Before You Choose an Art TV, Ask This Question
Choosing an Art TV in a Luxury Home
In a luxury home, the best television is not always the television with the best specifications.
The more important question is:
Do you have a preference for how the television looks when it is off, or how the picture looks when it is on?
Samsung The Frame and The Frame Pro are designed primarily around the first priority. Their slim profiles, frame options, screen treatments, and integrated Art Mode are intended to make the television feel like part of the interior when it is not being watched.
Samsung’s flagship S95H and Sony’s BRAVIA 7 II and BRAVIA 9 II take the opposite approach. They are designed first to produce a better picture. With flat mounting, architectural framing, and digital-art platforms, they can still look considered when not in use, but picture performance remains the priority.
Neither approach is universally better. The right choice depends on the room.
Samsung The Frame: Optimized for How It Looks When It Is Off
Samsung The Frame remains the most straightforward option when the television needs to convincingly resemble framed artwork.
Its most important advantage is not simply that it can display art. Many televisions can do that.
The difference is that Art Mode is part of the television’s normal operation. When viewing ends, the display can transition directly into artwork rather than requiring the homeowner to open a separate application or select an ambient source.
Samsung’s Art Store, adjustable mats, brightness controls, magnetic bezels and optional third-party frames are all built around that experience.
A Simpler Installation for 2026
The standard 2026 Frame no longer uses a separate One Connect Box. Its power and signal connections are built directly into the television.
Previous Frame installations required a location for the One Connect Box and a pathway for Samsung’s proprietary cable between the box and the display. In new construction, that could be addressed with a recessed backbox or conduit. In a finished home, finding an accessible location for the box could complicate what otherwise appeared to be a simple television installation.
Moving the connections into the television makes the 2026 Frame easier to use in retrofit locations where installing a large recessed backbox is not practical. This is particularly helpful above brick or stone fireplaces, where opening the wall may be difficult, disruptive or impossible.
The Frame Pro continues to use Samsung’s Wireless One Connect Box.
The Frame is best suited to rooms where the television is viewed casually and spends most of its time functioning as part of the interior:
Bedrooms
Kitchens
Studies
Hallways
Secondary living spaces
Fireplace installations where a recessed equipment box is not feasible
Rooms where a black screen would be visually disruptive
The main tradeoff is picture performance.
Why the Standard Frame’s Edge Lighting Matters
The standard Frame uses an edge-lit LCD panel. The LEDs are positioned around the perimeter of the screen, and the light is distributed across the display.
This helps keep the television thin, but it provides limited control over bright and dark areas of the image.
Compared with a television that has a full backlight, an edge-lit display will generally produce:
Lighter-looking blacks
Less contrast in dark scenes
Less impactful HDR
Less precise control around bright objects
A flatter-looking picture in demanding scenes
For artwork, news, casual streaming and occasional television viewing, those compromises may be perfectly reasonable.
For frequent movie, sports or high-quality television viewing, they become more noticeable.
The Frame is optimized to look its best when it is not being watched.
Samsung The Frame Pro: Better Performance Without Giving Up Art Mode
The Frame Pro follows the same art-first philosophy but replaces the standard Frame’s edge lighting with a full-backlit Mini-LED system.
Instead of illuminating the picture primarily from the perimeter, the Frame Pro uses lighting positioned behind the screen. This allows the television to brighten and dim different areas of the image more independently.
That produces:
Better black levels
Greater contrast
Brighter highlights
Improved HDR
More depth in movies and sports
Better performance in brighter rooms
It is still not intended to compete directly with a flagship OLED or RGB Mini-LED television, but the improvement over the standard Frame is meaningful.
The Frame Pro is the better fit for living rooms and mixed-use spaces where the television must continue to look like art when it is off but will also be watched regularly.
The difference is simple:
The Frame: art first, television second
The Frame Pro: art first, with fewer compromises when it is on
Samsung’s New Anti-Glare Treatment
Earlier Frame televisions became known for Samsung’s Matte Display, which diffused reflections and helped artwork resemble paper or canvas.
Samsung’s newer models use an updated anti-glare treatment intended to reduce reflections while preserving more picture clarity and contrast.
The distinction matters.
A heavily matte screen can make individual reflections less visible, but it can also spread ambient light across a larger portion of the display. This may soften the picture and make blacks appear lighter during daytime viewing.
A more advanced anti-glare treatment attempts to control reflections without diffusing as much of the image.
No screen coating eliminates the need to evaluate the room itself. Window locations, recessed lighting, lamps and motorized shading can have as much influence on the result as the television’s surface treatment.
Samsung S95H: Optimized for How It Looks When It Is On
The Samsung S95H should not be thought of as a more expensive Frame television.
It is a flagship OLED television designed first around picture quality. Because each OLED pixel creates its own light and can turn off independently, the S95H can produce true blacks, precise highlights, strong color and wide viewing angles.
Its physical design also makes it particularly relevant in luxury interiors.
The S95H is designed to mount extremely close to the wall and includes a distinctive metal bezel that gives it a more finished, architectural appearance than a conventional television. It also incorporates Samsung’s Art Store experience, allowing it to present artwork more naturally than a typical flagship display when it is not being watched.
The standard metal bezel will not be appropriate for every interior. Deco TV Frames is also expected to offer aftermarket bezel options for the S95H, providing additional profiles and finishes when Samsung’s contemporary metal surround does not suit the architecture, furnishings or homeowner’s taste.
This gives the S95H more design flexibility than most flagship televisions:
Use the standard metal bezel for a restrained, contemporary appearance
Select an aftermarket Deco frame when a more decorative or traditional treatment is appropriate
Use Samsung’s Art Store when artwork is desired between viewing sessions
Mount the television close to the wall when the goal is a minimal architectural installation
The S95H is still not the same type of product as The Frame.
The Frame is optimized primarily to create the illusion of framed artwork. The S95H is optimized to deliver flagship picture quality while looking more considered on the wall than a conventional OLED television.
Choose the S95H when:
Picture quality is the greater priority
The display will be watched frequently
OLED black levels and viewing angles matter
A very flat wall installation is desired
Samsung’s metal bezel complements the interior, or a Deco aftermarket frame is preferred
Artwork is valuable, but secondary to television performance
Sony BRAVIA 7 II and BRAVIA 9 II
Sony’s newest premium LCD televisions are the BRAVIA 7 II and BRAVIA 9 II.
Both use RGB Mini-LED technology.
Traditional Mini-LED televisions generally use a white or blue backlight behind the LCD panel. RGB Mini-LED uses separately controlled red, green and blue light sources, allowing the television to produce purer colors and maintain stronger color saturation at higher brightness levels.
This makes RGB Mini-LED particularly well suited to:
Bright rooms
Large screens
Sports
High-impact HDR
Rooms where OLED is not preferred
Installations where sustained brightness matters
The BRAVIA 7 II is the more accessible of the two models and is well suited to mixed-use living rooms, bedrooms and secondary entertainment spaces.
The BRAVIA 9 II is the flagship option, with more advanced lighting control, greater brightness and a higher level of overall picture performance.
Both are entertainment-first televisions. They are designed to produce the best image possible when they are on, rather than the most convincing framed-art illusion when they are off.
Sony With Leon Frames and Niio Art
Leon’s Studio Frame and Solé systems provide a different approach to the art-TV concept.
Rather than building the art experience into the television itself, Leon combines a premium display with an architectural frame and access to the Niio digital-art platform.
Niio provides curated digital artwork that can be displayed on the television, giving the homeowner a more refined alternative to a basic photo slideshow or screen saver. Access to the Niio art experience is included with the purchase of a Leon Studio Frame or Solé.
This creates a more complete design solution than simply attaching decorative trim around a television.
However, the difference from Samsung remains important:
Samsung integrates the television, frame, Art Mode and off-state behavior into one product.
Sony and Leon combine a premium television, architectural frame, digital-art platform and system programming to create the experience.
At the time this article was written, Leon had not released Studio Frame or Solé compatibility for the new BRAVIA 7 II and BRAVIA 9 II.
Framing solutions are expected, but they should not be specified until Leon confirms the supported models and screen sizes.
Which Television Belongs in the Room?
Choose Samsung The Frame when:
The television should convincingly resemble framed artwork
How it looks when it is off matters more than ultimate picture performance
Viewing is casual or occasional
The homeowner wants the simplest integrated Art Mode experience
A traditional decorative frame is part of the design
A separate equipment box would complicate the installation
Choose Samsung The Frame Pro when:
The art experience remains the primary priority
The television will be watched more frequently
Better contrast and HDR are needed
The room is brighter or more demanding
The limitations of an edge-lit display are unacceptable
Choose Samsung S95H when:
Picture quality is the greater priority
OLED black levels and viewing angles matter
The television will be used regularly for movies, sports or streaming
A very flat, contemporary installation is desired
The standard metal bezel or an aftermarket Deco frame suits the room
Artwork is a secondary mode rather than the display’s primary identity
Choose Sony BRAVIA 7 II or BRAVIA 9 II when:
Brightness and RGB color performance are priorities
Sony’s image processing and Dolby Vision support are valued
The display is primarily an entertainment television
A future Leon frame and Niio art experience are acceptable once compatibility is confirmed
The Bottom Line
An art television and a premium television that can display art are not the same thing.
Samsung The Frame and The Frame Pro are optimized around how the television looks when it is off. Their design, screen treatment, frame options and integrated Art Mode are all intended to make the display feel like part of the room.
Samsung’s S95H and Sony’s BRAVIA 7 II and BRAVIA 9 II are optimized around how the picture looks when the television is on. Framing, flat mounting, digital art and system programming can make them more visually appropriate when not in use, but entertainment performance remains their primary purpose.
The correct choice depends on which state matters more in that particular room:
How convincingly the television disappears when it is off, or how impressive the picture looks when it is on.