Review: Amazon Ember Artline

Bulky televisions that overwhelm your living room might soon be a thing of the past. The new Amazon Ember Artline is a svelte, stylish, well-designed art television that’s priced for adoption by the masses at $1,099 for the 65-inch model. TVs in the Ember line—Amazon’s new era of what were previously called Fire TVs—mount against a wall, blending into your decor in more ways than one. One feature lets you match the artwork color to the decor in your room. Another involves asking Alexa+ to generate and display AI art images. And, when you turn off the lights and head to bed, the Ember Artline can also put itself to sleep, waking up and showcasing artwork again when you walk into the room the next day.

These powerful features make the Ember Artline more versatile than the Samsung Frame Pro, even if the QLED display tech of Amazon’s new art television is a bit outdated. The Artline is also $800 cheaper than the Frame Pro. If you like the idea of displaying artwork all day (when you are not watching Netflix, of course), and you’re OK with said artwork not being ultra-realistic, this is a top pick.

Ready, Set, Mount

Photograph: John Brandon

At 60.2 pounds for the 65-inch model, the Ember Artline is not exactly lightweight. The 55-inch model is 42.5 pounds and costs $899, but I’d say the bigger size is worth the extra $200. Those extra inches help make every photograph and artwork pop, even if you might need a buddy to help with the install due to the weight. For what it’s worth, I was able to handle the installation alone, with the help of a YouTube video. Once I had all of the tools needed for mounting—a stud finder, an electric drill, and some drill bits—the process took only about 20 minutes.

This model sits mostly flush against the wall. There are two plates you drill into the wall that hold the edges in place using magnets on the TV. However, it still sticks out a bit, unlike the Samsung Frame Pro and other televisions I’ve previously mounted (including some Amazon Fire TV models), all of which lay flat.

Photograph: John Brandon

It looks downright beautiful with the included bezel frame that snaps into place easily. You can pick from 10 bezel colors when you order the Ember Artline. Extra frames cost a reasonable $85 ($75 for the 55-inch model) compared to $199 for an extra Samsung frame.

The Amazon Fire OS is arguably easier to set up and use than Google TV–powered televisions like the TCL NXTVISION. Once I logged in using my Amazon account, the Artline got to work, adding my apps and my login information, automatically and unprompted. (You can use the Artline without Amazon Prime; the TV only requires a free Amazon account.)

The back of the unit hosts one HDMI 2.1 port for eARC and three HDMI 2.0 ports for connecting devices. There’s also an Ethernet port, an optical port, and a USB 2.0 port for charging gear (useful if you have a powered HDTV antenna connected to the coaxial port). The Artline also supports Wi-Fi 6 for wireless streaming. Even when the TV is mounted, you can gently pull it out from the wall and access the ports easily enough on the right-hand side. It took me literally five seconds to get the lightweight remote—complete with intuitive-to-use and easy-to-find buttons—paired and working.

Beautiful Art-ificial Intelligence Features

Photograph: John Brandon

The Ember Artline looks absolutely stunning on a wall. At 1.54 inches, it’s thicker than the Samsung and TCL art television models but still quite thin. It features more than 2,000 free art images, compared to 5,000 subscription-only images for the Frame Pro (and only 30 free images for that model).

One unique feature is a free “moving artwork” functionality. Imagine a static painting where a portion of the art, such as a river or mist over a mountain, is moving slightly. It’s calming and beautiful. At least dozens are available, but I’m not able to add my own. The TCL NXTVISION also features paintings in a slowly moving video format, but the video art on the Ember Artline looks more realistic. In particular, I was blown away by some of the subtle clips, including one scene that shows the sun passing over a mountain range in extreme hi-def.

Another unique feature is Match the Room. It uses a photo where the TV is situated, then generates AI images that fit within the space’s color scheme. Having my TV display art that fits the aesthetic of my family room’s brown walls and dark blue couch made me feel like an interior designer.

Then there’s the Omnisense feature, which claims to know when you leave the room. At that point, it turns off the art display, then powering it back on when you return. (For the sake of comparison, the TCL doesn’t have a motion sensor; most Ember models and the Frame Pro do have motion sensing.) During my testing, the Omnisense worked about 90 percent of the time, sometimes failing to clock my presence in the room and not turning on the Artline as it should. Amazon reps told me they have not heard this feedback before. Even so, the feature was mostly functional and is a great power-saving capability.

The Alexa+ voice search function proved limited on the Artline, though you can conveniently use it to raise the volume and start apps by voice. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use it to search for classic masterpieces, like Van Goghs or Rembrandts. However, the virtual assistant could answer questions about the weather, play music, provide sports scores, and even chat with you about politics. I loved using Alexa+ to find movies and shows. I made complex requests like “show me every thriller from the last two years that has an 80 percent score or higher on Rotten Tomatoes,” and that actually worked. You can also show Amazon Photos, animated art, and use Alexa+ to generate AI artwork. The AI artwork is a bit generic. That said, using voice commands to make art is unique and fun.

The main drawback of the Ember Artline compared to the Samsung Frame Pro is that the contrast is a bit washed out. I couldn’t find Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night when I scanned through the Artline’s available artwork, so I loaded it as a photo. When I did this on the Frame Pro, the incredible contrast and color quality provided a vibrant, realistic texture, like you could reach out and feel the grooves of thick brushstrokes. On the Artline, the same painting lacked texture and contrast.

Screen Play

Photograph: John Brandon

I was surprised to discover that the Ember Artline doesn’t use new screen technology—it’s roughly the same QLED tech as previous Amazon Fire and newer Ember televisions. Which is to say, the contrast ratio (which Amazon does not release) is not outstanding, based on my experience viewing multiple movies and shows. There’s a new anti-glare matte finish, though, that makes all of the artwork (and whatever content you are streaming) look more realistic.

Running through my Spears & Munsil Benchmark discs to evaluate settings, the results proved mixed, if not average: Skin tones did not have enough contrast or tonal variation. A scene that shows a fence in winter is supposed to have green grass in the background, but it looks washed out and too brown. Rising smoke over a mountain looked varied and visible, though. Oranges and yellows in a sunset scene looked varied and subdued, once again like a painting come to life.

The Ember Artline has some unique features for artwork, and the matte finish is nice for streaming quality. But for gaming? Not so many perks. For starters, the Artline only runs at a 60-Hz refresh rate. I played Forza Horizon 5 on both an Xbox Series X and a gaming computer, but the lag felt a little too pronounced for my taste. I tried the same game on a BenQ TK705STi short-throw projector that has low latency for games, and my car felt more responsive and less jittery at the BenQ projector's higher 120 Hz refresh rate, and with less lag.

The Artline’s poor gaming performance, after testing the Xbox app refresh rate and lag, is a holdover from the LED screen tech being a bit dated. However, a new gacha role-playing game called NTE did look stunning on the Ember Artline mounted on a wall, displaying vibrant colors but without the glaring, hard-on-the-eyes effect that computer screens can have.

Should You Buy the Ember Artline?

With the Ember Artline, you don’t feel as though you’re even looking at a television half the time. Artwork, video games, movies, shows, and just about everything else had a pleasantly subdued look, even if that means some washed-out colors. I knew the Ember Artline was special after several people in my home who walked by the mountain vista scene—encased in an off-white matte frame—stopped and stared in disbelief.

Even so, Samsung’s Frame Pro (both the 2025 model and the new 2026 model) is a better art television. It uses more vibrant colors and contrast to add texture and realism to the artwork. Yet, the Ember Artline is a close second. It’s also far more affordable, has some extra artwork bells and whistles (including a way to match the colors in your room), and looks breathtaking on a wall. If you can live with the screen itself not being the best available, it’s a smart option.

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