LG Electronics is making a belated effort to take on Samsung in the gallery TV segment, but it’s not selling a new TV to compete with its arch-rival. Rather, it has announced the launch of LG Gallery+, an art store that provides access to over 4,000 artworks for its existing OLED and QNED TVs.
LG TV owners will be able to access iconic masterpieces from artists including Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat, as well as other kinds of images, such as art from hit games like Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed, the company said.
With the LG Gallery+, the company says it will be able to transform any of its supported TVs into a digital picture frame when it’s not being used to watch movies or TV programmes. Instead, it will go into a kind of standby mode where it displays a static artwork, or alternates between several pictures. Users can also enhance it with background music. It's a similar concept to Samsung's hugely popular The Frame TV.
Susan Noonan, chief commercial officer at National Gallery Global, which is collaborating with LG to create the art store, said she believes “great art should be a part of everyday life”.
"Through LG Gallery+, homes around the world now have access to our curated masterpieces, offering moments of reflection, inspiration and beauty beyond the Gallery walls,” she said.
LG said users can access a curated selection of artworks in Gallery+ at no extra cost, but if they want full access to all 4,000+ art pieces, they’ll have to shell out for a monthly subscription. The art store is launching first on LG’s 2025 OLED and LCD TVs, but only in some European countries, the U.S. and South Korea, with more markets to follow later.
Older LG TVs will be able to access LG Gallery+ later, once they are updated to the webOS 25 operating system. Previously, the company said its 2022, 2023 and 2024 TVs will be updated with the latest software during the fourth quarter of this year, and the first quarter of next, so the maximum wait is probably around six months.
It remains to be seen if LG’s TVs will be quite as convincing as Samsung’s The Frame TV, which is designed to resemble a picture frame as closely as possible with its super-slim bezel. The Frame is notably one of the thinnest TVs around, and is meant to be hung on a wall, where it sits as flush to the surface as possible.
While LG’s OLED TVs are also pretty slim and thin, they weren’t designed with this purpose in mind. They do have a built-in sensor that allows them to adjust their luminance and colour to suit the lighting conditions, but they lack the matte finish found on Samsung’s TV displays, so they might suffer from light reflections if they’re not hung in a great location.
LG said it will add new artworks to the Gallery+ store each month. The app is also integrated with Google Photos, which means users can display their own photos or generate AI images to display on the TV.
LG isn’t the only one to try and challenge Samsung in its art TV niche. Hisense and TCL have both built dedicated gallery TVs in the shape of the Canvas and the Nxtframe. China's Skyworth sells the Elite Canvas TV, but so far it's only available in its home nation and the U.S.
