TVs have come a long way from the mammoth black boxes that once dominated our living rooms.
Thanks to recent advancements in display technologies like QLED and OLED, TV sets are sleeker and slimmer than ever before, and it’s never been easier to blend your screen into an Instagram-worthy space.
But if you still consider traditionally mounted flatscreens an aesthetic eyesore, a new tech trend might be the investment for you: TVs that double as works of art.
From sets that look like freshly hung oil paintings, to screens that could double as contemporary sculptures, top brands like Samsung and LG have found creative ways to bring your entertainment to life with innovative new launches.
What are frame TVs?
Frame TVs are one of the most popular products on the market right now. Blending function and aesthetics, these mounted flatscreens hang flush to the wall and convincingly transform into a detailed piece of art when not in use.
Homeowners can make use of what would otherwise be a blank space by choosing to disguise their TV set within an aesthetic gallery wall arrangement, or by showcasing it as a standalone collector’s item.
Fitted with an elegant border that’s designed to look like a premium gallery hanging, frame TVs can double up as replicas of some of the world’s most famous art pieces, from Van Gogh’s sunflowers to Hokusa’s Great Wave.
While it’s easy to get suckered in by an interiors-friendly trend, the last thing you want to do is rush an expensive impulse buy, as shelling out for the wrong TV can be a costly mistake. As well as looking the part in your space, you want a TV that delivers great picture quality, powerful sound, and snag-free ease of use.
In this guide, we’ll be exploring TVs with 4K, OLED, and QLED technology, which represent different advancements in display quality. We’ve scored these sets on a number of different factors, including colour vibrancy, image crispness, value for money and visual appeal.
How much room you have in your home will determine which option you go for, but whatever your space and budget, our expert guide can help you make the best decision possible.
Best frame and lifestyle TVs at a glance:
- Best for overall: Samsung The Frame TV - £1,099, John Lewis
- Best for picture quality: LG G3 - £2,099, Currys
- Best for everyday viewing: Samsung The Serif - £1,590, Samsung
- Best for gamers: Sony A90K - £1449, Amazon
- Best for social media lovers: Samsung The Sero - £1,399, Currys
- Best for parents: LG StanByMe - £1,199, John Lewis
- Best for on a budget: Hisense 50A7KQTUK - £349, Argos
- Best for style and elegance: LG Objet Collection Easel TV - £5,899, Currys
Samsung The Frame (2023) 55” QLED Art Mode Smart TV
Best: Overall
The much-hyped Samsung The Frame TV emerged as our top choice of art-inspired TVs available on the market. Not only does it genuinely look like a gallery-installed artwork, but it performs impressively too. With detail-crisp 4K resolution, The Frame brings artwork to life in stunning, realistic technicolour. It does so by utilising QLED technology - a backlighting system similar to traditional LED, but with a quantum dot layer to enhance colour and brightness.
Aesthetically the 55-inch screen looks fantastic; when mounted, the chunky art bezels seamlessly blend with the wall, leaving no unsightly gaps. Handily, it also has a single-cable design, so there are no pesky wires to deal with, although getting the TV mounted on the wall does involve some rental-unfriendly drilling. We also appreciated the ingenious anti-reflective matte screen, which minimises distracting glare from overhead lights.
To access artwork, you will need to take out an extra £3.99 subscription to Samsung’s art store, where you can choose between thousands of great quality artworks from the best galleries around the world. It’s considerably more expensive than other 4K QLED TVs of this size, so it’s by no means the best value for money TV. However, if you’re looking for a stylish set that will elevate your living room, this is a real winner.
Buy now £1299.00, John Lewis
LG OLED65G36LA 65" Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR OLED TV
Best for: picture quality
If you’re seeking the TV with the best picture quality on this list, look no further than the LG G3. The brand recently introduced a brighter OLED and Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology, which looks nothing short of sensational and makes colours and scenes practically burst to life.
To showcase its phenomenal picture, the LG G3 features an art mode that allows you to select digital wallpapers. However, disappointingly, there’s not an extensive array of options to choose from, and the interface feels a little clunky compared to others. Essentially, you’re opting for picture quality over art credentials here, but if you’re looking for a TV that can seamlessly transition from gaming to binge-watching to ambient artwork, this is definitely one of your top choices.
Buy now £2099.00, Currys
Samsung 65" The Serif LS01B QLED 4K HDR Smart TV
Best for: everyday viewing
Designed to look beautiful from every angle, this freestanding TV features a special ‘Ambient Mode’ that mimics the colour and pattern of your living room wall, allowing the display screen to blend seamlessly into the background. It’s a nice feature for people who want to relax in front of a big screen but despise the idea of a black void in the middle of the room.
Similar to The Frame, this TV has a matte display that absorbs light reflections and QLED technology that provides a naturally bright and colourful picture. While there are technically better screens on the market for its premium price (e.g., those with cutting-edge OLED technology), it delivers sharp picture quality that’s more than decent enough for basic everyday viewing (although gamers should probably look elsewhere).
What you’re really paying for here is a beautifully designed TV with a modern retro quality, especially when it’s sitting on its detachable easel legs. Overall, it’s a top all-rounder that looks great, isn’t sluggish to use, and delivers punchy colour expression that’s perfect for binge-watching Netflix.
Buy now £1590.00, Samsung
Sony 42” A90K Bravia XR Master Series OLED 4K Ultra HD HDR Smart TV
Best for: gamers
The Sony A90K is a punchy OLED TV with one of the best picture qualities we tested. While it might not have the same obvious style credentials as other options on this list, it does come with a Living Decor app pre-loaded with artwork that allows you to turn the TV into a picture frame.
With the OLED screen’s combination of 4K Ultra HD resolution and Dolby Vision, the A90K delivers deeper blacks, cinematic colours, and a near-infinite contrast ratio that makes viewing a joy. As this TV is designed with gamers in mind, expect an ultra-realistic picture with incredible detail and texture. Although it doesn’t mimic art as realistically as The Frame (you can’t wall-mount it, for instance), it’s a great choice if you love fast-action sports or games and don't want to compromise on screen quality.
Buy now £1449.00, Amazon
Samsung The Sero QE43LS05BGUXXU 43" Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR QLED TV with Bixby & Alexa
Best for: social media lovers
If you spend large parts of your evening scrolling through TikTok, you might want to consider upgrading to Samsung’s unique rotating Sero TV. This impressive 4K QLED screen can be flipped from a conventional 16:9 widescreen ratio to a 9:16 vertical one, allowing you to scroll through a supersized version of your social feed. Angled backwards, it has a futuristic aesthetic, resembling a monolithic sculpture that wouldn’t look out of place in the Tate Modern.
In addition to supporting the rotation mechanism, the solid base on this unusual T-shaped TV is fitted with an impressive 4.1 sound system, so there’s no need to fork out for an extra soundbar here. With a Quantum Processor 4K, the screen is crisp enough for gaming, watching sports, and regular viewing, and the colour payoff is equally impressive. The only downside here is the size: the Sero only comes in one 43” option, so you’re paying a hefty price tag for what’s a relatively standard-sized screen.
Buy now £1399.00, Currys
LG StanbyME 27" Portable and Wireless Screen TV
Best for: parents and fitness enthusiasts
This rolling, pivoting TV can rotate between portrait and landscape orientations, allowing you to switch from viewing social posts to streaming episodes at the twist of a screen. Set on an unusual lamp-like base, it also has caster wheels so you can easily roll it from room to room (a bit like the ‘big telly’ from your school days).
Ingeniously, a built-in battery lets you use StanbyME wirelessly too, so you can even take it out into the garden for a workout. As the battery lasts for up to three hours on a single charge, there’s more than enough time to get a decent sweat on.
The StanbyME uses a webOS smart TV platform with touch-screen capabilities and the ability to rotate between portrait and landscape orientations, which is particularly helpful if you have kids who like the idea of an interactive TV-meets-iPad. Disappointingly for LG though, this 27-inch LED TV doesn’t have the best picture quality at 1080p, but as with most ‘lifestyle’ TVs, you're paying more for aesthetics and quirky functions than top-of-the-range technical specs.
Buy now £1199.00, John Lewis
Hisense 50A7KQTUK 50” Smart 4K UHD TV
Best for: on a budget
The 4K QLED display on this smart TV utilises Quantum Dot technology, which brings the colours and hues of your media to life. It also features Dolby Vision HDR, enhancing the contrast with deeper blacks, brighter whites, and true-to-life colours.
Interestingly, Hisense has partnered with the world's leading digital art community, DeviantArt, to create VIDAA Art - an app that integrates into the TV’s operating system, allowing you to explore artwork from around the world. From here, you can program and curate a gallery of images as your rest mode wallpaper. As the cheapest option on this list, it’s a great value-for-money set that allows users to tap into the frame TV trend without breaking the bank.
Buy now £349.00, Argos
LG OLED Objet Collection Easel 65” TV
Best for: style and elegance
Both an art piece and a TV too, this serene-looking telly has a textile-covered moving panel that hides the majority of the screen when it’s not in use. A simple click of a button brings the panel into Line View, leaving a discreet slither of screen on show with at-a-glance info like the time and date. Classy and elegant, it can be installed leaning against a living room wall or mounted flush against it.
Fitted with a 4K OLED screen, this beige-coloured television is anything but bland, producing impeccably deep blacks, bright whites and vibrant colours. It’s a budget blower for sure, but if you’re looking for a statement piece that will blend with a considered neutral decor scheme, you won’t find a better option than this.
Buy now £5899.00, Currys
