No one really wants a TV anymore. At least, most people I know don’t.
Sure, there are dedicated “TV people”. People who have regular movie nights, pay for the premium 4K-tier of their favorite streaming service, and care about terms like OLED and HDR.
But an increasing number of people I know don’t care about any of that because, in reality, they are watching TikTok and YouTube. Sometimes the TV is on, but even then, they are looking at their phone too, latest season of “Bridgerton” be damned.
For those people, the latest TV picture technology doesn’t matter. Heck, the TV itself barely matters because it’s barely being watched. What’s more important is what the TV looks like in the room.
Enter: the art TV — the TV for people who don’t really watch TV, but still feel obligated to have one. Shows and movies look worse on an art TV, but that’s a tradeoff people are willing to make, and brands are starting to notice.
What is an art TV?
An art TV is designed to look like framed artwork when turned off. It’s different from a regular TV with an artwork screensaver. Here’s why:
Non-reflective screen: The screen of an art TV is matte, designed to diffuse light rather than reflect it (as a typical TV screen does).
Specialized lighting: Art TVs use edge-lit lighting instead of the more traditional grid of LEDs behind the screen. Lighting your TV from the sides helps deliver a subtle, uniform light across the screen and avoids uneven bright or dark spots. It also avoids screen burn-in (read the FAQ for more on that).
Low brightness: Art TVs are typically not as bright as traditional TVs, which, again, helps the art look more like art and less like a glowing screen on the wall.
Very thin: The edge-lit panel enables art TVs to be much thinner than traditional TVs, making them look more like art when mounted on a wall.
Who makes art TVs?
Samsung has been making art TVs the longest — the brand launched its The Frame TV in 2017 and has been improving it nearly every year since. Hisense and TCL launched their own art TVs in 2024. Both LG and Amazon followed suit, announcing their first art TVs, which will launch in 2026.
Art TVs are great at art, but bad at television
All the technology that makes an art TV look like art makes shows and movies look worse.
Edge-lit lighting is much dimmer, lower contrast and less fine-tunable than lighting on a traditional LED or OLED TV. The color black, in particular, doesn’t look very dark, and the color contrast is muddier and less vibrant. Art TVs’ low screen brightness exacerbates the issue — in well-lit rooms, colors and contrast look even worse.
Art TVs are super-thin, which means their built-in audio is lackluster compared to a thicker TV with more powerful built-in speakers (though I’d still recommend a soundbar for either).
But are you really watching television?
Art TVs look worse when watching your favorite TV shows and movies. But that brings me back to my original point: are you really watching TV? How closely? Are you watching the latest “Shrinking” episode, or is it background noise you’re tuning in and out of as you scroll on your phone or do the dishes?
Look: I’m a TV person: If I am watching a show or a movie, I’m sitting on the couch and giving it my attention. That’s why I appreciate the vibrant colors, contrast, brightness and consistency of a premium LED or OLED TV.
But I feel increasingly in the minority. 43 percent of Gen Z prefer YouTube and TikTok to traditional TV and streaming, according to Activate Consulting’s Technology & Media Outlook 2026. Limiting the data to TV screen time, YouTube remains the top-watched TV streaming platform, with no close competitors.
An Art TV is a great option for sometimes-TV people: people who want to watch the occasional movie or awards show, but otherwise have their TV turned off in favor of other, smaller screens. And if your TV is off most of the time, would you rather have a convincing piece or art on the wall, or a shiny black monolith dominating the room?
Frequently asked questions
Burn-in, sometimes called a ghost image, is visible marks or discoloration on a screen that can occur after a static image is displayed, unchanged, for too long. The marks remain on the screen even after you replace the image. Burn-in is most common on OLED TVs and much older plasma and CRT TVs.
Despite showing still images for hours at a time, art TVs rarely get screen burn-in. The combination of edge-lit lighting, low brightness and automatic shutdown features (often using motion sensors) prevents burn-in that may occur when using something like art mode on an OLED TV.
Why trust NBC Select?
I’m a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology, fitness and deals including stories on smartwatches, running shoes, wireless earbuds and more. I’ve covered TVs, TV brands and TV accessories for years, including stories on streaming devices, soundbars and TV mounting kits. For this piece, I relied on my experience reporting on TVs, including years of speaking with industry experts about TV technologies and trends.
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