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When it comes to dirt cheap phones in the US, you basically have two options: Samsung's Galaxy A seires and the Moto G family.
The new Galaxy A17 5G is the $200 heavy-weight in this class and while it does not bring any major upgrades, it still has a number of advantages like a beautiful AMOLED screen, a decent amount of storage and a promise for six years of software updates.
But what are the hidden pitfalls of a $200 phone and who is this phone for?
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
5.6
PhoneArena Rating
5.7
Price Class Average
Battery Life
8.1
7.2
Photo Quality
6.1
5.6
Video Quality
4.4
4.2
Charging
5.7
7
Performance Heavy
2.5
3.1
Performance Light
4.3
5.4
Display Quality
6
6.6
Design
4
6
Wireless Charging
0
Biometrics
7
6.8
Audio
5
5.7
Software
8
5.2
Why the score?
This device scores 1.8% worse than the average for this price class, which includes devices like the Motorola Moto G Power (2026), Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro and Motorola Edge 60 Fusion
The affordable Galaxy comes with a plastic body, so it lacks the premium materials, but it feels well put-together, with no screaking parts. It has flat sides with the so called Key Island 2.0, a slightly raised part off the top right side of the phone that makes it easier to find the power and volume buttons by touch.
At 7.5mm, the phone is not too thick either, on par with most other smartphones. It does feel wider than you'd expect for its 6.7-inch screen size, and that's because of the large borders around the screen.
In the US it comes in two color versions: Blue and Black, while in other markets there are additional options (our unit is a Gray global model).
The A17 5G comes in a slim box with all the usual contents: a USB cable (type C on both sides), SIM tool and user manuals, but there is no charger included, nor a case.
The big advantage of this Galaxy is that it comes with a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, while rival Motorola equips its phones with the older type LCD screen with less vibrant colors and much worse quality overall.
The Galaxy runs at 90Hz refresh rate, a bit lower than the 120Hz we're used to seeing on mid-range phones, but still quite smooth
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
The maximum brightness that we measured in our in-house display lab tests was over 1,000 nits, which is okay for the price class. It's higher than the 800-ish nit brightness score of the Moto G Power, for example. Still, the Galaxy A17 5G is not bright enough for care-free use on a sunny day and you would need to squint your eyes a bit to see the display well.
On the flip side, minimum brightness can drop to 1.7 nits, which is decent. The lower this number the easier the screen would be on your eyes at night when you use your phone in bed. Ideally, we are looking for a reading of 1 nit or lower, so the Galaxy is not quite perfect, but again better than the competition.
For biometrics, you have a fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button on the side, and it does its job quite well, with good accuracy. You might notice a bit of a stutter when unlocking the phone, but that's likely due to the slower processor (more on that just below).
Samsung Galaxy A17 Camera
Fine, if you don't expect much
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
PhoneArena Camera Score
BEST 158
124
PhoneArena Photo Score
BEST 165
136
Main (wide)
BEST 87
75
Zoom
BEST 30
18
Ultra-wide
BEST 26
17
Selfie
BEST 30
27
PhoneArena Video Score
BEST 155
112
Main (wide)
BEST 83
55
Zoom
BEST 27
16
Ultra-wide
BEST 24
20
Selfie
BEST 28
21
While the Galaxy A17 comes with two camera on the back, only one truly counts and it's the 50MP main camera with a 27mm lens and f/1.8 aperture.
The secondary 5MP ultra-wide camera features a 17mm lens and f/2.2 aperture, but it has a tiny sensor and the quality is just not great.
You can see the lack of a telephoto camera reflected in the low zoom score on our PhoneArena Camera ranking,
Main camera photos look decent with the familiar Samsung color science for slightly exaggerated colors, but an overall pleasing look.
The bigger issue with the camera is just how sluggish the app can be. Switching between the main and ultra-wide cameras happens with a delay we are not used to seeing on other phones.
In low light, the ultrawide camera becomes practically unusable as you can see in our sample photos gallery above. Images are just way too dark and lacking detail. The main camera is not particularly inspiring at night, but it's at least usable.
Video Quality
The A17 only features 1080p video recording at 30fps. There is no 4K support here, not even 1080p60.
There is not much good that can be said about video quality — detail is noticeably lacking and the only thing that saves this phone is the decent video stabilization that you have on board. It's also noticeable how switching between the main and ultra-wide cameras is not a smooth transition but an abrupt jump from 1X directly to 0.5X.
Samsung Galaxy A17 Performance & Benchmarks
Its weakest point
The biggest weakness of cheaper phones and specifically the Galaxy A17 is clearly the performance.
Samsung is using the same Exynos 1330 chipset as last year, and the US version of the phone only comes with 4GB of RAM (the global model is available in a version with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage).
That makes for one sluggish performance that you can notice constantly. From unlocking the phone to using the browser and texting, the phone stutters often.
More intense tasks like using the camera or multitasking happen even slower. This is definitely not a phone for heavy users (or at least not for the impatient ones).
On the GeekBench CPU benchmark, the Galaxy A17 5G scores around 700 points for single-core and less than 2,000 points for multi-core performance. We have noticed that you need a score of around 50% higher to see smoother performance.
As you'd expect, a $200 phone cannot be a gaming powerhouse. The A17 stays consistent throughout the 20-minute 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme stress test, but the score is far from inspiring at just around 350 points. Intense games appear choppy and while you can still use the phone for the occasional Candy Crush session, it's not one for gamers.
You also have a hybrid card slot on the Galaxy A17 5G, meaning that you can either use the phone in dual SIM configuration or have one SIM card and one microSD card to expand the storage. That's a welcome option.
Samsung Galaxy A17 Software
The A17 ships with Android 15 and Samsung's One UI 7 on top of that, which is a bit disappointing considering that Android 16 was launched nearly half a year prior the launch of the device.
Still, Samsung offers a generous promise of six years of major OS updates, more than other budget phone makers. An update to Android 16 should be arriving over the coming weeks, bringing the phone to a more modern software.
Samsung Galaxy A17 Battery
Excellent battery life and standard 25W charging
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
( 5000 mAh )
Battery Life Estimate
8h
6m
Ranks #29 for phones
tested in the past 2 years
Average is
7h
23m
Browsing
17h
36m
Average is
17h
40m
Video
13h
26m
Average is
10h
21m
Gaming
8h
37m
Average is
10h
11m
Charging speed
25W
Charger
45%
30 min
1h
31m
Full charge
Ranks #113 for phones released in the
past 2
years
With a 5,000 mAh battery on board, the Galaxy A17 5G is just like so many other Samsung phones out there. Battery life is decent — in real use, you can get a bit more than a day on a single charge, and with scarce use you can stretch this to two days.
The Galaxy A17 was also a strong performer in our in-house battery tests. It scored nearly 17 hours and a half on our lightest web browsing test. On our YouTube video streaming test, the phone lasted for a whopping 13 hours and a half (likely because of the single speaker draining less power).
Overall, we estimate a total screen time of just over 8 hours on the Galaxy A17 5G, an excellent score.
The A17 5G supports 25W wired charging speeds, a decent speed, but not exactly super fast. A full charge takes a bit more than an hour.
Just as you expect for a very cheap phone, it does not support wireless charging.
Samsung Galaxy A17 Audio Quality and Haptics
With a single bottom-firing speaker, the Galaxy A17 5G is far from impressive. The speaker gets decently loud, but the almost total lack of lower frequency, bassy sound is very noticeable and listening to music on this phone is not a particularly exciting experience. But hey, let's not forget we are talking about a very cheap phone here, so expectations must be managed.
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Haptics are also quite buzzy and vague. You have to jump to a more expensive phone if you want good haptics.
There is no 3.5mm headphone jack either. Some budget phones still have that feature, but Samsung has now removed it from the A1X series.
Should you buy it?
Despite its shortcomings, the Galaxy A17 5G is a great find for shoppers on a tight budget.
The recommended starting price is $200, but almost from the launch date, the phone is discounted to an even more palatable $170. That's a great price.
Still, you have to understand that this phone definitely feels on the slow side and it will not be a great fit for someone used to quickly switching between apps or for heavier users. Those people would benefit a lot from a faster processor, which you can find on devices like the Galaxy A3X series priced in the $350-$400 tier.
What are your alternatives in the $200 price class? For US buyers, there are very few. The Moto G (2026) is probably the closest match at the same $200 starting price and same 128GB of base storage. The big downside of that phone, howerver, is the LCD screen. Not only is the screen of the older LCD type with poor viewing angles and color vibrancy, but it's also a 720p display, so you can see pixelization. Its performance is a bit faster than the Galaxy, but we don't think that outweighs the display issues.
Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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