Two months ago, Samsung launched a lineup of consumer electronics into the Kenyan market. With this launch, Samsung brought more enhanced features in their products, energy saving, environmental protection, and advanced technology among other features across different devices.
Of the devices in this line up, I’ve been using the 65″ Samsung Frame TV – a stunning piece of work that effortlessly stands out. Among the TV placement options of either wall mounting or studio stand, I chose the studio stand for its uniqueness.
The Frame comes with so many practical and unique features and here are some of the ones I love most from a user experience standpoint.
The Studio Stand
The studio stand is a separate purchase for the Samsung Frame TV. It is a strong tripod stand which supports the TV to stand as a standalone as opposed to being wall mounted or set on a counter. The stand setup which I opted for gives the TV a unique and majestic stature in the house.
For most households, the positioning of the TV is dependent on the design of the room, such that even though it is not dictated, the layout of the room has already set aside an only area where the TV can fit best. Not so with the studio stand which gives users complete freedom of placing the TV anywhere in the room.
Of course this option would work for some households and not others, and the biggest determining factor I can think of is whether there are kids in the house. Since the stand rests on the floor, it would not auger well with toddlers crawling around or older kids running around.
In this scenario, wall mounting would be the more practical option and it does come with its own advantages. The most notable ones I can pinpoint are the no gap wall mount which means the TV lies completely flat on the wall, and the fact that art display which we’ll talk about later in this article looks more natural on the wall.
In my thinking, the studio stand option would also need a larger room so that it stands distinctly on its own without fighting for space with other furniture in the room. It is a work of art after all.
Samsung One Connect Box
Cable clutter is an almost inevitable part of entertainment in our homes. With the Samsung Frame TV, the only cable that goes into the TV is thin and camouflaged to a point of being almost invisible. Besides, it runs through inside one of the legs of the studio stand and this increases invisibility. This is the cable that carries power and content between the TV and the One Connect box, leaving the area around the TV free of multiple wiring. This is what makes zero distance wall mounting possible.
One Connect is a device that collects all cabling and keeps it away from the TV itself. With multiple ports like HDMI, USB, optical, AV, and ethernet, the box is designed to handle data exchange between the TV and compatible external devices like gaming consoles, home theatres, monitors, keyboards and sound bars. In short, this is where all the connections that are usually behind the TV come.
The only challenge here would be to know how to cleverly hide the box so that we don’t create another cable situation. The box is small in size and in my case, the Samsung technician who fixed the TV was able to hide it. This left me with a very neat TV area with only power cabling to the sound bar in sight.
Customizable bezels
A few years ago, who would have thought that we would one day have TVs that are not necessarily black? The Samsung Frame TV comes in a standard black frame alright, but users have an option to add either white, beige or brown frames as a separate accessory. This gives the additional edge of blending the TV seamlessly with the home décor. For my use, Samsung provided beige bezels that went quite well with my cream walls.
Art mode
Another beautiful boost to customization is that when the TV is off, it will disguise into beautiful natural looking artwork. Users can either choose among the free pre-loaded art, purchase some from the Samsung Store, or uploading their own images. This would be perfect for a photographer or artist for instance to display their best works, or for families to display their memories through pictures.
This edgy feature can be played around in the settings to adjust brightness, colour tone and automatic turn off when no light or motion are detected in the room. Art mode is made even more complete with the matte finish and ultra-black features which give art more of a canvas feel.
Matte finish
This is a game changer. TVs as we know them have always had a reflection especially in the daytime. With the matte black finish, the Samsung Frame has completely done away with glare and there is zero reflection even when the TV is across a light source. This makes the TV experience more pleasant and also gives the art feature a realistic framed painting look and feel.
Crystal clear picture
One would think that the matte finish is a trade off for picture quality. Far from it. The Samsung Frame is a crystal clear QLED TV with good picture, colour balance and sharpness and the most up to date technology from Samsung. It brings with it crisp picture thanks to the AI enhanced 4K processor and optimizes viewing by automatically adjusting display for eye comfort.
4K is a must have in modern TV because all said and done, good picture is the end game. 4K is a cinema standard that calls for film makers to shoot content in high resolution of 4096×2160. To the user, this translates to pixel packed picture and therefore vivid colour and crystal-clear details. For gamers, the combination of a big screen, high resolution and good speeds thanks to the processor takes gaming to another level.
Technology
To complete the picture, my whole experience with the Samsung Frame has been made more wholesome by Samsung’s Tizen software, plus third-party apps that bring in a host of user options and expanded capabilities to the TV. For instance, the remote control already has a Netflix button and other services like Amazon, Spotify and YouTube are within easy reach with the quick access menu on the screen. With the Samsung SmartThings Android App which enables connectivity to other devices in the home, a smart home is just a few clicks away.
There’s a lot to the Samsung Frame and there’s something new to try out every time especially in the settings for picture clarity, viewing modes and art mode. With time, a user can have a device that is completely customized to reflect their personality.