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Home / Hot Stuff / TVs / Ambient mode lets Samsung’s 2018 QLED TVs double up as huge photo frames

Ambient mode lets Samsung’s 2018 QLED TVs double up as huge photo frames

Lets you watch your TV when you're not watching TV

Hanging a giant telly on your wall is great and all, but unless you’re actually watching something on it, you’ve essentially decorated your room with a monolithic black square. Samsung’s 2018 QLED TVs can smarten up your sitting room with Ambient mode, turning that space into a virtual art gallery instead. You can pick between photos, patterns, and colours, or even match your wallpaper with a smartphone app. The TV then draws a virtual shadow around the edge of the screen, to make it look exactly like a photo frame. Want more useful info? It can display news, weather and the time, too. It uses 40% less juice than when you’re actually watching TV, so shouldn’t send your electricity bills skywards, either. Other changes for 2018 include a streamlined wall-mount that takes minutes to fit, a super skinny cable between the TV and inputs breakout box (Samsung calls it Invisible, but it still looks pretty visible to us), as well as the all-important enhanced QLED picture quality with better contrast, thanks to a full local array backlight. Prices and a launch date are still TBC, so if you want to Ambient up your room, it’s time to start saving.

Profile image of Tom Morgan-Freelander Tom Morgan-Freelander Deputy Editor

About

A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews.  When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.

Areas of expertise

Smartphones/tablets/computing, cameras, home cinema, automotive, virtual reality, gaming