The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2017
Samsung's The Frame turns an off TV into wall art — creating the lifestyle TV category
A 2017 Samsung TV that shows curated art when off — Art Mode turns the black rectangle into a wall painting and starts the lifestyle TV category.
Samsung Electronics
What it had to solve
Samsung's TV market was maturing and screens competed on specifications, so the Visual Display Business pushed design and lifestyle instead. At CES 2017 it teased The Frame, designed with Swiss industrial designer Yves Béhar, then unveiled it in Paris on March 14, 2017 as a new 'Lifestyle TV'.
How it works
In March 2017, at a launch event in Paris's Carrousel du Louvre, Samsung unveiled The Frame, a TV designed so that when it is switched off it does not fade to black but becomes a work of art. The set, developed with Swiss designer Yves Béhar and teased at CES 2017, was the flagship of a new 'Lifestyle TV' concept that treated the screen as furniture rather than electronics.
In Art Mode the display shows more than 100 curated works — landscapes, architecture, wildlife — or the owner's own photos, arranged with customizable matting and bezels. Brightness and motion sensors adjust the artwork to ambient light and put the screen to sleep when the room is empty; a no-gap wall mount and a single invisible cable make it hang like a real frame.
The Frame launched in the US at $1,999 for the 55-inch model and $2,799 for the 65-inch, with access to an Art Store selling additional works, and rolled out worldwide through 2017 — the UK in July, Singapore in late July, Malaysia in August. Samsung described it as a statement piece that makes the TV beautiful when powered off.
Why it lands
- It redesigned the TV's default state — the off screen — instead of adding another specification, an idea competitors could immediately see and copy.
- Treating the TV as furniture with interchangeable bezels, a flush wall mount and a hidden cable made it belong to interior design, not consumer electronics.
- Curated art plus a paid Art Store turned the device into a continuing service and revenue stream after purchase.
- Launching at an art venue, the Carrousel du Louvre, framed the product as culture rather than hardware.
What it did
The Frame won the CES 2017 Best of Innovation Award, and Samsung positioned it as a 'Lifestyle TV' whose Art Mode became the template for a new category of art TVs. The set grew into a product family with a paid Art Store, and the idea of a screen that doubles as artwork when off spread across the industry.
What you can take
Question the product's default state: a TV's 'off' screen was dead space, so the biggest innovation was not a spec but redesigning the moment the product is not in use.
Since then
The Frame became the anchor of Samsung's Lifestyle TV family, later joined by The Serif, The Sero and matte-display Frame models, with an Art Store that keeps the screen an ongoing service. Rivals launched their own art-mode TVs in the years that followed, and the idea of a screen that doubles as art when off became a standard premium-TV feature.
Sources
- Samsung Introduces New Lifestyle TVs at Global Launch Event in Paris
- Samsung Electronics Launches The Frame - Lifestyle TV in Singapore
- Samsung's Frame TV will start at $2,000
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