Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Only a Few New Features Worth Counting!

One year following the release of the Galaxy A16 5G, Samsung has introduced its successor, the Galaxy A17 5G. The overall approach remains consistent, yet the South Korean company has updated several components. What changes have been made? Is the experience improved? What does the value for money look like for the Galaxy A17 5G? Find out in this detailed review.

A year ago, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A16 4G and Galaxy A16 5G, two smartphones priced between 200 and 250 euros. These devices featured a balanced and fairly comprehensive spec sheet, although it’s hard to compare them with more ambitious models. Importantly, they were the first in the Galaxy A series to offer six years of maintenance, including Android updates and security patches.

Also read – Review of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold: A smartphone that’s not for everyone

A year later, Samsung is once again targeting the smartphone market around the 200 euro price point, with the Galaxy A17 4G and Galaxy A17 5G, the direct successors to the 2024 models. The formula largely remains the same. However, to justify this new release, the brand has made some subtle changes. What are these changes? Do they affect the user experience? Is the value for money better? We address all these questions in this review of the Galaxy A17 5G.

Price and Availability

The recommended retail price for the Galaxy A17 5G is 252 euros, a slight increase of 2 euros compared to the launch price of the Galaxy A16 5G. There is only one version available in France, featuring 128 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM. It’s already good news. A few weeks after its launch, thanks to a discount, you can already purchase it for a price below 220 euros.

The competition around 250 euros is quite significant. You will find Xiaomi’s Redmi 15 5G, Redmi Note 14 5G, Motorola’s Moto G56, Honor 400 Lite, Realme 14T, CMF Phone 2 Pro from Nothing, and Oppo A5 Pro 5G. We can also include the Poco X7 5G whose launch price was around 300 euros, but which has since dropped to match the price of the Galaxy A17 5G.

The Galaxy A17 5G has been available in France since early August 2025. It is sold on Samsung’s official website, as well as most specialized or generalist stores. The smartphone is available in three colors: gray, black (the color of our test version), and a lovely deep blue. In the box, the smartphone comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable.

Design and Interface

Let’s start this review with a tour of the device. The Galaxy A17 5G relies on a fairly standard ergonomics for an entry-level Samsung smartphone. Mineral glass on the front. A polycarbonate frame. And a matte finish for the back cover that could have used a treatment against fingerprints. But at less than 250 euros, we won’t be too demanding. The smartphone retains its splash protection (IP54 certification).

There are other commonalities between the A17 and its two direct predecessors (A16 and A15). We find the same aesthetic work on the right edge, at the level of the hardware buttons. At the front, we find a notch (and not a punch-hole) to house the selfie sensor, moderate borders, and a nice chin under the display. The fingerprint reader is also hidden in the power button.

The height and width remain the same between the A16 and A17, but the thickness has slightly changed. The Galaxy A17 is a bit thinner (7.5 mm versus 7.9 mm). It is also slightly lighter, losing 8 grams, to reach 192 grams. A reduction achieved while the material at the back has slightly changed: we move from classic polycarbonate to fiberglass, stronger and more qualitative.

Another slight modification: the camera module. In 2024, Samsung adopted the design of the Galaxy S to standardize the range: each sensor was separated from the others. This year, we return, as in 2023, to a protruding vertical module, still offset to the left, which groups all the sensors. Only a small difference with the A15 module, the A17’s benefits from a small border matching the color of the back cover. It’s quite elegant.

Once the smartphone is powered on, you first land on One UI, Samsung’s interface. The version here is numbered 7.0 and it runs on Android 15. If you buy your smartphone after the publication of this review, go to the update tool to install version 8.0 of One UI, based on Android 16. Between the two versions, the differences are primarily aesthetic: new theme, new widget, modernized interface. However, the basics are retained: application drawer, quick settings panel separated from notifications, etc.

The smartphone only has 128 GB of storage. But about twenty gigabytes are already well filled with system applications developed by Samsung, by the slew of mandatory Google software, as well as several commercial partners. The most prominent is Microsoft. The American company is here accompanied by Facebook, Instagram, Temu, Monopoly Go, Candy Crush Saga, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, and TikTok. And some are installed without consent.

Artificial intelligence is present in this phone. But the experience is far from being similar to that of a Galaxy S, obviously. Now Brief is notably absent, because the processor’s power is clearly insufficient. However, the Now Bar, with its personalized alerts, is present. Of course, you have access to the online version of Gemini and Gemini Live, the application being installed by default.

Display, Performance, and Battery

Let’s move on to the technical tests. On the front, we find the same screen as that of the Galaxy A16 5G. So, it is a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The resolution is Full HD+ for a pixel density of 385 pixels per inch. It’s very good for all uses. It was not necessary to have less, but not more either. The refresh rate can go up to 90 Hz. By default, the rate is set at 60 Hz to prioritize autonomy, but you can adjust it to 90 Hz. There is no intermediate step nor an automatic mode.

The brightness announced by Samsung for this phone is 800 nits in automatic mode with HDR content. Our probe tells us that the smartphone barely exceeds 230 nits in manual mode and grazes 350 nits by exploiting the “additional brightness” (which displays an anxiety-inducing message about power consumption). It’s quite low, let’s be honest. Outdoors, due to certain reflections, it is not uncommon for the screen to be difficult to read clearly.

The colorimetry of this screen is very well adjusted. With our probe, we measured an average Delta E of 2.1 and an average gamma E of 2.2 in natural mode, the best of the two modes offered by the Galaxy A17 (the other being the vivid mode, which is activated by default). The average color temperature reaches 6425°, which is very close to the perfect score. The white in natural mode reaches 6553°, at 47° from perfect white. In vivid mode, it approaches 7000°, with a slight blue tint.

Under the hood of the Galaxy A17 5G, you find a SoC that is not very energy-intensive, but not very powerful either. It is Samsung’s Exynos 1330, a component that already powered the Galaxy A16 5G and that you also found in some international versions of the Galaxy A14 5G released in January 2023! That was almost three years ago. That’s a SoC perfectly utilized. And it is still accompanied by 4 GB of RAM, while some international versions have 2 GB or 4 GB more. Couldn’t we be a little more generous?

And this is reflected in our benchmarks. The Galaxy A17 5G is average on the CPU tests and not good on the GPU tests. The smartphone has great difficulty with graphic tests that run at less than 10 frames per second. It defends itself quite well on the PCMark test. And it generally surpasses the Honor 400 Lite that we tested at the beginning of the year. In use, the Galaxy A17 5G lacks fluidity, even in its interface. There is often a delay when opening an app or taking a screenshot. And playing with this smartphone is a test of patience.

The transition from Android 15 to Android 16 did not modify the system’s fluidity, neither for better nor for worse. Our benchmarks confirm negligible changes. The smartphone does not heat up, its external temperature hovering around 40°C, whether at the front or the back. That’s the advantage of less powerful smartphones: they have little heat to manage. The stability of the platform is very high, since we reach 98%. Again, without heat to manage, there is no reason to have slowdowns.

The battery of the Galaxy A17 5G is also inherited from its predecessors. It offers a capacity of 5000 mAh, which is very good for daily use: social networks, Internet, GPS, audio and video streaming, calls, and messaging, etc. In this use, the Galaxy A17 5G offers a continuous autonomy of 15.5 hours according to PC Mark. We interpret this score as a real autonomy that almost reaches two standard days. For hardcore gamers, you can count on autonomy between 5 and 7 hours.

Once its battery is discharged, you have to plug in the smartphone. The Galaxy A17 5G retains the same option as its predecessor (and most of the Galaxy A): wired charging at 25 watts. No faster charging. No wireless charging. It’s logical for an entry-level product. Armed with our Oppo 120 watts charger and the cable provided in the box, we recharged the Galaxy A17 5G in 110 minutes flat! Here are some intermediate steps:

• 10 min: 12%
• 30 min: 33%
• 60 min: 64%
• 90 min: 92%

Note that the Galaxy A17 5G offers very few tools to preserve the battery from overcharging. But the basics are there: slow charging (perfect for overnight), discontinuous charging, which stops charging at 100% to resume at 95%, scheduled charging, and blocked charging. You can even choose the maximum percentage between 80% and 95% with an accuracy of 5%.

Photo, Video, and Audio

In photography, the Galaxy A17 5G practically takes over the configuration of its predecessor. Only one change is important: the arrival of an optical stabilizer for the main sensor. This was the only difference between the A16 5G from 2024 and the A26 5G from the beginning of the year. The difference has now been filled. Here is the configuration present here:

• Main: 50 MP sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1/2.76 inch sensor size, optical stabilizer, and contrast measure autofocus
• Wide Angle: 5 MP sensor, f/2.2 aperture, 1/5 inch sensor size, fixed focal length
• Macro: 2 MP sensor, f/2.2 aperture, fixed focal length
• Selfie: 13 MP sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 1/3.1 inch sensor size, fixed focal length

From this configuration, you should not expect much, because only the main sensor is worth using. The macro sensor is bad both day and night. And the ultra-wide sensor is just passable, both in the daytime and in the evening. Its colorimetry is quite cold, there is a bit too much noise, and the distortions are poorly corrected. But the brightness is well managed. In fact, for correct photos, only the main sensor remains (as well as the selfie sensor on some occasions).

The main sensor has some strengths. First, its colorimetry is quite accurate during the day. Textures are natural, especially in portrait mode. And it manages the white balance quite well. The 2x lossless zoom retains its qualities. In the evening, the photos are quite bright, even without the help of the night mode (which is only compatible with the main sensor).

It also has some minor flaws. It lacks a bit of contrast, detail, and finesse. The dynamic range is not very wide (many details are lost in areas that are too bright or too dark). The autofocus is also quite slow, even in broad daylight. The digital zoom beyond the lossless is messy from 5x. Fortunately, it only goes up to 10x. The colorimetry in the evening is very cold. The portrait mode’s outline is not always convincing, but the bokeh is elegant.

In video, the Galaxy A17 5G does the minimum. Full HD is only compatible with the main sensor, the ultra-wide sensor offering only 720p. And in both cases, you only have access to the 30 frames per second mode. Without zooming, the result is correct during the day and of low quality in the evening, with a lot of noise. It obviously degrades when zooming (even with the lossless), whether in the daytime or in the evening.

Finally, on the audio side, the Galaxy A17 5G offers an

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