as this product line does not focus on graphic quality as usual, but emphasizes more on the design, along with the ability to coordinate with home furnitures – a TV that is more about decorating a room than just delivering ordinary TV shows.
It seems that Samsung has achieved certain success with The Frame. At the end of April, the Korean giant released the fourth generation of this TV line, The Frame 2020, alongside two Successors to The Sero and Serif. The Frame 2020 has a total of 6 versions with sizes ranging from 32 inches to 75 inches.
The BiaReview version has a size of 55 inches, which will suit the vast majority of Vietnamese users’ room space today.
Maintaining the design philosophy and a strong visual impression
After three versions, the design philosophy of The Frame 2020 has not changed much compared to its predecessors and can be encapsulated with one word “delicate”. Samsung’s idea behind The Frame is quite simple: Even if you are someone who regularly watches TV, there will still be hours a day when you are stuck with a “big, black rectangle” that occupies a corner in the room.
As its name suggests, The Frame 2020 is intended by Samsung to be used as a wall picture frame for decorative purposes. Of course, you can still place it on the table like a regular Smart TV with the two metal stands, or use the V stand like The Serif model to place it on the floor, similar to a canvas. Personally I still recommend using The Frame 2020 as a wall picture frame for the best experience.
The overall dimensions of The Frame 2020 are 1,235 x 750.7 x 200mm respectively, weighing about 19kg. The Frame 2020 is equipped with Samsung’s exclusive No Gap Wall-Mount hidden mounting solution, basically meaning that the TV will be adjacent to the wall instead of exposing its wall gap and the connecting cables behind, which reduces aesthetics. It should be noted that, No Gap Wall-Mount is only suitable for installation on a cement wall, partly due to the weight of The Frame 2020, as the plaster wall will not be sturdy enough to hold this TV. This is also the reason we had to exhibit The Frame 2020 fixed on the table top using the metal base included.
The bezel surrounding The Frame 2020 is made of glossy black metal, which is quite thin, gorgeously and luxuriously looking up-close, but glancing from only a few meters away, it is not really attractive. However, you should understand that, no one will buy The Frame and leave the default border as it is: Samsung offers a collection of wood grain imitation plastic frames with three color options: brown, beige and white.
These bezels can be easily removed thanks to the fixed magnet joints. If installed correctly, the contact area between the edges will be almost empty, which makes The Frame looks more appealing and artistic. With the price only 1/10 of the price of The Frame, I think this will be an investment worth considering.
Along with The Frame 2020 is the “divine” OneConnect box: A pioneering solution of Samsung that concentrates all of the functions such as power supply, HDMI connection, USB, … to a completely separate hardware to avoid the tangling of cables ruining the neatness and elegance of the TV. With The Frame 2020, the importance of OneConnect is even more emphasized.
OneConnect has almost all the connection ports you need for a Smart TV, including 4 HDMI ports (supporting eARC), optical, wired network (ethernet), satellite network, TV cable, … and two USB ports. Even though it is 2020, the fact that only a virtually invisible wire can transmit that whole information to the display is still absolutely amazing.
As a norm of the recent high-end Samsung Smart TVs, they come with the OneRemote control. OneRemote’s grip and navigation senses are genuinely excellent, added with minimalistic design with just enough buttons to control all you need: besides increasing or decreasing the volume, changing channels, there also have quick access buttons to Netflix, Amazon Video or the virtual assistant.
The Frame 2020 runs on Samsung’s Tizen platform. Smart Hub interface is clear and extremely easy to use, with only a short responsive time between actions. We have two options for virtual assistants: “homemade” Bixby and Amazon’s Alexa, while with a few simple taps the TV will also be compatible with Google’s Google Home speakers.
Art Mode / Ambient Mode is excellent
One of the most prominent features of The Frame 2020 is the Art Mode: A feature that allows you to display your own artwork, paintings, or photos when you’re not currently watching TV, instead of a plain, boring black screen.
For The Frame 2020, Samsung has collaborated with more than 40 partners (including 15 museums) and more than 500 artists worldwide, bringing a collection of more than 1,300 works of art for you to choose from, twice as many as 750 of the product’s predecessor. However, by default we will only be offered 20 free works, meaning you will have to purchase a subscription package to access the rest of the collection.
Art Mode can be activated with the push of a button on OneRemote, or you can set it to turn itself on after a period of inactivity. Combined with the customizable frame, Art Mode will transform The Frame 2020 into a true painting for you to admire at any time, giving a different feeling compared to other Smart TVs of Samsung in particular and in the market in general.
However, the layout of Art Mode needs further improvement: When you turn on Art Mode, you will immediately be directed to an interface that suggests you upgrade to a premium subscription to get access to more art works, while other significant settings, such as brightness and sensor, are pretty hidden.
The Frame 2020 is equipped with motion and light sensors, largely devoted to Art Mode. Specifically, the TV will automatically turn off Art Mode when it detects no movement around, and automatically increase or decrease the brightness of the picture to match the ambient light. It is known that Art Mode uses about 30% more power compared to watching movies on Netflix, obviously as not saving as turning off the screen completely, but it will still be a good choice when you are at home or have guests visiting.
Ambient Mode is also a valuable feature of The Frame 2020, customizing the color gamut and lighting so that the TV is almost “immersed” in the surrounding environment. Clock face or rubber duck on the water, weather information or newspapers, Ambient Mode provides various options and customizations for you to choose from.
Image quality has improved, sound is enough to use, but you should buy a sound bar.
The biggest problem with previous The Frame versions was that the image quality was not commensurate with the price tag. Yes, The Frame is more of a “lifestyle” TV series with a focus on decoration and aesthetics, but we do not spend $1400 watching pictures everyday – we play games, watch movies and more.
Possessing a 4K UHD resolution panel, The Frame 2020 is equipped with the QLED technology that has nano-sized quantum particles capable of transmitting 100% of the color capacity. Dual LED, according to Samsung, is a technology that increases contrast by 27% through changing the color temperature of the backlight, thereby improving the dark colors in a more realistic dimension. About HDR, The Frame 2020 supports the standards of HDR10, HDR10 + and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma).
Practical experience, The Frame 2020 gives a wide viewing angle, vivid colors, immersive and “eye-catching” experience when watching HDR content on Youtube and Netflix, with almost no quality loss even when viewed from corners. The number of picture modes is a modest number of 4 – Vivid, Standard, Film and Natural – but basically enough for everyday use.
One point that The Frame 2020 is somewhat “short of breath” compared to other Samsung QLED TVs is the brightness. In most cases, this shouldn’t be a big deal – you don’t need a panel of several thousand nits of brightness to fully enjoy the artistry of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” – but The Frame 2020 will have difficulty showing the dark scenes in Watchmen or Justice League, especially if there is much light in the room.
Equipped with the new Quantum 4K processor and AI image upscaling technology, upscale low-resolution content to 4K is not a challenge for The Frame 2020. For contents below 480p, the details displayed may appear a bit cracked if viewed up close, but at a reasonable distance (from 2.8m to 4.2m on 55 inch TVs) it is a minor issue.
How about gaming? The Frame 2020 has quite impressive input lag, about 10ms at 60Hz and 6ms at 120Hz, provided that Game Mode is turned on. AMD FreeSync and HDMI Variable Refresh Rate are both integrated (55 inch and above models only), however gamers with Nvidia graphics cards will not be able to enable G-Sync Compatible because of this feature only works via DisplayPort, which The Frame 2020 does not offer.
In terms of sound, The Frame 2020 has public down-firing speakers 40W capacity, integrated with Dolby Digital Plus. For basic needs such as watching TV series, the default speaker of the TV is quite pleasant, and the volume is high. Yet, when playing games or listening to music, it is not enough because the bass band is somewhat faint. Sound bar should be a good solution to this problem, or if possible, you should invest in a set of speakers to enhance the experience for The Frame 2020.
Who The Frame 2020 is for?
The Frame 2020 has made progress in display quality, which is undeniable. Expanding the size for users to have more choices is also a plus. However, The Frame 2020’s biggest and most remarkable strength is still design, not performance. Right in the Samsung’s QLED TV line-up, it won’t be hard to find another name that offers better performance at a better the price, let alone other brands’ competing OLEDs.
The most suitable audience for The Frame 2020 will be those who love classical art, who more regularly turn off the TV than turn on, and can spend a budget for it. $1400, depending on preference, can be either quite expensive or extremely reasonable, and if you are in the target group of Samsung, The Frame 2020 really has nothing to be complained.
where can you get a SAMSUNG THE FRAME 2020 online
SAMSUNG 75-inch Class FRAME QLED LS03 Series – 4K UHD Dual LED Quantum HDR Smart TV with Alexa Built-in (QN75LS03TAFXZA, 2020 Model): Buy it now
SAMSUNG 55-inch Class The Frame Customizable Bezel – Brown (SCFT55BW/ZA, 2020 Model): Buy it now
Samsung QN55LS03TA 55″ The Frame 4K Ultra High Definition QLED Smart TV with a Samsung VG-SCFT55BW 55″ Brown Customization Bezel for The Frame TV (2020): Buy it now
Samsung QN50LS03TA 50″ 4K The Frame Ultra High Definition QLED Smart TV with an Additional 4 Year Coverage by Epic Protect (2020): Buy it now
Samsung QN43LS03TA 43″ Frame QLED Smart 4K Ultra High Definition TV with a Samsung VG-SCFT43BL 43″ Black Customizable Bezel for The Frame TV (2020): Buy it now
