Samsung Frame Pro hands-on: the perfect TV?

The Verge

Samsung’s The Frame has been enormously popular ever since its release. There’s no shortage of imitators at this point, but Samsung is looking to fend off copycats by introducing The Frame Pro. A TV that is trying to be a better TV for everything else, not just a good looking piece of art on your wall.

Transcript

00:00Samsung's The Frame has been a smash hit ever since it went on sale, and it's not

00:06hard to understand why.

00:08Some people just don't like an ugly, big, black rectangle dominating their living room.

00:12And The Frame looks a lot more stylish.

00:15It's got wooden bezels, it shows nice, classy artwork, and when it's off, it looks just

00:20really nice.

00:21But as a TV, it's always just been kind of… meh.

00:25Okay.

00:26Not the brightest, not the best.

00:27And that changes today.

00:29Samsung just announced the new Frame Pro, and now it's supposed to be just as good

00:34of a TV as a canvas for art.

00:36Samsung made two big changes that put the Pro in The Frame Pro.

00:41First, this TV now uses mini-LEDs, but not like you'd expect.

00:46See, when I heard that, I assumed there would be all these dimming zones behind the screen

00:50for more precise lighting, better brightness, better black levels, and so on.

00:54But Samsung told me that they're actually at the bottom of the screen, so The Frame

00:59Pro is still kind of edge-lit, but there are a lot more LEDs for some of the effect of

01:04local dimming.

01:05So, it should look better than The Frame, but will it look as good as a full mini-LED

01:09TV?

01:10We'll see when it ships this spring.

01:12But the picture quality has taken a big step up, according to Samsung.

01:15Can't really say how much better the picture is here with these demos they have.

01:19It's brighter, but Samsung won't say how much brighter, or make any real statements

01:23as far as how much of a leap up this is over The Frame.

01:26But it is mini-LED in some sense.

01:30As for the second big upgrade, it's the wireless OneConnect box.

01:34There's no longer a thin cable running between the TV and the breakout box where you plug

01:37in all your gaming consoles and streaming boxes.

01:40Now, that connection is wireless.

01:42So that's one less telltale sign that this is a piece of tech, and not a frame on your

01:48wall.

01:49So even if the mini-LED system is not quite what I expected, there are other upgrades

01:53here too.

01:54The peak refresh rate is now 144Hz.

01:56So for you PC gamers out there, that's better than 120Hz, I suppose.

02:01And the breakout box uses Wi-Fi 7 for better connectivity.

02:04So like always with The Frame and The Frame Pro, you can subscribe to Samsung's Art Store

02:07and show some really nice pieces on your wall.

02:09But as far as new software goes, there's a ton of new AI features.

02:14It's almost inescapable.

02:15It's all called Vision AI.

02:17There's Live Translate.

02:18You can generate your own wallpaper.

02:20There's Click-to-Search to show you what actors are on screen, even what food is being shown

02:25on screen, and show you recipes on how to make that food.

02:28I'm very curious to see how accurate or way off the mark that's going to be once this

02:31TV actually comes out.

02:33People love The Frame, but if you're a TV nerd like me, it's always been kind of a compromise

02:38and not the best TV when it comes to the specs that count.

02:42This year with The Frame Pro, Samsung wants to change that.

02:46Will it pan out?

02:47We'll see.

02:48For all of our TV coverage here at The Verge, check out our YouTube channel and TheVerge.com.

Category

Transcript

Recommended