If you‘re looking to upgrade to a premium, high-end TV you‘ve likely come across two models that stand out from the pack – the Samsung Frame and the LG C2 OLED. Both are packed full of cutting edge display technology and smart features, but with some key differences that may make one a better fit over the other for your specific needs.
In this in-depth side-by-side comparison, we’ll break down how they stack up across the most important categories from picture quality to sound, gaming performance, smart platform, design and more.
By the end you‘ll have all the details you need to decide whether the stunning Samsung Frame with its lifestyle friendly design is the right option, or if LG‘s impressive OLED contrast and color deserve the win. Let‘s dive in!
Overview and Pricing
The Samsung Frame strives to blend cutting edge display tech with interior design appeal, masquerading as a framed piece of art on your wall. Available in sizes from 32 to 85-inches and 4K UHD resolution across the range, Samsung equips the Frame with their QLED quantum dot display technology paired with full array local dimming for deep blacks.
Pricing starts at $599 for the smallest 32-inch size, ranging up to $2,999 for the massive 85-inch model.
The LG C2 focuses purely on display performance and features, leveraging LG‘s acclaimed OLED technology to deliver stunning contrast and color reproduction. Ranging from 42 to 83-inches in size, with 4K UHD resolution and slim bezel-less designs ideal for wall mounting.
Pricing is very similar to the Samsung Frame, from $1,399 for the entry level 42-inch, up to $3,999 for an immense 83-inch display.
So at first glance, they occupy a very similar premium price and performance bracket – but how do their detailed specifications and features compare?
Design and Appearance
A key differentiating factor for the Samsung Frame is it‘s lifestyle friendly design – focusing heavily on aesthetics to blend in as a piece of wall art when not being used as a TV.
The aptly named Frame comes with interchangeable bezels in various colors and finishes, from white and teak to black and brick. Paired with the matte anti-glare display when wall mounted, it avoids looking like a black mirror slab on your wall when powered off. The bezels can be easily attached magnetically without tools in seconds.
There‘s only a single thin cord connecting to the slim external One Connect Box, avoiding messy cables. It can also automatically switch into Art Mode when not being viewed, displaying artwork, photos or even NFTs from a growing library of over 1,400 curated pieces.
By comparison, the LG C2 is much more clearly still a high end TV on close inspection rather than a framed art piece. That said, with OLED‘s self illuminating pixel technology, the C2 still achieves an remarkably slim panel depth and virtually borderless design. The display has a glossy finish that when wall mounted will reflect ambient light similar to a picture frame.
We‘ll call design and lifestyle appeal a win for Samsung, but LG still holds up well for a wall mounted living room centerpiece.
Winner: Samsung The Frame for design and aesthetics
Picture Quality
Both TVs leverage premium display technology to deliver stunning 4K picture quality, but their different approaches result in some trade-offs.
The Samsung Frame utilizes QLED panels, enhancing an LCD LED display with quantum dots to boost color vibrancy and brightness through the use of nanoparticles. This allows it to reach high peak brightness levels in excess of 1000 nits, delivering vibrant, punchy HDR images even in bright living rooms.
It also features full array local dimming with dedicated LED zones that can dim or boost areas of the screen independently, significantly enhancing contrast and black levels. Deep blacks sit alongside bright highlights without washout.
LG‘s OLED panels on the other hand do not require backlighting or dimming zones at all. Each pixel provides it‘s own illumination, allowing perfect per pixel level control to block or boost light as needed. This gives OLED effectively infinite contrast ratios and perfect black levels, with zero light bleed or halo effects near bright objects.
The LG C2 builds on this with the new OLED Evo panel technology, leveraging deuterium to enhance brightness specifically in highlight details, boosting vibrancy. When viewing HDR content, small highlight details can really pop without compromising the perfect blacks.
Color accuracy on the C2 is also excellent out of the box, while the Frame may require some calibration to get colors looking their most natural depending on preferences. Ultimately while the Frame achieves impressive brightness and black levels, OLED technology gives LG an edge particularly for movie lovers and anyone viewing in darker home theater rooms.
Winner: LG C2 for best in class contrast and color reproduction
Motion Handling
For fast moving sports and video games, motion clarity is important to avoid blurring or artifacts when camera pans or objects move rapidly across the screen.
Both TVs feature dedicated motion enhancement technology to improve clarity, but LG‘s OLED panel has a particular advantage here. The instantaneous response time of individual OLED pixels means almost no motion blur innately, maintaining sharpness as objects move.
Samsung combats blur via Black Frame Insertion which flashes black frames between content frames. This does help reduce perceived blur but at the cost of brightness and some flicker in panning shots.
The near instant pixel response of OLED allows the C2 to keep crisp clarity in motion without much sacrifice. It also supports Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync Premium for variable refresh rates when gaming, helping avoid screen tearing or jitter.
For sports, video and gaming, LG wins for motion.
Winner: LG C2 for fast response times and VRR support
Upscaling Quality
With most content still in HD or lower resolutions, good upscaling is important for these TVs to make sub-4K video sources look their best on the ultra sharp 4K displays.
Here Samsung holds a slight edge thanks to their AI upscaling algorithms and dedicated hardware processing that helps intelligently sharpen and clean up lower res video frame-by-frame.
That said, LG‘s upscaling is no slouch either, leveraging powerful α9 Gen5 AI Processor 4K hardware. So whether watching legacy movies and shows or even 480p Youtube clips, both TVs will deliver polished, artifact-free images without an overly artificial look. But Samsung‘s machine learning powered upscaling still squeezes out some extra sharpness.
Winner: Samsung The Frame for best-in-class AI video processing
Gaming Performance
Gaming has become an increasingly important consideration for TV buyers, with both LG and Samsung building comprehensive gaming feature sets into their high end displays. Which does gaming better?
Input lag is one of the more important metrics, measuring the time in milliseconds between an input like a controller button press to image reaction on screen. Here both TVs support dedicated Game Mode settings to bypass extraneous processing and lag, delivering extremely responsive gaming.
The Samsung Frame 2022 achieves an excellent 10ms input lag for fast paced competitive titles, while the LG C2 cuts that down to an astonishingly low 9.5ms – making it perhaps the most responsive display ever made. Such miniscule differences are difficult for most people to perceive however.
For Variable Refresh Rates (VRR), the Frame supports FreeSync Premium Pro allowing for dynamic sync between 40Hz and 120Hz. The C2 keeps up with G-Sync and Freesync Premium support and an even wider VRR range from 20Hz to 120Hz – useful for cinematic games.
Other HDMI 2.1 gaming features like 4K/120Hz and Automatic Low Latency Mode (ALLM) also make an appearance on both models. Ultimately while the numbers give LG a hair of an advantage, even picky competitive gamers will be thrilled with the Samsung Frame‘s gaming responsiveness and feature set.
For more casual gamers happy with 60Hz though, it‘s hard to declare one a definitive winner.
Winner: Essentially a tie for superb gaming performance all-around
Sound Quality
As ultra thin display panels packed with advanced technology, neither of these TVs deliver room filling, window rattling sound. Thankfully they still provide good audio quality for everyday TV watching and streaming.
The Samsung Frame steps things up over previous models with new 4.1 channel speakers and 60W audio output. It produces clean, balanced sound across mids and highs with decent channel separation. Where it falls short is bass response, lacking the dedicated subwoofer or drivers for truly thumpy low end. Dialogue clarity remains excellent.
LG‘s C2 features very similar audio specs, with 40W output through a 2.2 channel speaker system. Mids and highs sound detailed without distortion even at higher volumes, benefitting from the display‘s slim form factor placing speakers forward facing. Just like the Frame though, bass impact is missing without a discrete sub.
For everyday TV audio both deliver solid sound quality that matches the premium price tag, but discerning viewers will still want to pair either with a dedicated sound bar or speaker system. Overall audio performance is on par.
Winner: Tie
Smart TV & Features
As modern smart TVs, both models offer robust platforms for apps and streaming alongside thoughtful quality of life features. But software capabilities vary between Tizen OS on Samsung vs webOS on LG.
Samsung‘s Tizen platform feels quicker and more responsive when moving between apps like Netflix, Disney+ and YouTube. The interface offers plenty of customization options with widgets and universal search across services. It also works well with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant if you already utilize those smart speakers.
LG‘s webOS isn‘t far behind in usability, offering fast performance and support for popular streaming services. It places more focus however on custom recommendations based on viewing habits. Those without existing smart speakers may find webOS slightly more limiting.
Both TVs make streaming, external devices like gaming consoles and casting content from phones or laptops quick and painless over WiFi. But Tizen generally provides a more polished experience.
Exclusive extras on the Frame include the Art Mode to display curated pieces or your own photos when not watching normal content – adding to it‘s lifestyle appeal. There‘s also easy phone integration to instantly mirror displays wirelessly for sharing videos and moments. Nice quality of life perks if you live embedded in the Samsung ecosystem.
Winner: Samsung Frame for smarter smart TV features and ecosystem integration
Sizes
With premium 4K TVs like these, bigger is often better to take full advantage of the stellar picture quality. But how big can you go with the Frame vs C2?
Samsung caters to buyers wanting smaller TVs for bedrooms or offices with the Frame, starting at just 32-inches on the low end. From there it scales up through 43, 50, 55, 65, 75 and maxing out at a giant 85-inch display. Having options spanning smaller lounge rooms to expansive living spaces gives flexibility.
The LG C2 skips the very small TV sizes, starting at 42-inches. It then matches the rest of Samsung‘s range, offering 48, 55, 65, 77, 83-inch models maxing out at 83-inches for the flagship large display size. So LG focuses on the core middle ground.
Ultimately unless you specifically want a compact 32 or 43-inch Frame for a kids room or office, both serve up gorgeous big screen real estate. But the Frame takes the win for accommodating more spaces.
Winner: Samsung Frame for wider range of sizes fitting more rooms
Value for Money
With premium quality comes premium pricing, putting both the LG C2 and Samsung Frame at the higher end of the TV cost spectrum. Specifically which offers better bang for buck?
Pricing is almost identical between the two brands when comparing the same display sizes. The 55-inch Frame costs approximately $1,500 while the 55-inch C2 comes in at $1,600. Stepping all the way up to the maximum 85 / 83-inch models sees prices soar over $3,000.
It‘s hard to declare either as clearly better value, since you get what you pay for in cutting edge performance and features. Shoppers simply need to weigh up their unique priorities.
If you want the best picture quality and viewing experience possible for movies and games, the LG C2 represents great value. For buyers wanting a stunner of a TV that also adds aesthetically to your living space as a chameleon-like art piece, the slim price premium of the Frame makes sense.
Ultimately thanks to OLED technology improvements being relatively new, LG takes a slight value edge – but Samsung still justify the intelligent design and engineering that makes the Frame stand out.
Winner: LG C2 delivers leading display tech at reasonable cost
Verdict: Which is the Better TV in 2022?
So with all factors compared across these two impressive premium TVs, which comes out on top?
For pure cinematic movie lovers and gamers wanting the best display performance achievable in a consumer display, the LG C2 OLED has the edge. Perfect black levels and dazzling HDR contrast allow it to render stunning lifelike visuals that make the most of new 4K HDR content. Rapid response gaming with gorgeous colors makes it a terrific big screen gaming monitor replacement too.
But for shoppers wanting both excellent 4K picture quality alongside a uniquely beautiful design that works as a functional art installment on the wall, the Samsung Frame still shines brighter. Impressive QLED brightness and more sizes cater to any room. Smart ecosystem integrations give it an extra degree of polish.
Overall there‘s no universally superior option. Those limited on space or budget may want to consider other alternatives like:
- Hisense U8H – Impressive mid-range quantum dot performance
- TCL R646 – Excellent mini-LED contrast and gaming
But for flagship big brand 4K TVs in 2022, the Frame and LG C2 represent two top choices that cater to slightly different needs. Hopefully breaking down their detailed strengths and weaknesses here helps you decide which is the better fit.
Happy viewing!
