Do Samsung TVs Have Art Mode?

Art Mode belongs to The Frame — Samsung's dedicated art television, made every year since 2017 and recognisable by its matte panel and magnetic bezels. That is the model line to look for, and the rest of the Samsung range does not share the feature. A QLED or Crystal UHD you already own can be made to show a still image, but not to look like a framed painting.

How to check what you have

The model number settles it. Find it on the label on the back of the set, or on screen under Settings, Support, About.

Frame models carry LS03 in the code, with a letter for the model year — LS03B, LS03D and so on. If your model number does not contain LS03, it is not a Frame and it does not have Art Mode, whatever else it can do.

Size prefixes vary by region (QN, QE, UE and others) so ignore those; it is the LS03 that matters.

What makes The Frame different

Three things the ordinary range lacks, and only one of them is software:

• A matte anti-glare panel. The finish scatters light like paper rather than reflecting it like glass. This is the single feature that makes artwork read as a printed object, and it cannot be added to a glossy TV by any setting.
• Magnetic bezels. Interchangeable physical frames in wood and other finishes, which is what stops the thing looking like a television with a picture on it.
• A slim-fit wall mount and One Connect box. The Frame sits nearly flush to the wall and routes cables to a separate box, so there is no visible gap and no cable spray.

Screen sizes have ranged from around 32 inches to 85 inches depending on the year — the exact dimensions, VESA patterns and weights are worth checking before you buy a mount or plan a recess, because the VESA pattern changes with size.

What other Samsung TVs get instead

Much of the wider Samsung range includes Ambient Mode. It displays something rather than nothing when idle: background patterns, weather, clocks, news tickers, and on many models your own photographs.

It is a decent feature and it is not Art Mode. Two differences matter:

1. The panel is glossy. In any daylit room you will see reflections across the picture and, unmistakably, a screen.
2. The framing is missing. No mattes designed for artwork, no magnetic bezels, no flush mount. A painting sits in a black plastic rectangle.

If you already own an Ambient Mode television, it is well worth loading some artwork onto it — a good painting looks better than a blank screen, and it costs nothing to try. Just calibrate expectations: it is a nice screensaver rather than a picture on the wall. Our guide on what Art Mode actually is covers the distinction in more detail.

Alternatives from other brands

The Frame is no longer alone. Several manufacturers now make art-oriented televisions with matte panels and framing — Hisense's CanvasTV is the most direct competitor, TCL's NXTFRAME another, and LG and others have gallery-style sets in the category.

The general principle holds regardless of badge: look for a matte display and a physical frame. Those two things, not the software, are what make the effect work. A glossy panel with good art software will still show you the room reflected back.

Everything on this site is supplied as standard image files, so it works on any of them. There is no app to install and nothing tied to Samsung.

What about a monitor or a tablet?

People do build digital picture frames from old tablets and monitors, and it can look good at small sizes. Two things to watch: most panels are glossy, and most are far brighter than a picture should be even at minimum. A matte screen protector and an aggressive brightness reduction close much of the gap.

At tablet scale the resolution question also inverts — a 4K file on a 10-inch screen is more detail than the panel can show, which is a much happier problem than the reverse.

If you own a pre-2019 Frame

Older Frames are not obsolete. Art Mode works on a 2017 or 2018 set exactly as it always did, the matte panel and the bezels are the same idea, and televisions last long enough that plenty of them are still on walls. Nothing on this site cares which year yours is — the files are ordinary JPEGs, and SmartThings loads them the same way it always has.

One thing does change with the year. The Frame gained a local network interface for artwork with the 2019 sets, and software that sends pictures to the TV directly — ours included — depends on it. On a 2017 or 2018 Frame that route is not there, so uploading is done through SmartThings.

If you are buying for art specifically

Three pieces of advice worth more than any model number.

First, size the screen to the wall, not to the room's viewing distance. A television is sized for watching; a picture is sized for the space it hangs in. Frames often look right one size smaller than the equivalent TV would. Our guide to mounting height has the geometry, and it is worth reading before you choose a size rather than after.

Second, check the shape of the art you actually want. The screen is 16:9 and most paintings are not — of the hundred works we sell, only five are wider than the screen. If your taste runs to portraits, you will be using the mattes constantly, which is fine but worth knowing in advance.

Third, budget for the art, not just the panel. The screen is the easy half. A Frame showing the same stock abstract for a year is an expensive way to own one picture. The Samsung Art Store solves that with a subscription; a library of your own solves it permanently.

The public domain makes the second option cheaper than most people expect — every van Gogh, Vermeer, Monet and Hokusai is free of copyright, and museums have released open-access scans. What those files need is preparing for a 16:9 screen at 4K, which is what the Everframe Gallery collection is: 100 masterpieces, each with a 4K master and a matching Frame TV crop. Our guide to free public-domain art explains where to get them yourself if you would rather.

Once the TV arrives, start with how to turn on Art Mode — it is the power button, not a menu, and that catches nearly everyone. Whatever set you end up with, the file it wants is the same: 3840 × 2160, which our free Frame TV image resizer will make from any photo in the browser.

Last reviewed 15 September 2026.