Hisense CanvasTV S7N review: An impressive Samsung Frame TV challenger, minus the high price
This is a great first effort from Hisense — one that could be even better with a few small tweaks.
Update (9/16/24): Not long after I published this review, Hisense issued a software update that addressed one of my key complaints. I've noted that in the appropriate section, below, and made related adjustments to a few other areas, including my overall verdict.
I've long admired Samsung's The Frame TV, which turns your living room into a virtual art museum when you're not streaming the latest episodes of Bridgerton. But I've shuddered at the prices, which seem to run two to three times higher than comparable "regular" TVs. Enter value brand Hisense and its CanvasTV S7N, a competitor with a similar matte screen, decorative frame and built-in art gallery — all at a much more affordable price. So how does it rate? Is there finally a good low-cost alternative to The Frame? Here's my Hisense CanvasTV review.
Available sizes (inches): 55, 65 | Frame included: Yes | Dolby(s): Vision | Operating System: Google | Smart-home compatibility: Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant | Voice controls: Push-button
VERDICT: Hisense's first-ever art TV is very good and far more affordable than Samsung's venerable model. It could use more art and a few other minor tweaks, but overall it's a fine Frame alternative.
- Significantly less expensive than competing art TVs
- Magnetic frame included in the price
- Beautiful matte-finish screen
- No subscription required for art
- Backlit remote with customizable favorite button
- High refresh rate for gaming
- Awkward wall-mount instructions; no hanging template included
- Rear ports hard to access after mounting
- Colors a little muted
- Weak speakers
- No art store
- Only two sizes available
Hisense offers the CanvasTV in just two sizes: 55 inches ($1,000) and 65 inches ($1,300); I tested the latter. I say "just" two because Samsung's The Frame is available in half a dozen sizes, from 43 inches on up to 85. That affords quite a bit more flexibility in terms of finding a size that best suits your space.
However, the 55-inch The Frame sells for $1,500; the 65-inch, $2,000. And that's not including an actual frame, which must be purchased separately (with prices starting at $150). The CanvasTV comes with an attractive four-piece magnetic frame in teak; white and walnut options are available separately (at a rather steep $200). Needless to say, Hisense easily wins on price.
Hisense CanvasTV: Mounting and setup
Though the CanvasTV was designed with wall-mounting in mind and comes with the necessary hardware, Hisense also supplies tabletop legs. I like that, because it gives you more options; maybe you want to test-drive the TV on a stand before committing to a wall, or maybe wall-mounting isn't an option (like in an apartment) but you still want that framed-art look.
The frame pieces snap into place with ease, but wall-mounting the TV is kind of a pain. Hisense didn't provide a template, so I had to do lots of measuring (and math, ugh) to figure out where to place the bracket in order to hang the TV at the right height. The included print instructions didn't help much; they're inexplicably spread across two oversize pages and combine tiny print, multiple languages, confusing images and little actual instruction.
On the plus side, the wall-side mounting bracket consists of a single metal piece; both Samsung and TCL rely on two-piece mounts for their TVs, which makes it even more challenging to hang them perfectly level.
Before you and a helper hoist the 63.5-pound CanvasTV onto the mount, make sure you plan your cords and connections. As with any wall-mount TV, you can either look at unsightly power and HDMI cables running from the bottom or drill some holes and fish those cords through the drywall. Unfortunately, there's no "breakout box" here as with Samsung's The Frame; all the ports are at the rear, same as on a traditional TV. That adds some real hassle if you want to connect or disconnect accessories, as you have to tilt the TV out from the wall and carefully maneuver behind it. Even then, it's very difficult to see what you're doing. Anything you might want to plug in — game console, soundbar, etc. — should be done before you hang it.
Once hung, the CanvasTV looks lovely. It's thicker than The Frame and TCL's new Nxtframe, and it doesn't sit 100% flush against the wall — but so what? Unless you're looking really closely, it's all but impossible to distinguish from a typical piece of framed art.
As for the actual TV, setup is no different than any Google TV. This takes 10-15 minutes depending on a few factors, like whether you already have the Google Home app on your phone and how many streaming apps you want to install at the start, but it's fairly easy overall. (I was a bit irritated, though, that the TV interface required me to answer a handful of questions I'd already answered in the app.)
Hisense CanvasTV: What it's like as a TV
As a straight-up television, the QLED-powered CanvasTV is mostly great. I watched a wide range of movies and TV shows, including those with especially bright and especially dark scenes (Mythic Quest and Dark Matter, respectively) and found them smooth, deep and accurately represented. Colors looked accurate, in part courtesy of five available HDR modes (including Dolby Vision, something Samsung's The Frame doesn't have), but didn't really pop.
There's an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness and color temperature. For gamers, there's a variable refresh rate that can hit up to 144Hz, along with AMD FreeSync Premium support for smooth, lag-free action. All of which is to say, the CanvasTV hits all the feature high notes and delivers a very good picture overall. I liked the picture better than the TCL's, which I tested at the same time; the latter couldn't seem to match the brightness and contrast (and had an inferior art mode as well).
The Google interface is cluttered and not super intuitive, but it gets the job done. (If you're already familiar with it, you'll feel perfectly at home.) You can use voice commands, but not hands-free: You have to push the microphone button on the remote.
Speaking of which, Hisense serves up one of the best remotes I've seen. Substantial and attractive, with metallic styling and accents, it's logically laid out and has a dedicated play/pause button, a menu button that's actually labeled "Menu," four streaming-service shortcut buttons and a programmable "favorite" button. Plus, it's backlit! The buttons illuminate when you lift the clicker. Every remote should have this feature; very few do.
Unsurprisingly, audio is a weak point. The built-in speakers can get very loud, but they sound harsh, especially at louder volumes, so it doesn't really matter that the TV lacks Dolby Atmos support. You're likely to want a soundbar, which is where you can bring Atmos into the mix. (Here's our roundup of the best soundbars if you need help choosing one.)
Hisense CanvasTV: What it's like as an art piece
With a few caveats, the CanvasTV performs well as an art TV. The low-glare, matte-finish screen lends that nifty "museum quality" to images, and Hisense gives you lots of control over the display options, including brightness, motion detection, standby times (like at night) and how often to change the image. (Just take note that it won't launch art mode automatically from the Google Home screen. You have to use the remote to put it in that mode. The TCL Nxtframe shares that irksome quirk.)
As for actual art, the TV comes with around 120 pieces, all provided free; there's no subscription required as with The Frame. They're divided into five main categories: Landscape, Figures, Modern, Still Life and Others. You can also switch to a really nifty Immersive Atmospheres collection that adds animation and music to a handful of the paintings. I must admit, though, I didn't spot a ton of famous works in the mix, the exception being a smattering of Monet.
And therein lies a complaint: There's no "art store" where you can get additional paintings or other images unless you add them yourself. The CanvasTV can retrieve files from a USB drive, or you can upload them from your phone using a simple but limited browser-based tool. I tested the latter, which worked well for the most part. But one of my uploads displayed upside-down, with no option to fix the orientation.
When I reviewed the Hisense with the original firmware, I was disappointed in the mat selections, or rather the lack thereof. At the time, there was but a single mat style, one that's a bit wider on the sides and narrower along the top and bottom. (It looks... odd.)
But the recent (September, 2024) software update ably addressed that shortfall, putting it more on par with the five mat options on Samsung's Frame TV. Now you can choose between a total of three mat designs, plus three mat styles and four mat textures. In other words, a ton more variety, and more realism as well — especially in the styles that simulate added depth.
I hope Hisense keeps the positive momentum going by addressing another usability quirk in a future update: When you mute the TV while art mode is active, the mute icon stays onscreen. Why is this a big deal? If you choose Immersive Atmospheres, there's musical accompaniment. And if you don't want to hear that, you'd logically press Mute — and that's where you run into the icon annoyance. The only workaround is to drop the volume level down to 1, which makes it nearly inaudible.
Hisense CanvasTV: Should you buy it?
If your decor would benefit from a TV that approximates a picture frame and can display works of art, there's much to like about the Hisense CanvasTV. The price is right, or at least a lot more affordable than Samsung's The Frame TV. There's an actual frame included, a nice-looking one at that. You're not stuck with yet another monthly subscription. And the actual TV delivers a bright, balanced, colorful picture and comes with a terrific remote.
Hisense just needs to add more art, either stored in the TV or accessible via an online collection. That one improvement would make this an even stronger competitor against The Frame. But as it stands right now, I'm pretty happy having the CanvasTV on my wall.
