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The Best Art TVs
I have watched Star Wars so many times I’ve lost count. Yet, I’m also a bit of an art snob. For years, the Andrew Wyeth painting Christina’s World took a prominent place in my living room. Art televisions—the category of TV pioneered by Samsung's Frame and now rapidly expanding with models from many of the major TV producers—combine my passion for movies and shows with an even greater interest in art and photography.
When it comes to their performance as televisions, even the best art TVs don't have quite the same punchy colors and speedy refresh rates found on similarly priced standard televisions. However, when the movie is finished, art TVs look a lot better in a room, displaying art and photos on a matte screen with a pristine clarity in a space otherwise wasted by a black box.
Art televisions are typically just a little more expensive than a normal 4K TV. The main players in this market are Samsung, Amazon, Hisense, and TCL, with prices ranging from $1,100 to $2,000. An art TV uses a matte finish and includes a few hundred (or even thousands) of art images and photographs. Some, like the new Amazon Ember Artline, include “moving artwork”—essentially, a painting that comes alive with subtle video elements.
There’s hidden cost savings here. Buying a framed painting, even as a photo print, can easily cost $600 or more at the larger sizes. That’s also just one static painting. An art television can show Picasso one day and Andrew Wyeth the next. Want an actual oil painting from someone who is famous? That costs many thousands more. And, of course, no painting is capable of switching to Netflix to watch Rebel Moon.
I still remember the moment I realized Samsung’s The Frame Pro 2026 is the best art television around. I loaded Van Gogh’s The Starry Night painting with its various shades of blue. The masterpiece came alive with texture and realism thanks to the contrast ratio and clear picture quality. I marched friends and family members down to my office to gaze in wonder.
Installing The Frame Pro is a bit of a process, though. I ended up watching a YouTube video for help. About an inch thin, this model sits mostly flush to the wall. Rather than connecting your streaming boxes directly to the TV, Samsung’s Wireless One Connect breakout box acts as a bridge. I connected my Xbox Series X and PC to the HDMI ports (there are four total) on the breakout box, which then connects to The Frame Pro using Wi-Fi 7 from across the room. Navigating The Frame Pro was also easy, thanks to the intuitive UI and the lightweight, long-lasting remote.
Free users have access to Samsung’s rotating catalog of 30 free images, but subscribers willing to pay $4.99 monthly will have access to 5,000 pieces of art. The Frame Pro 2026 has the widest variety of artwork, including hundreds of masterpieces, but I preferred Amazon's Ember Artline “moving artwork” feature better.
At $2,000, The Frame Pro is the most expensive option on our list, and it’s worth its price. Even though most manufacturers, Samsung included, don’t list specs for their art TVs, The Frame Pro 2026 displayed artwork and photos with the best contrast and picture quality.
I was blown away by the picture quality for movies. When viewing Netflix’s Awake, which displays a lot of night scenes, I was able to still see all of the action. In comparison, the same scenes looked muddy and dull on the TCL NXTVISION and Amazon Ember Artline.
The 2026 model now supports high-fidelity gaming with a 240 Hz refresh rate when connected to a gaming computer (though it does lower the resolution). I played Crimson Desert and the main character—wearing a black suit of armor—moved realistically and responded quickly to my controller nudges.