Samsung The Frame 2019 is a decent LCD TV with good picture quality and a unique design. It's a special model that aims to look like a piece of art when wall-mounted. You can even change the bezel to better suit your ambiance. Performance-wise, The Frame 2019 delivers deep blacks in a dark room and can get very bright to fight the glare of a bright room. It has a wide color gamut and can display vivid colors when in HDR, but not very bright highlights. It has excellent motion handling, a very low input lag, and supports all of the gaming features of the higher-end Samsungs. Unfortunately, you must be sitting straight in front to enjoy an accurate image.
Our Verdict
The Frame 2019 is a decent TV for mixed use. It gets fairly bright and handles reflections well, so watching TV shows or sports in a bright room isn't an issue. Unfortunately, the image degrades when viewed from the side but, on the upside, this TV has excellent gaming features. Finally, it delivers deep blacks in a dark room, despite the lack of a local dimming feature, and the overall motion handling is great.
- Excellent low input lag.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- Great response time.
- Good SDR peak brightness.
- Image degrades at an angle.
- Can't get very bright in HDR.
The Frame 2019 is an okay TV for watching movies. It has a high contrast ratio and delivers deep uniform blacks in a dark room, but lacks a local dimming feature to make things even better. It can remove judder from any source and has a motion interpolation feature for fans of the soap opera effect.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- No local dimming.
This is a good TV for watching TV shows. It has good reflection handling and a great SDR peak brightness, so you can place it in any room. It has great smart features and can upscale cable content well. Unfortunately, the viewing angles are poor and the image degrades at an angle, so it's not a good choice if you often walk around while watching TV.
- Good SDR peak brightness.
- No risk of permanent burn-in.
- Image degrades at an angle.
The Frame 2019 is a good TV for watching sports. It can handle reflections well and can get sufficiently bright for almost any room. It has decent gray uniformity with minimal dirty screen effect, and a fast response time so fast-action sports look crisp on your screen with minimal blur. Unfortunately, this TV isn't a good choice to watch the big game with a group of friends, as the image deteriorates when viewed from the side.
- Great response time.
- Good SDR peak brightness.
- No risk of permanent burn-in.
- Image degrades at an angle.
The Frame is a great TV for playing video games. It has a very low input lag and delivers a responsive gaming experience. Fast-moving content looks crisp with very little blur thanks to the fast response time, and the TV supports some advanced gaming features like AMD's FreeSync variable refresh rate technology for nearly tear-free gaming.
- Excellent low input lag.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- FreeSync support.
- Great response time.
This is an okay TV for watching HDR movies. It displays deep, uniform blacks thanks to its high contrast ratio and good black uniformity, but lacks a local dimming feature to improve performance further. It has a wide color gamut that helps deliver vivid colors, but its HDR peak brightness isn't high enough to always deliver HDR content as it should look.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- Can't get very bright in HDR.
- No local dimming.
The Frame is a good TV for playing HDR video games mainly due to its excellent gaming capabilities. The low input lag and fast response time, along with the advanced gaming features offer a great gaming experience. HDR games are displayed with vivid colors, but the HDR peak brightness level of the TV doesn't always allow it to deliver the game according to the creator's intent.
- Excellent low input lag.
- Excellent native contrast ratio.
- FreeSync support.
- Great response time.
- Can't get very bright in HDR.
- No local dimming.
This is a good TV for use as a PC monitor. It feels very responsive thanks to the low input lag, and the fast response time ensures that fast-moving content has minimal blur trail. It displays properly the most common resolutions and delivers proper 4:4:4 in most of them so text looks sharp. Finally, the TV is immune to the burn-in risk as it has a VA panel.
- Excellent low input lag.
- Great response time.
- No risk of permanent burn-in.
- Image degrades at an angle.
Changelog
- Updated May 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.5.
- Updated Feb 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
- Updated Oct 24, 2019: Review published.
- Updated Oct 22, 2019: Our testers have started testing this product.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 55" (QN55LS03RA) version FA01, For the most we expect our review to be valid for the 43" version (QN55LS03RA), the 49" version (QN49LS03RA), and 65" version (QN65LS03RA).
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Samsung Frame doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.
| Size | Model | US | UK | Refresh Rate |
| 43" | QN43LS03RA | QN43LS03RAFXZA | QE43LS03RAUXXU | 60 Hz |
| 49'" | QN49LS03RA | QN49LS03RAFXZA | QE49LS03RAUXXU | 60 Hz |
| 55" | QN55LS03RA | QN55LS03RAFXZA | QE55LS03RAUXXU | 120 Hz |
| 65" | QN65LS03RA | QN65LS03RAFXZA | QE65LS03RAUXXU | 120 Hz |
The 43" and the 49" models have a 60Hz panel and don't support FreeSync.
The Frame 2019 we reviewed was manufactured in August 2019.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Frame 2019 is a good QLED TV for a very special purpose. However, performance-wise, there are better TVs for the same price. See our recommendations for the best TVs, the best HDR gaming TVs, and the best smart TVs.
The Samsung The Frame 2019 is marginally better than the Samsung The Frame 2018. The 2019 model has a faster response time and delivers fast-moving content with less blur trail. This is great if you're a sports fan or you play fast-action video games.
The Samsung The Frame 2020 is a very decent upgrade from the Samsung The Frame 2019. Aside from some minor differences in their outer design, the 2020 has a much higher contrast ratio and peak brightness. Input lag is also lower on the 2020; however, it's not as color accurate. There's some improvement in terms of black and gray uniformity, but this could be due to panel variance.
The Samsung Q60R and the Samsung The Frame 2019 offer very similar performance. Their design, however, is very different. The Frame is designed to be wall-mounted, has the shape of a frame, and comes with the One Connect box that handles the cable connectivity, allowing for a clean install. The Q60R can be wall-mounted but not flush to the wall, so it can't deliver the impression of a frame as the Frame 2019 does.
The LG SM9000 and the Samsung The Frame 2019 have different panels, each with advantages and disadvantages. The LG has an IPS panel and delivers a more accurate image when viewed from the side. The Samsung, on the other hand, has a VA panel and can display deeper and more uniform blacks in a dark room. The Frame is packed with advanced gaming features, but the LG can handle the reflections of a bright room better.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
