Galaxy A17 5G Review: Looks Premium, But Does the Experience Match the Design?

In a world where affordable mid-range smartphones try to outshine each other with flashy design or specifications, the Korean tech giant Samsung adapts a slightly different approach with the Galaxy A17 5G. At first glance, the handset is a head-turner, especially with its sleek design, matte-finish back, and a big Super AMOLED screen. However, as we all know, there’s more to a smartphone than just looks. So, is the Galaxy A17 5G worth your attention? Let’s find out in this detailed review.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Unboxing

Unboxing a phone is like opening a treasure chest, except the chest is a little white box that doesn’t contain a lot of jewels (particularly when it comes to Samsung). However, that’s not the case with the Galaxy A17 5G’s box.

Apart from offering the phone (wrapped in a protective sleeve), a USB-C to USB-C cable (of decent quality), and a SIM ejector pin (which I’m sure will get lost in your desk drawer), this little treasure chest also contains a 25W travel adapter.

Although there’s no protective case (I suppose I’m being greedy), the adapter helps buyers save around a thousand rupees, which is more than the cost of the phone. So, good job there, Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Design & Build

If I were to be blunt, the Galaxy A17 5G, like other phones in its segment, is made of plastic. However, I’d be lying if I said that the phone doesn’t feel good in the hand; Samsung sure has a knack for making plastic feel premium.

The glass fiber back panel, for instance, features a frosted matte finish. It does attract smudges and fingerprints quite easily, but they are equally easy to wipe off using a clean cloth. Although the phone doesn’t get a flush camera array, the pill-shaped housing at the top left is quite minimal (with a body-colored outline).

The flat-edged and textured frame provides a secure grip, with one-handed usage being a stretch for most (including me, thanks to the massive screen size), but the weight balance is well-distributed. The phone is relatively slimmer compared to its competition at 7.5 mm.

Everything else, including the USB-C port, the primary microphone, and the primary speaker, is in their place (at the bottom of the phone). Unfortunately, the phone does not feature the beloved 3.5mm headphone jack, which could be a letdown for wired earphone enthusiasts. While you can confidently take the phone out in a light drizzle (thanks to the IP54 rating), refrain from taking it in the pool or in high-velocity showers.

Moreover, the phone features a clean, minimalist design, available in three colors: Gray, Blue, and Black. As you’ve probably already seen, we received the rather fetching Blue finish, which, in my opinion, looks elegant.

Button placement is standard; you’ll find the volume rocker and power button on the right, but they’re placed on a slightly elevated plateau, making it easier to locate the buttons with your thumb.

What I didn’t like, however, was the U-shaped notch on the front. I looked at the phone’s back panel first, and as excited as I was to see the matte back panel, turning it around instantly disappointed me, thanks to the notch, and, not to mention, the gigantic chin at the bottom. The bezels are also a bit too broad to my liking, but I guess I can let that slide for the gorgeous Super AMOLED screen that they house.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Display

The Galaxy A17 5G’s strongest suit is its screen, and I’m not talking about the annoying notch up top or the thick bezels around the panel, but the panel itself.

The phone features a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen (which is quite the company’s at the moment), which produces those deep, inky blacks, bright whites, and vibrant colors. If you’re scrolling through a photographer’s Instagram page or watching content on the internet, the sharp and vivid screen won’t disappoint you (although HDR support would have made the output even better).

However, the narrative shifts slightly when you take the phone outdoors. Under direct sunlight, the panel’s maximum brightness of 800 nits makes the phone barely visible. Although the monsoon has been pouring down quite heavily all over North India, I managed to use the phone outdoors on a few sunny days, during which I always ended up wanting more in terms of peak brightness.

While I would have preferred support for 120Hz from a phone costing nearly Rs. 20,000 at retail, I’m simply glad that the phone doesn’t have a 60Hz screen. The 90Hz refresh rate, in my opinion, makes scrolling through menus, websites, and social feeds feel smooth. It’s a bit weird, though, that the similarly priced Galaxy M36 5G features a 120Hz refresh rate, and the A17 5G doesn’t.

Last but not least, the Galaxy A17 5G, despite featuring a Super AMOLED panel, doesn’t include support for an always-on display.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Speaker & Haptics

The handset gets a single, bottom-firing speaker. It is loud enough, but it lacks the depth and fullness that a hybrid stereo setup on several smartphones in the segment offers. While watching videos, the speaker manages their output. However, it is while listening to songs (though that won’t happen quite often) that the sound feels hollow.

On the positive side, you get a built-in equalizer that can help you improve the sound quality, but only to a limited extent. You also get features like Dolby Atmos (compatible with supported Bluetooth devices), Loudness Normalization (prevents sudden changes in sound volume), per-app sound settings, and UHQ Upscaler (enhances clarity when using headphones).

It could be to preserve battery life, but Samsung has kept the keyboard vibrations disabled by default. I had to enable those under Settings > Sounds and Vibration > System vibration > Keyboard vibration. Anyway, the haptics are better than average, and they get the job done, but they could have been slightly crisper.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Biomterics

The Galaxy A17 5G features a reliable capacitive fingerprint sensor (built into the side-mounted power button), which works just fine. Other biometric options include face unlock (though I wouldn’t rely on it, as it’s purely an optical sensor). Other screen locking options include PIN, password, and pattern.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Performance

While Samsung’s flagships have been performing well with top-tier Exynos or Snapdragon chips, the Exynos chips on entry-level or mid-range handsets aren’t as competitive (even when compared to the competition), and the Exynos 1330 is a prime example.

The octa-core 5nm chipset features two Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4 GHz, six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz, and the Mali-G68 MP2 GPU. Alongside the chipset, the phone features up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM (with the option to virtually increase the RAM) and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage (expandable via microSD card).

The unit we received from Samsung is the baseline model with 6GB of RAM (5.32GB usable as per Geekbench) and 128GB of storage (with around 112GB of usable space).

Synthetic Benchmarks

• AnTuTu V11: 613,701
• Geekbench 6 CPU: Single-Core: 952 / Multi-Core: 2,134 
• Geekbench 6 GPU: OpenCL: 1,319 / Vulkan: 1,314

Judging by the benchmark scores and my experience with the device, the Galaxy A17 5G isn’t the best-performing smartphone in its segment. The chipset appears to perform well initially, and if you don’t open more than five or six apps at once, it will hold up fairly well. However, as the number of apps piled up in the background, I noticed random jitters here and there.

Day-to-day Performance

For instance, there were a couple of times when the operating system lagged while switching between apps, opening the quick settings menu, or opening the camera. This doesn’t happen always, but it’s enough for a reviewer to take a note. Anyway, day-to-day apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail, YouTube, Netflix, and a couple of others all work fine.

Gaming

The Galaxy A17 5G isn’t a gaming-oriented smartphone, and that shows in its gaming performance as well. I downloaded Battlegrounds Mobile India on the handset, and the maximum available setting was HD in High frame rate (30 fps). While playing on the device for around 15 to 20 minutes, I started noticing a frame drops.

Those who want better day-to-day or gaming performance, consider a smartphone powered by the Dimensity 7400 or a Snapdragon 7 series handset. However, if that doesn’t matter to you, the Galaxy A17 5G has got it going fine.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Operating System

The latest A-series phone runs on One UI 7, Samsung’s custom user interface built on top of Android 15. What’s great is that the company promises to provide six major Android updates for the devices, extending the support till Android 21 arrives. Kudos to Samsung for setting and maintaining the benchmark, not just in the flagship, but also in the mid-range category.

This is the all-too-familiar user interface that we’ve seen on Samsung phones for over a year now, minus the Galaxy AI features available on the flagships. You get plenty of lock screen and home screen customization features, as well as a handful of Connected Devices features in the Settings menu (such as Quick Share, Auto Switch Buds, Smart View, and support for the SmartThings network).

Additionally, you’ll find Google’s Gemini AI voice assistant and Circle to Search visual lookup feature. While all the features work as intended, the phone could have benefited from a more powerful chip, making the operating system feel less choppy and laggy. There are a couple of pre-installed apps as well, including Snapchat, Spotify, Netflix, PhonePe, and Truecaller.

So, while Samsung’s intention to provide six generations of operating system updates with the handset is noble, it is probably relying more on users’ tendency to upgrade every two to three years than on solid performance that can take the phone there.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Cameras

The Galaxy A17 5G has a triple-camera setup on the back, headlined by a 50MP primary camera, and a 13MP selfie camera.

• Main: 50 MP (f/1.8) 1/2.76″, AF, OIS
• Ultrawide: 5 MP (f/2.2), 1/5.0″
• Macro: 2 MP (f/2.4)
  Front: 13 MP (f/2.0), 1/3.1″

Primary Camera

The 50MP primary camera is the star of the show here. In good daylight, it captures sharp and detailed pictures with punchy colors, ready to post on social media platforms. Indoors, the pictures are a bit softer, but they still have plenty of details with minimal noise. This year, the camera features optical image stabilization, which compensates for hand movements to produce cleaner, sharper-looking pictures.

By default, the camera captures images in 12MP resolution, but you can also switch to 50MP mode (note that processing may take a bit longer). The dynamic range is okay, but not as impressive (as seen in the picture of the headphones below). Have a look at the camera samples I captured at my place below.

2x Optical-Quality Zoom

The 2x photos are great. They retain plenty of details from the primary sensor, along with the aesthetic background blur that everyone loves so much. However, as you zoom in, there’s a noticeable increase in the amount of noise and softness in the picture, especially indoors (where a source doesn’t directly light the subject).

Macro

The 2MP macro camera is…there. With a fixed focus, limited dynamic range, and lower resolution, the sensor gets the job done when needed, but the results are far from perfect. In fact, I’d suggest using the 2x optical-quality zoom to capture the tiny objects, as it’d provide a higher resolution than the macro camera from almost the same distance.

Ultrawide

The 5MP ultrawide camera provides a wide field of view. It captures decent detail, plenty of contrast, and punchy colors like the primary camera. However, if you’re standing closer to the subject in the frame, you might notice the fisheye effect (visible in the first sample shot, at the right edge).

Selfie Camera

In my limited time with the device, its selfie camera captured detailed pictures, with an adequate field of view to capture a group of people without having to extend your arm to an uncomfortable extent or walk away from the group to increase the distance. The dynamic range is above average, and the portrait mode is even better.

Video

Whether it is the front camera or the rear, the Galaxy A17 5G can only record 1080p videos at 30 fps, which is a lower resolution compared to other phones in the segment. However, the optical image stabilization makes the videos stable.

Editing Tools

While the Galaxy AI picture editing tools aren’t present here, you get plenty of tools in the native Gallery app, as you can see below.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G Review: Battery Life

The Galaxy A17 5G features a 5,000 mAh battery that supports 25W wired charging (zero to 100% in around 1 hour and 20 minutes).

With moderate usage, which included capturing pictures for this review, transferring them to my MacBook, using WhatsApp in the meantime, watching content on YouTube, playing a few minutes of BGMI, and attending several calls, the phone had around 27% battery remaining at around 9 PM. During the day, the phone was used for over five hours and 20 minutes of screen-on time.

Hence, it’s safe to say that the phone should last an entire day between charges, or possibly even more for light users.

Review Verdict: Should You Buy The Galaxy A17 5G?

The Galaxy A17 5G looks and feels more premium than other options in the segment, has a Super AMOLED screen that produces gorgeous visuals, and an excellent software support policy (six years of Android updates).

Then there’s the 50MP primary camera with optical image stabilization that captures detailed pictures, and a dependable battery life. All that and you get a charger in the box, making the Galaxy A17 5G look like a pretty good deal.

However, the phone isn’t without its compromises, like the U-shaped notch on the screen, slightly underwhelming performance, and the lack of 4K video capture. But if these factors don’t matter, you can’t go wrong with Samsung’s mid-ranger.

Smartprix ⭐ Rating: 7.72/10

• Design and Build: 8.0/10
• Display: 8.0/10
• Speakers: 6.5/10
• Software: 8.5/10
• Haptics: 7.5/10
• Biometrics: 8.5/10
• Performance: 7.0/10
• Cameras: 7.5/10
• Battery Life & Charging: 8/10

First reviewed in September 2025.

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