Samsung Frame TV: 2021 vs 2022
Samsung is back with a new version of its best-selling “lifestyle TV”, The Frame. This is The Samsung Frame 2021 vs 2022.
Luke Hopewell is a gadget veteran of over 10 years. He’s reviewed over 100 TVs in his time, and been to the magic factory where they’re all made.
Got a question for the author? Email me: [email protected].
Before we get into it, you can check out the differences between the 2020 Frame and the 2021 model in our comparison from last year.
What is The Frame?
The Frame is what Samsung calls a “lifestyle TV”.
It’s not a TV you get for peak performance. Rather, you buy it for the excellent balance of performance and incredible design. The Frame is built on a simple proposition: it’s a TV when it’s on, and art when it’s off.
It’s a QLED (or Quantum Dot LED) TV. That means it’s able to stay on for long periods without burning in an image onto the screen. It sets it apart from OLED TVs in that way.
The Frame runs Samsung’s Tizen operating system. That means you get all your apps natively, including Stan, Netflix and Disney+. You get AirPlay 2 for screen sharing from iOS devices, too.
All the smarts are hidden away in the One Connect Box. It means you can run a single clear cable to your TV when it’s mounted to the wall, rather than run a number of power and input cables.
The One Connect Box means that the connections are hidden out of sight for a cleaner look.
The Frame 2021 vs 2022
While TVs might be getting more and more complicated in 2022, The Frame is easier than ever to understand.
In 2021, Samsung made The Frame much, much thinner. Almost as thin as an actual picture frame.
The 2022 Frame TV is almost the exact same design. It is still just one inch thick (25.4mm), which is insane for a TV.
The big difference for The Frame in 2022 is how the screen appears in a well-lit room.
Samsung has applied a new anti-glare, low reflection system on the surface of The Frame for 2022. Samsung calls it Matte Display, and it promises “the most realistic art viewing experience outside a museum”.
Matte Display will hopefully help to trick your eyes more and more that The Frame 2022 is a “real” work of art in your space when it’s off.
And to help you when it’s on, Matte Display has been certified to provide a better glare-free viewing experience by Underwriter Laboratories.
The Matte Display feature has also been applied to Samsung’s other “lifestyle TVs”: the Serif and the Hero. Indeed, previous Frame models have suffered from a glare problem.
Hopefully this goes a way towards rectifying the issue.
Other changes in 2022
Unfortunately, the anti-glare coatings may be the only real difference in the new model compared to the old one.
We’re checking with Samsung, but between the 2021 model we reviewed and the 2022 model just announced, it looks like glare reduction is all we get.
I have seen potential updates to the Tizen operating system afoot, but we’ll see when we review it.
If this turns out to be the case, there’s a risk that The Frame will ship in mid-2022 with a three- to four-year old panel.
Read more
The 2021 Samsung Frame is still a pretty incredible TV. Check out our review and video.
