Samsung The Frame LS03C 32"

The Samsung Frame is a master of disguise with its matte screen and Art Mode, but the 1080p panel and weak gaming chops are a letdown. Audio quality is a nice surprise, but you're paying a huge premium for the design. Only worth it if the art feature is non-negotiable.

The Hyper Real processor does a decent job upscaling lower-res content, and colors look punchy thanks to the QLED tech and 100% color volume. The matte screen is genuinely impressive at killing glare, which is a must for bright rooms. But the 1080p resolution on a 32-inch screen is fine, not great, and the 60Hz panel with HDMI 1.4 means you're locked out of any modern gaming features. The 20W 3.1.2-channel audio setup with Dolby Atmos is a pleasant surprise and actually one of the stronger points here, landing well above average in our database. Just don't expect it to rattle the room.

Stacked against the competition, The Frame is in a weird spot. A Sony BRAVIA 5 or LG OLED C5 will absolutely demolish it in picture quality and gaming, but they look like regular TVs. The TCL QM7K and Hisense U7 series give you way more screen and 4K resolution for the money, but again, no art mode. The Roku Plus Series is a smarter budget pick if you just want a simple, good-looking picture. The Frame doesn't compete on specs. It competes on a lifestyle feature, and whether that's worth the trade-off is entirely up to you.

Value is where The Frame falls apart. This 32-inch model has a wild price spread across vendors, from around $364 to over $1,350. At the low end, you're still paying more than a comparable 32-inch 1080p TV, but the art feature might justify it. At the high end, you're getting fleeced. You can grab a much larger, 4K QLED set from TCL or Hisense for less than the top price here. If you find it on a deep discount, maybe. Otherwise, you're buying a pretty face, not a good TV.

Samsung's The Frame is a TV that doesn't want to look like a TV, and for the most part, it pulls that off. The 32-inch LS03C model is built for one specific job: blending into your kitchen, bedroom, or hallway as a piece of art that occasionally streams your favorite shows. The anti-reflective matte screen and customizable bezels do a convincing job of hiding the fact that it's a display at all when Art Mode is on.

But here's the thing, you're paying a serious style tax for that trick. Under the fancy frame, this is a basic 1080p QLED panel with dated HDMI 1.4 ports and gaming performance that's frankly embarrassing for the price. If you just want a good small TV, you can do a lot better for a lot less. If you need the art gimmick, well, this is pretty much the only game in town.

Skip this if you care even a little about gaming or want the best picture quality for your dollar. The 1080p panel and ancient HDMI ports make it a terrible choice for a PS5 or Xbox Series X. If you just need a small, high-quality screen for a secondary room and don't care about the art gimmick, grab a 32-inch 4K monitor or a budget TCL and pocket the savings.

Buy this if you absolutely need a TV that disappears into your decor and you're willing to sacrifice nearly every performance metric to get it. It's perfect for a bright kitchen or a design-conscious bedroom where a black rectangle would be an eyesore. For everyone else, it's a hard pass. You're buying one very cool trick attached to a thoroughly average 1080p TV.