The television is the focal point of most living rooms, despite looking like an ominous black rectangle most of the time. Samsung challenged the status quo with The Frame (£899, Samsung.com), a television disguised as a piece of gallery art when it’s not being used. Now, Amazon is getting in on the so-called “lifestyle TV” category with the arrival of the Ember Artline.
First unveiled at CES and shown to IndyBest at a recent demo in London, the Ember Artline starts at £949.99 (Amazon.co.uk), and is a 4K QLED television equipped with a special matte screen that eliminates glare. When you aren’t bingeing the latest boxset, it turns into a convincing painting, fooling your guests into thinking you have a Tate membership rather than a crippling addiction to Married at First Sight.
The effect is uncanny. An ambient light sensor at the bottom of the frame adjusts the screen’s brightness to match the surrounding light levels, creating a convincingly flat looking image. Were it not for the fact that all the furniture is facing it, you’d easily mistake the television for a piece of framed art.
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To complete the illusion, it comes with a flush-to-the-wall recessed mount and a physical, wood-effect frame that snaps magnetically onto the bezel. In a direct shot at Samsung, which charges extra for its customisable bezels, Amazon lets you choose one of 10 frame colours to be included in the box at no extra cost. If you redecorate later, you can buy a replacement frame starting at £74.99 for the 55in model.
The Ember Artline comes pre-loaded with a library of 2,000 pieces of art, ranging from Monet to modern animated pieces. Unlike Samsung, which asks you to subscribe for the full collection, these are free of charge. There’s even a clever AI feature that uses your smartphone camera to analyse your living room’s decor and suggest artwork to match.
It also integrates with Amazon Photos. You can use conversational Alexa commands to find specific photos without manually tagging them, such as asking, “Alexa, show me pictures with nan from that hiking trip in the Lake District.”
While The Frame uses a single wire connected to a separate box to house the messy HDMI input ports, Amazon has opted to keep all the processing guts and ports built directly into the TV itself. While it means you don’t have to find a spot to put a chunky external box, you’ll need to get creative with your cable management if you plan on plugging in multiple games consoles and soundbars without ruining the minimalist aesthetic.
To avoid confusion, Amazon is rebranding its entire Fire TV range as Ember. The Ember Artline will be the first to launch with Amazon’s completely overhauled Fire TV interface, which promises to be 30 per cent faster and looks way less cluttered. It also leverages the new Alexa+ conversational AI to make navigating content easier. Rather than asking for a specific title, you can have a back-and-forth dialogue with the TV. Ask for a comedy, narrow it down to something starring Paul Rudd, and the AI will contextually remember the thread of your conversation to serve up exactly what you want.
Alongside the TV, Amazon also quietly announced its new entry-level dongle, the Fire TV Stick HD (£39.99, Amazon.co.uk). Measuring just 22mm thick, it’s the company’s slimmest streaming dongle yet. It draws power directly from the TV’s USB port – meaning no more cables dangling down to a wall socket – and features upgraded Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
The Amazon Ember Artline will initially be available in 55in and 65in sizes. Pre-orders are live, with the first units expected to ship in the UK by June.
Want a TV for gaming? Check out our review of the LG C5
Amazon Ember Artline
Buy now £949.99, Amazon.co.uk
