LG unveils Objet TV to rival Samsung The Frame

For a while now, Samsung’s range of lifestyle TVs have essentially gone unchallenged in the TV market, but LG has now announced the Objet TV to rival the popular The Frame model.

Samsung’s Frame TV has customisable bezels and doubles as a piece of art, blending into your décor when not in use. It’s a really clever idea and it’s quite strange that no manufacturers have made anything similar until now.

LG says the Objet TV (model 65Art90) resembles a canvas and “blends seamlessly into any room with its minimalist style and subtle use of neutral colors, bringing immediate sophistication and visual harmony to any indoor space”.

However, instead of displaying artwork when the TV is off, the Objet has a fabric cover that can be adjusted with the remote control. LG says you can lower it to see everything or partially cover the panel to see a “curated selection of lifestyle functions”.

In other words, it has Full View for Gallery mode to show artwork like The Frame, but Line View essentially transforms the TV into a sort of smart display that can show different content such as useful information or music playback in Date & Clock and Music modes.

The fabric cover is, like Samsung’s bezels, interchangeable and will be available in three colours: Kvadrat Beige, Kvadrat Redwood, Kvadrat Green. It’s a stark departure from LG’s traditional sets like the C1 and G1.

Although it can be installed flush to a wall like The Frame, LG has primarily designed the Objet TV to lean at an angle of five degrees “like artwork in a modern gallery”. The in-frame cable system supposedly makes it easy to connect consoles and set-top boxes without interfering with the TV’s style.

In terms of specs, the television is a 65in OLED with an 80W, 4.2-channel sound system along with an undisclosed processor. The panel is OLED but LG hasn’t commented on how it will avoid screen-burn with the continuous use of the Full View and Line View modes.

Samsung could well unveil a new version of The Frame for 2022 at CES along with other new lifestyle TVs.

LG StanbyME

LG also announced another unusual TV ahead of CES 2022, which will be on display at the tech show in Las Vegas alongside the Objet in January. It’s called the LG StanbyME (model 27Art10) and is like no other TV we’ve seen before.

The firm calls it a “wireless private TV screen”. With a built-in battery and detachable stand, it can be moved around the house, depending on where you want to watch, before being put back on charge. LG says the battery life will last for three hours of playtime.

Its stand has hidden wheels for convenient manoeuvring and offers height, swivel, tilt and rotation to get the perfect viewing angle. A removable phone cradle is designed to be useful for Mobile Screen Mirroring, which is compatible with Android and iOS, including NFC setup for ease.

The 27in display unusually supports touch input and is covered in a Pure Beige textured fabric on the back. The remote supports gesture control. While the StanbyME user interface is supposedly like no other, it’s similar to the Objet in that it can be used to display artworks, photos or a calendar and clock when not in use.

There is no word on price or release date for either TV just yet.