During CES, Hisense spent much of its time talking about its massive (and massively bright) mini-LED TVs for 2024. However, it also teased us with its CanvasTV, a model that rivals Samsung’s very popular The Frame TV, which lets users display hi-resolution art whenever the TV isn’t being used for watching movie or TV content.
I say “teased” because other than a promotional image, we were told almost nothing about the CanvasTV. We still only have the one image (above), but at least there’s now more to the CanvasTV story …
Hisense is going to sell two sizes of CanvasTV initially: 55- and 65-inches. They’ll be available this summer and start at $999, presumably for the smaller model (we don’t yet have a price on the larger CanvasTV).
Like The Frame, the CanvasTV will offer interchangeable frames, and you’ll be able to switch the TV to an “Art Mode” that lets you select between preloaded, free art in various styles like abstract, modern, and renaissance. You can upload also your own photos. These can be shown in either portrait or landscape, and you’ll have a choice of stylized mats for framing.
In the box, Hisense will include a teak-look frame, but you’ll be able to buy white and black frames too. The frames slide onto the CanvasTV and are held in place by magnets.
The TV is designed to be flush-mounted to walls and includes a wall mount specifically built to make this installation “a breeze.” Hisense hasn’t indicated if you’ll be able to buy an optional stand if you don’t want to wall-mount. LG initially went wall-mount only with its Gallery OLED evo TVs, but now these ship with stands by default.
On the tech specs side, we’re looking at a 4K QLED panel that delivers over a billion shades of color, according to Hisense. It’s fronted by a “Hi-Matte” anti-glare layer, which the company says is unaffected by ambient light “day or night.” There’s no word yet on HDR format support for Dolby Vision, HDR10+ or HLG.
The TV also has an ambient light sensor to let it automatically adjust to changing room conditions. A motion sensor will turn the TV off when in Art Mode, if it senses no one is in the room.
The panel boasts a 144Hz refresh rate, with auto low-latency mode (ALLM), variable refresh rate (VRR), and motion estimation and motion compensation (MEMC) technology.
The user experience is powered by Google TV and includes all of the usual bells and whistles like thousands of available apps, hundreds of available Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels, and Chromecast built-in.
The Canvas TV also includes a multichannel 2.0.2 surround sound system, though Hisense hasn’t indicated whether it will support immersive formats like Dolby Atmos.
