1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,800
Budget phones have been getting really good over the last few years with the Nothing Phone A series,

2
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:10,320
the CMF phone line, even the Pixel A series has really gotten quite good at very accessible prices.

3
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:16,840
So Samsung can't rest on their laurels anymore. We're taking a look at the A17 5G.

4
00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,440
That's right, we're still putting 5G at the end of phone names to make it seem

5
00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:23,760
more sophisticated. In the box here we have our sim popper,

6
00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:27,600
manual and a USB-C to C cable.

7
00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:32,920
That's about three and a half feet long. Wow, this is a cable all right.

8
00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:37,720
And other than that, we got nothing. No plastic case included or anything like that.

9
00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:40,840
Just a cable, a small booklet and the phone itself.

10
00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:44,920
And right away, I gotta say, I like that they're not using plastic. They're using this like papery material.

11
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,040
Honestly, I really like it. This feels nice. I'm just gonna take it out of the bag.

12
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,000
And here we have it. It is a 6.7 inch screen.

13
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,120
This thing is massive. I don't know what the deal with budget phones being so big

14
00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,640
is, it feels like that's a trend. Are big screens cheaper? Like I genuinely don't know.

15
00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:04,360
But this thing is massive and it is fingerprinty.

16
00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,320
My God, I just took this out. I do have gamer fingers, but I don't think they're that bad.

17
00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:12,360
Okay, well they are that bad, but it is just so fingerprinty. I'd say go for a white model,

18
00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:17,280
but it only comes in this black as well as a light blue. Maybe the light blue will fare a little bit better.

19
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:22,360
Or I guess maybe you're just not as like nervous as I am because I don't know, maybe I'm a little shy.

20
00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:27,520
You don't have to worry about it. On the back here we have our triple camera system. We have a five megapixel ultra wide,

21
00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:32,960
a 50 megapixel main camera, and a two megapixel macro camera.

22
00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:36,840
I doubt that these two cameras are going to look very good, but we'll take a look.

23
00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:39,920
Maybe it'll be surprised. In the back of the day, five megapixels was plenty.

24
00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,120
And in the big two six, we're going retro with it.

25
00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:46,760
Also on the back, we have our flash and just the little Samsung logo.

26
00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,720
On the right side of the phone, we have our power button slash fingerprint scanner and volume rocker.

27
00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:55,100
On the top, we have our microphone. On the left side, we have our SIM tray.

28
00:01:55,100 --> 00:01:58,640
Let's open it up. You know, budget phones sometimes have SD card slots

29
00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,740
and maybe this one does as well. Oh, it does.

30
00:02:01,740 --> 00:02:05,980
Look at that. So we have an SD card slot as well as a nano SIM.

31
00:02:05,980 --> 00:02:11,020
And we can also see the rubber here for water resistance because it is IP 54.

32
00:02:11,020 --> 00:02:16,100
And on the bottom, we have a microphone, USB two, as well as a speaker port.

33
00:02:16,100 --> 00:02:20,700
You know, for phone design, it's a phone. I think the back looks quite nice actually.

34
00:02:20,700 --> 00:02:24,860
They don't mind the feel of the plastic on the sides. The front looks a little dated with the bigger chin.

35
00:02:24,860 --> 00:02:28,780
We'll turn on the screen and see if it's that noticeable. But I find this kind of gap in the front

36
00:02:28,780 --> 00:02:32,020
to be a little dated. I don't know, it just doesn't look super nice.

37
00:02:32,020 --> 00:02:35,500
But for, you know, the couple hundred dollars you're spending, it's not too bad.

38
00:02:35,500 --> 00:02:40,220
Well, the last thing for us to do is to turn it on, but not before I turn you on to our sponsor.

39
00:02:40,220 --> 00:02:45,620
You know, typically right after turning on the phone, I want to talk about the screen, but first thing I notice is performance is pretty slow.

40
00:02:45,620 --> 00:02:48,740
And I know the phone's just waking up but it took a second to boot up.

41
00:02:48,740 --> 00:02:54,080
Then it took a while for the clock to show up and then just swiping around, it feels a little slow.

42
00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,320
Samsung flexes the 2.4 gigahertz octa-core processor

43
00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:01,520
on the website. But when you actually look into it, the Exynos 1330 that's powering the device,

44
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:06,280
released in early 2023, which for a phone releasing in current year is a little dated

45
00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,000
and it feels like it. We had Labs take a look at the performance of the device

46
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:16,320
and surprise, surprise, it didn't perform great. The Exynos 1330 paired with the four gigs of RAM.

47
00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,840
That's right, four gigs of RAM in this phone

48
00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:23,560
performed pretty poorly when compared to the CMF Pro 2,

49
00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:28,240
as well as the Pixel 9a. We're talking 40-ish percent of the CMF phone

50
00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,800
to pros performance, as well as only 18%

51
00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:36,800
of the Pixel 9a's performance in our stress test. In our regular benchmarks, it did better,

52
00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:42,200
getting nearly the same performance as the CMF phone in single-core and 70% of the CMF phone's multi-core

53
00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,640
performance, but again, gets absolutely demolished by the Pixel 9a.

54
00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,200
Sure, those phones are a little bit more expensive, but when you're hopefully getting a device

55
00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:52,960
that's gonna last a while, you want it to work well in that time.

56
00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,400
Anyways, back to the screen. This is a 1080 by 2340 screen, so full HD plus,

57
00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:01,280
and yeah, it looks fine. It's a fine amount of brightness,

58
00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:06,040
it's a fine amount of detail. Even though it's a big screen, so you're not gonna get the highest amount of detail

59
00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,920
when you get up close to it, I think it looks perfectly adequate.

60
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,200
Wow, look at that full HD plus adequate-ness.

61
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:17,760
It is an AMOLED though, so that's nice. Again, feels pretty standard for a phone these days.

62
00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:20,920
It'd be odd if it wasn't, especially from Samsung, but yeah, it looks good.

63
00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:26,200
It also has Gorilla Glass Victus on it, so if you drop it face-first, it should be okay.

64
00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:28,320
Please tell me it's okay, please tell me it's okay.

65
00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,040
One thing to note is that it's not an HDR screen, so if you're trying to watch Oppenheimer

66
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,880
the way Christopher Nolan intended on a phone, you're not gonna find the best experience here,

67
00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:41,080
but it does get up to 1,150 nits, which is pretty darn bright.

68
00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:45,600
It also runs up to 90 hertz, so if you're trying to game at a high refresh rate

69
00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,640
on this old processor, you could dream of 90 hertz,

70
00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:53,320
though I'm not even getting it when scrolling around in anything, so again, your mileage may vary.

71
00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:57,200
But how does it sound? We see the speaker port on the bottom. Maybe it's gonna really blow us away

72
00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:03,920
and you can bring this to your next party. I hate to say it, for those who are excited,

73
00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:09,360
it is only out of this bottom speaker and it doesn't sound good,

74
00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:12,760
so my right ear was pretty disappointed with what it was hearing.

75
00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:15,920
Really just awful showing out, honestly.

76
00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:24,160
Does not sound good at all. It's not even particularly loud. Hey, maybe the camera is excellent though.

77
00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:28,080
You know, five megapixels used to be really impressive and maybe it will be here too.

78
00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,560
We do have a 50 though. Wow, they couldn't even hold the app open.

79
00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:35,160
I just went to the camera for two seconds and the YouTube app closed.

80
00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:39,200
Four gigs of RAM is crazy. I know we're in a crisis.

81
00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:43,040
It feels weird to use the word crisis when it's about the ability to buy something

82
00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:47,880
for your computer, but four gigs of RAM in 2026 is insane.

83
00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:52,280
If I can't keep the YouTube app open and open the camera for two seconds

84
00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:56,080
and go back to the YouTube app, something is wrong with your phone.

85
00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:59,840
Why would you sell this? That's crazy. Anyways, anyways, anyways.

86
00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:03,160
The camera, 50 megapixels sounds like a lot, so maybe it's good.

87
00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:06,640
Let's take a picture. They have built-in Snapchat filter. That's your screen record.

88
00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:10,240
Does this phone not have the ability to screen record? That'd be crazy, right?

89
00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:14,840
I tried to screen record, but there's no option and I'm wondering if it's because there's not enough RAM

90
00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:19,840
to screen record and do other things since it can't open the camera while YouTube is open.

91
00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:25,560
That's crazy, but look at this angle. We have Snapchat filters built into the phone, finally.

92
00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:32,680
I've not wanted to use Snapchat since 2016, but I guess I can without an account now, which is nice.

93
00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:37,040
This is awful. This is truly awful. Taking a photo without the filter, though.

94
00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:40,640
Honestly, that's a decent front camera. It feels like the appropriate amount of sharpness.

95
00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:43,760
My beard looks a little crispy, but like otherwise, not bad at all.

96
00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:47,520
And it has the ability to get just the teeniest bit wider

97
00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,520
if you just need a little teeny bit more room.

98
00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:56,800
All right, let's try the main cameras. Here's our 1x, our Ultra Wide,

99
00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:01,880
and you can zoom up to 10x. Digital zoom, though.

100
00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:07,360
It's not optical. What is nice though, I'll give it some credit. The main camera has optical image stabilization,

101
00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,440
which is great for low light or recording videos. But let's take a look at the photos.

102
00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:14,640
You know what? It doesn't look bad in the top-down. But when you actually look at the photo,

103
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:18,120
he looks a little bit like a painting, but actually there's no bud. That's not great.

104
00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,600
If it's 50 megapixels, it should look, in theory, better than that.

105
00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:26,160
Let's take a look at our other photos. You know what? If you don't zoom in, this ultra photo is not bad.

106
00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,200
You do get fisheye, some distortion

107
00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:32,200
on the edges of the photo, but it doesn't look bad quality-wise.

108
00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:36,560
When you zoom in, yeah, again, it's not the sharpest, and there's a little bit of chromatic abrasion

109
00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:43,040
around the lights, but this is a cool-looking photo. And for our main photo, again, perfectly adequate.

110
00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:46,480
It's not good. It's not bad. It's totally fine. If you don't zoom in,

111
00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:51,400
I'd be totally fine with this photo and the level of detail it has. Let's put this into 50 megapixel mode.

112
00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,800
Maybe that'll make the huge difference. I do have to say, though, I don't know if you'll be able to see on camera

113
00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:58,200
because I can't screen record. The preview does not look good.

114
00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,640
I'm surprised that the photos are turning out as well as they do considering the preview

115
00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:05,560
does not look fantastic. Like, I don't know, maybe I'm just painting.

116
00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:09,840
Okay, throwing into 50 megapixel mode, it does look a bit better. You can see the wrinkles in Reese's face.

117
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,920
Again, this is actually not a bad camera. I went in with pretty low expectations, but this is totally fine.

118
00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:18,600
For recording, we get just a couple options. You can do full HD or HD,

119
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:22,040
and you can only shoot at 30 FPS in either mode.

120
00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:25,520
So this probably isn't gonna look amazing, but let's take a video and see.

121
00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:29,840
This is a video I'm talking. I'm moving the camera a bit. I'm Jocelyn.

122
00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:35,120
Not the name, I'm just Jocelyn. And there's Reese. Hey, I'm gonna try zooming in.

123
00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:40,360
How's the mic sound? How does it sound? The video again, zooming in, it doesn't look that bad.

124
00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:44,920
It takes a second to like stop fizzling, but not bad.

125
00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:46,680
Oh, and there's a switch to 0.5.

126
00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:51,240
Not bad. Jelly, but not too bad.

127
00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:56,320
Again, I'm actually pretty impressed by the video. The optical image stabilization works quite well,

128
00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:59,680
and even going to the 0.5, it did stutter a bit going back and forth.

129
00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:03,680
In fact, it skipped something I was saying just very briefly, but that's pretty good.

130
00:09:03,680 --> 00:09:07,040
That's pretty good. Other than that, the specs are not anything

131
00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:12,840
to write home about. It's got Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.3. It charges at 25 watts in that USB 2 port,

132
00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:17,000
and there's no wireless charging. So I'm kind of just left wondering, who is this for?

133
00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,480
Because at $200, there's a lot of competition.

134
00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,480
I'm a believer in just buying an old flagship.

135
00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:27,040
Like you can probably get an S23 FE for around this price.

136
00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:30,320
The CMF phone is only 70 bucks more, the Pixel A's,

137
00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:33,440
you know, 100 and some odd bucks more, which is a bit of a jump.

138
00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:37,560
This does come with six years of security updates and six years of major OS updates, which is nice.

139
00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:41,480
So maybe this would be great for a parent or grandparent,

140
00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:45,320
you know, throw it into easy mode. I mean, look at this.

141
00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:48,720
My grandma wouldn't be afraid of this. This is so approachable and friendly.

142
00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:53,320
But again, it just seems like Samsung has kind of fallen asleep at the wheel

143
00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:56,860
as there's so many phones coming out. There are so many great phones that have come out

144
00:09:56,860 --> 00:10:02,720
that are still great. At $200, four gigs of RAM is just kind of embarrassing.

145
00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:06,920
No HDR kind of puts off people who really want to watch media on this.

146
00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:11,360
The gaming performance, don't play games on this unless it's cribbage or backgammon.

147
00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:15,580
Pfft. I've been a big fan of budget Samsung's in the past,

148
00:10:15,580 --> 00:10:19,360
but this one seems a bit like a miss. But what do you think?

149
00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:23,320
Does this design entice you enough to look past its RAM woes?

150
00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:27,400
Let us know down below, get subscribed in, go have a big old glass of water on me.