Samsung Galaxy A17 5G review
Design and ergonomics
The Galaxy A17 features largely the same design as last year's A16, with some minor changes. The camera lenses are not separate but are housed in one camera bump, which doesn't stick out as much.
The back and the side frame remain flat with no changes. The available colors are Black, Gray and Blue, so there's no more Green this year. We have the Black option for this review.
It's nice to touch, feels premium even. The side frame, albeit plastic, feels nice in the hand. The frosted matte finish on the back is also a nice touch, but fingerprints and smudges are quite visible. And makes the phone quite slippery.
The fingerprint reader is placed on the side, integrated into the power button. It works well, but we would have preferred an under-display one as it's more versatile and convenient.
This year, Samsung used glass fiber for the back panel, instead of plastic, while the front is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, again a step up from the A16.
When it comes to SIM card support, the A17 is like its predecessor. It features a hybrid SIM card slot, which can take up to two SIM cards or a single SIM card + microSD card. You can't use a dual SIM + microSD card configuration.
Samsung was able to make the phone slightly slimmer and shaved off 8 grams of the weight too.
Despite the body being slippery, we really like this design. It feels solid and almost premium, which is hard to achieve in this price segment.
