{"video_id":"nhYdbE16NcQ","title":"Maybe TOO cheap? - Samsung A17 5G","channel":"ShortCircuit","show":"ShortCircuit","published_at":"2026-03-05T14:58:16Z","duration_s":656,"segments":[{"start_s":0.32,"end_s":5.48,"text":"Budget phones have been getting really good over the last few years with the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":3.4,"end_s":9.52,"text":"Nothing Phone A series, the CMF phone line, even the Pixel A series has really","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":7.4,"end_s":14.0,"text":"gotten quite good at very accessible prices. So, Samsung can't rest on their","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":12.12,"end_s":19.48,"text":"laurels anymore. We are taking a look at the A17 5G. That's right, we're still","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":17.6,"end_s":23.64,"text":"putting 5G at the end of phone names to make it seem more sophisticated. In the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":22.36,"end_s":31.16,"text":"box here, we have our SIM popper, manual, and a USB-C to C cable. That's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":27.72,"end_s":32.8,"text":"about 3 and 1/2 ft long. Wow, this is a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":31.16,"end_s":36.92,"text":"cable, all right. And other than that,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":34.48,"end_s":40.8,"text":"we got nothing. No plastic case included or anything like that. Just a cable, a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":38.8,"end_s":43.12,"text":"small booklet, and the phone itself. And right away, I got to say, I like that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":41.92,"end_s":46.44,"text":"they're not using plastic, they're using this like papery material. Honestly, I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":45.16,"end_s":53.68,"text":"really like it. This feels nice. I'm just going to take it out of the bag. And here we have it. It is a 6.7-in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":51.32,"end_s":56.96,"text":"screen. This thing is massive. I don't know what the deal with budget phones","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":54.92,"end_s":60.68,"text":"being so big is. It feels like that's that's a trend. Are big screens cheaper?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":59.08,"end_s":65.4,"text":"Like, I I genuinely don't know. But, this thing is massive and it is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":63.48,"end_s":68.48,"text":"fingerprinty. My god, I just took this out. I do have gamer fingers, but I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":67.12,"end_s":73.6,"text":"don't think they're that bad. Okay, well, they are that bad, but it is just so fingerprinty. I'd say go for a white","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":71.96,"end_s":77.6,"text":"model, but it only comes in this black as well as a light blue. Maybe the light","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":75.52,"end_s":81.2,"text":"blue will fare a little bit better. Or, I guess maybe you're just not as like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":79.16,"end_s":83.8,"text":"nervous as I am because I don't know, maybe I'm a little shy. Don't worry","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":82.6,"end_s":92.44,"text":"about it. On the back here, we have our triple camera system. We have a 5-megapixel ultra-wide, a 50-megapixel","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":89.08,"end_s":94.76,"text":"main camera, and a 2-megapixel macro","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":92.44,"end_s":97.6,"text":"camera. I doubt that these two cameras are going to look very good, but we'll","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":96.16,"end_s":103.48,"text":"take a look. Maybe I'll be surprised. You know, back in the day, 5 megapixels was plenty. And in the big 2026, we're","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":101.52,"end_s":107.08,"text":"going retro with it. Also, on the back, we have our flash and just the the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":105.56,"end_s":111.88,"text":"little Samsung logo. On the right side of the phone, we have our power button/fingerprint scanner and volume","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":110.08,"end_s":115.8,"text":"rocker. On the top, we have our microphone. On the left side, we have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":113.88,"end_s":120.24,"text":"our SIM tray. Let's open it up. You know, budget phones sometimes have SD","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":117.84,"end_s":125.08,"text":"card slots and maybe this one does as well. Oh, it does. Look at that. So, we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":122.12,"end_s":130.96,"text":"have an SD card slot as well as a nano SIM. And we can also see the rubber here","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":127.44,"end_s":133.04,"text":"for water resistance cuz it is IP54.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":130.96,"end_s":139.0,"text":"And on the bottom we have a microphone, USB 2, as well as a speaker port. You","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":136.16,"end_s":141.64,"text":"know, for phone design it it's a phone. I think the back looks quite nice","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":140.28,"end_s":145.72,"text":"actually and I don't mind the feel of the plastic on the sides. The front looks a little dated with the bigger","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":144.48,"end_s":150.88,"text":"chin which on the screen see if it's that noticeable, but but I find this kind of gap in the front to be a little","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":149.8,"end_s":154.44,"text":"dated. I don't know, it just doesn't look super nice. But, for you know, the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":153.44,"end_s":159.24,"text":"couple hundred dollars you're spending it's not too bad. Well, the last thing for us to do is to turn it on, but not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":157.36,"end_s":162.68,"text":"before I turn you on to our sponsor. Thanks to Delta Hub for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":161.04,"end_s":166.6,"text":"sponsoring this video. You're only human. You don't have infinite pockets.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":164.8,"end_s":169.88,"text":"Our sponsor Delta Hub has a new way for you to carry around your gizmos,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":168.0,"end_s":173.4,"text":"gadgets, and whatchamacallits. Their Hold X two-part magnetic mount allows","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":171.84,"end_s":177.84,"text":"you to adhere two things together when you're on the go. It was designed initially to stick your SSDs to your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":176.24,"end_s":182.2,"text":"laptops, which will stay protected thanks to its magnetic shielding layer,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":179.519,"end_s":186.239,"text":"but the use cases truly are endless. Let your imagination run wild. Learn more","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":184.44,"end_s":189.48,"text":"and grab your Hold X with the QR code on screen or at the link down below. You","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":188.519,"end_s":194.6,"text":"know, typically right after I turn on the phone I want to talk about the screen, but first thing I notice is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":192.0,"end_s":197.36,"text":"performance is pretty slow. And I know the phone's just waking up, but it took","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":196.16,"end_s":204.6,"text":"a second to boot up, then it took a while for the clock to show up, and then just swiping around it feels a little","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":201.4,"end_s":206.64,"text":"slow. Samsung flexes the 2.4 GHz","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":204.6,"end_s":211.48,"text":"octa-core processor on the website, but when you actually look into it the Exynos 1330 that's powering the device","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":209.76,"end_s":216.36,"text":"released in early 2023, which for a phone releasing in current year is a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":213.56,"end_s":219.519,"text":"little dated and it feels like it. We had Labs take a look at the performance","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":217.8,"end_s":223.88,"text":"of the device and surprise surprise, it didn't perform great. The Exynos 1330","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":221.76,"end_s":229.68,"text":"paired with the four [music] gigs of RAM, that's right, four gigs of RAM in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":227.36,"end_s":235.4,"text":"this phone performed pretty poorly when compared to the CMF Phone Pro 2 as well","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":232.16,"end_s":237.28,"text":"as the Pixel 9A. We're talking 40-ish","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":235.4,"end_s":241.8,"text":"percent of the CMF Phone 2 Pro's performance, as well as only 18% of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":240.24,"end_s":245.92,"text":"Pixel 9A's performance in our stress test. >> [music] >> In our regular benchmarks, it did","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":244.64,"end_s":250.04,"text":"better, getting nearly the same performance as the CMF Phone in single","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":247.64,"end_s":253.92,"text":"core, and 70% of the CMF Phone's multi-core performance, but again, gets","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":252.0,"end_s":256.959,"text":"absolutely demolished by the Pixel 9A. Sure, those phones are a little bit more","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":255.12,"end_s":262.36,"text":"expensive, but when you're hopefully getting a device that's going to last a while, you want it to work well in that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":260.84,"end_s":266.72,"text":"time. Anyways, back to the screen. This is a 1080 by 2340 screen, so full HD","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":265.24,"end_s":270.24,"text":"plus, and yeah, it looks fine. It's a fine amount","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":269.0,"end_s":273.68,"text":"of brightness, it's a fine amount of detail. Even though it's a big screen,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":272.36,"end_s":280.52,"text":"so you're not going to get the highest amount of detail when you get up close to it, I think it looks perfectly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":277.28,"end_s":282.4,"text":"adequate. Wow, look at that full HD plus","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":280.52,"end_s":286.2,"text":"adequateness. It is an AMOLED though, so that's nice. Again, feels pretty","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":284.52,"end_s":291.36,"text":"standard for a phone these days. It'd be odd if it wasn't, especially from Samsung, but yeah, it looks good. It","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":289.28,"end_s":295.44,"text":"also has Gorilla Glass Victus on it, so if you drop it face first, it should be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":293.84,"end_s":298.48,"text":"okay. Please tell me it's okay. Please tell me it's okay.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":297.6,"end_s":303.76,"text":"One thing to note [music] is that it's not an HDR screen. So, if you're trying to watch Oppenheimer the way Christopher","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":301.8,"end_s":307.76,"text":"Nolan intended on a phone, you're not going to find the best experience here.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":305.04,"end_s":311.36,"text":"But, it does get up to 1,150 nits, which is pretty darn bright. It","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":309.4,"end_s":315.6,"text":"also runs up to 90 Hz, so if you're, you know, trying to game at a high refresh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":313.64,"end_s":318.919,"text":"rate on this old processor, you can dream of 90 Hz. Though, I'm not even","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":317.68,"end_s":322.84,"text":"getting it when scrolling around and anything, so >> [music] >> again, your your mileage may vary. But,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":321.84,"end_s":328.76,"text":"how does it sound? We see the speaker port on the bottom. Maybe it's going to really blow us away, and you can bring","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":325.84,"end_s":328.76,"text":"this to your next party.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":332.04,"end_s":338.2,"text":"I hate to say it. For those who were excited, it is only out of this bottom","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":335.72,"end_s":341.913,"text":"speaker, and it doesn't sound good. So, my right ear was pretty disappointed","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":340.16,"end_s":345.68,"text":"with what I was hearing. Really just >> [music] >> awful showing out, honestly. Does not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":344.48,"end_s":348.72,"text":"sound good at at It's not even particularly loud.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":349.48,"end_s":355.52,"text":"Mhm. Hey, maybe the camera is excellent though, you know, 5 megapixels used to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":354.04,"end_s":359.8,"text":"be really impressive and maybe it will be here, too. We do have a 50 though.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":357.8,"end_s":364.48,"text":"Wow, it couldn't even hold the app open. I just went to the camera for 2 seconds","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":361.6,"end_s":368.68,"text":"and the a YouTube app closed. 4 gigs of RAM is crazy. I know we're in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":366.4,"end_s":372.72,"text":"a crisis. It feels weird to use the word crisis when it's about the ability to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":370.6,"end_s":378.36,"text":"buy something for your computer, but 4 gigs of RAM in 2026 is insane.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":376.36,"end_s":382.919,"text":"I can't keep the YouTube app open and open the camera for 2 seconds and go","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":381.12,"end_s":386.72,"text":"back to the YouTube app, something is wrong with your phone. Why would you Why","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":385.08,"end_s":390.28,"text":"would you sell this? That's crazy. Anyways, anyways, anyways.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":388.08,"end_s":393.32,"text":"The camera. 50 megapixels sounds like a lot, so maybe it's good. Let's take a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":391.64,"end_s":396.32,"text":"picture. They have built-in Snapchat filter. I should screen record.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":394.919,"end_s":400.4,"text":"Does this phone not have the ability to screen record? That'd be crazy, right?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":398.52,"end_s":403.32,"text":"I tried to screen record, uh, but there's no option and I'm wondering if","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":401.88,"end_s":407.12,"text":"it's cuz there's not enough RAM to screen record and do other things since","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":405.04,"end_s":410.4,"text":"I can't open the camera while YouTube is open.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":408.08,"end_s":414.84,"text":"That's crazy. But, look at this angle. We have Snapchat filters built into the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":412.56,"end_s":419.68,"text":"phone, finally. I've not wanted to use Snapchat since","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":416.72,"end_s":423.0,"text":"2016, but, uh, I guess I can without an account now, which is nice. This is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":421.24,"end_s":426.2,"text":"awful. This is truly awful. Taking a photo without the filters","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":424.68,"end_s":430.24,"text":"though, honestly, that's a that's a decent front camera. It feels like the appropriate amount of sharpness. My","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":429.0,"end_s":435.16,"text":"beard looks a little crispy, but like otherwise, not bad at all. And it has","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":432.28,"end_s":439.16,"text":"the ability to get just the tiniest bit wider. If you just need a little teeny","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":437.48,"end_s":443.12,"text":"bit more room. All right, let's try the main cameras. Here's our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":441.28,"end_s":446.84,"text":"1x, our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":444.28,"end_s":451.44,"text":"ultra wide, and you can zoom up to 10x digital zoom","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":449.84,"end_s":456.04,"text":"though. It's not It's not optical. What is nice though, I'll give it some credit, the main camera has optical","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":454.64,"end_s":458.919,"text":"image stabilization, which is great for low light or recording videos. Let's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":457.84,"end_s":463.8,"text":"take a look at the photos. You know what? In the top down, it It look bad. In the top down when you actually look","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":462.12,"end_s":466.84,"text":"at the photo, he looks a little bit like a painting, but actually there's no","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":465.36,"end_s":470.28,"text":"butt. That That's not great. If it's 50 megapixels, it should look, in theory, [music]","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":468.88,"end_s":473.88,"text":"better than that. Uh let's take a look at other photos. You know what? If you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":472.0,"end_s":478.56,"text":"don't zoom in, this ultra photo is not bad. You do get fish eye, uh some some","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":476.88,"end_s":482.28,"text":"distortion on the edges of the photo, but it doesn't look bad quality-wise.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":480.36,"end_s":484.84,"text":"You When you zoom in, yeah, again, it's not the sharpest and and there's a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":483.6,"end_s":491.52,"text":"little bit of chromatic aberration around the lights, but this is a cool-looking photo. And for our main","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":488.32,"end_s":493.36,"text":"photo, again, perfectly adequate. It's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":491.52,"end_s":496.2,"text":"not good, it's not bad, it's totally fine. If you don't zoom in, I'd be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":494.96,"end_s":501.68,"text":"totally fine with this photo and the the level of detail it has. Let's put this into 50 megapixel mode. Maybe that'll","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":499.919,"end_s":506.4,"text":"make a huge difference. I do have to say though, I don't know if you'll be able to see on camera cuz I can't screen","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":503.56,"end_s":508.4,"text":"record. The preview does not look good. I'm surprised that the photos are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":507.36,"end_s":512.479,"text":"turning out as well as they do considering the preview it does not look","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":510.52,"end_s":515.599,"text":"fantastic. Like, I don't know. Maybe I Maybe I'm just picky. Okay, throwing","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":514.24,"end_s":520.0,"text":"into 50 megapixel mode, it does look a bit better. Look at it. You can see the wrinkles in Reese's face. Again, this is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":518.52,"end_s":523.68,"text":"actually not a bad camera. I I went over with pretty low expectations, but this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":521.56,"end_s":527.92,"text":"is totally fine. For recording, we get uh just a couple options. You can do","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":525.04,"end_s":532.36,"text":"full HD or HD, and you can only shoot at 30 FPS in either mode. So, this probably","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":531.28,"end_s":539.24,"text":"isn't going to look amazing, but let's take a video and see. Uh this is a video. I'm talking. I'm moving the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":535.92,"end_s":541.36,"text":"camera a bit. I'm I'm jostling.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":539.24,"end_s":544.68,"text":"Not the name, I'm just jostling. And there's Reese. Hey, I'm going to try","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":542.839,"end_s":548.04,"text":"zooming in. How does it sound? You know what? The video, again, zooming in, it doesn't","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":547.08,"end_s":556.16,"text":"look doesn't look that bad. It takes a second to like stop fizzling, but not bad.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":553.16,"end_s":558.2,"text":"Oh, and there's the switch to 0.5.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":556.16,"end_s":562.4,"text":"Not bad. Jelly, but not not too bad. Again, I'm","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":560.2,"end_s":565.96,"text":"actually pretty impressed by the video. The optical image stabilization works","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":563.839,"end_s":569.12,"text":"quite well, and even going to the 0.5, it did stutter a bit going back and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":567.68,"end_s":572.72,"text":"forth. In fact, it skipped something I was saying just very briefly, but that's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":571.24,"end_s":576.0,"text":"that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Other than that, the specs are not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":575.0,"end_s":581.6,"text":"anything to write home about. It's got Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.3, uh it charges at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":578.92,"end_s":585.56,"text":"25 W in that USB 2 port, and there's no wireless charging. So, I'm kind of just","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":582.92,"end_s":588.96,"text":"left wondering, who is this for? Cuz at $200,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":587.44,"end_s":594.12,"text":"there's a lot of competition. I'm a believer in just buying an old flagship.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":591.72,"end_s":598.68,"text":"Like, you can probably get an S23 FE for around this price. Uh the CMF Phone is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":596.4,"end_s":602.52,"text":"only 70 bucks more. The Pixel A is, you know, 100 and some odd bucks more, which","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":600.48,"end_s":606.2,"text":"is a bit of a jump. This does come with 6 years of security updates and 6 years","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":604.36,"end_s":610.92,"text":"of major OS updates, which is nice. So, maybe this would be great for uh parent","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":608.6,"end_s":615.4,"text":"or grandparent, you know, throw it into uh easy mode. I mean, look at this. My","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":613.76,"end_s":619.6,"text":"grandma wouldn't be afraid of this. This is so approachable and friendly. But,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":617.36,"end_s":623.56,"text":"again, it just seems like Samsung is kind of fallen asleep at the wheel, as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":621.72,"end_s":628.4,"text":"there's so many phones coming out. There are so many great phones that have come","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":624.88,"end_s":629.84,"text":"out that are still great. At $200, 4","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":628.4,"end_s":634.0,"text":"gigs of RAM is just kind of embarrassing. No HDR kind of puts off","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":632.92,"end_s":638.12,"text":"the people who really want to watch media on this. The gaming performance,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":636.32,"end_s":643.36,"text":"don't play games on this unless it's cribbage or backgammon.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":641.32,"end_s":647.6,"text":"I've been a big fan of budget Samsungs in the past, but this one seems a bit","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":645.08,"end_s":652.04,"text":"like a miss. But, what do you think? Does this design entice you enough to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":649.24,"end_s":657.48,"text":"look past its RAM woes? Let us know down below. Get subscribed, and go have a big","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":653.96,"end_s":657.48,"text":"old glass of water on me.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1}],"full_text":"Budget phones have been getting really good over the last few years with the Nothing Phone A series, the CMF phone line, even the Pixel A series has really gotten quite good at very accessible prices. So, Samsung can't rest on their laurels anymore. We are taking a look at the A17 5G. That's right, we're still putting 5G at the end of phone names to make it seem more sophisticated. In the box here, we have our SIM popper, manual, and a USB-C to C cable. That's about 3 and 1/2 ft long. Wow, this is a cable, all right. And other than that, we got nothing. No plastic case included or anything like that. Just a cable, a small booklet, and the phone itself. And right away, I got to say, I like that they're not using plastic, they're using this like papery material. Honestly, I really like it. This feels nice. I'm just going to take it out of the bag. And here we have it. It is a 6.7-in screen. This thing is massive. I don't know what the deal with budget phones being so big is. It feels like that's that's a trend. Are big screens cheaper? Like, I I genuinely don't know. But, this thing is massive and it is fingerprinty. My god, I just took this out. I do have gamer fingers, but I don't think they're that bad. Okay, well, they are that bad, but it is just so fingerprinty. I'd say go for a white model, but it only comes in this black as well as a light blue. Maybe the light blue will fare a little bit better. 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. Don't worry about it. On the back here, we have our triple camera system. We have a 5-megapixel ultra-wide, a 50-megapixel main camera, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. I doubt that these two cameras are going to look very good, but we'll take a look. Maybe I'll be surprised. You know, back in the day, 5 megapixels was plenty. And in the big 2026, we're going retro with it. Also, on the back, we have our flash and just the the little Samsung logo. On the right side of the phone, we have our power button/fingerprint scanner and volume rocker. On the top, we have our microphone. On the left side, we have our SIM tray. Let's open it up. You know, budget phones sometimes have SD card slots and maybe this one does as well. Oh, it does. Look at that. So, we have an SD card slot as well as a nano SIM. And we can also see the rubber here for water resistance cuz it is IP54. And on the bottom we have a microphone, USB 2, as well as a speaker port. You know, for phone design it it's a phone. I think the back looks quite nice actually and I don't mind the feel of the plastic on the sides. The front looks a little dated with the bigger chin which on the screen see if it's that noticeable, but but I find this kind of gap in the front to be a little dated. I don't know, it just doesn't look super nice. But, for you know, the couple hundred dollars you're spending it's not too bad. Well, the last thing for us to do is to turn it on, but not before I turn you on to our sponsor. Thanks to Delta Hub for sponsoring this video. You're only human. You don't have infinite pockets. Our sponsor Delta Hub has a new way for you to carry around your gizmos, gadgets, and whatchamacallits. Their Hold X two-part magnetic mount allows you to adhere two things together when you're on the go. It was designed initially to stick your SSDs to your laptops, which will stay protected thanks to its magnetic shielding layer, but the use cases truly are endless. Let your imagination run wild. Learn more and grab your Hold X with the QR code on screen or at the link down below. You know, typically right after I turn on the phone I want to talk about the screen, but first thing I notice is performance is pretty slow. And I know the phone's just waking up, but it took a second to boot up, then it took a while for the clock to show up, and then just swiping around it feels a little slow. Samsung flexes the 2.4 GHz octa-core processor on the website, but when you actually look into it the Exynos 1330 that's powering the device released in early 2023, which for a phone releasing in current year is a little dated and it feels like it. We had Labs take a look at the performance of the device and surprise surprise, it didn't perform great. The Exynos 1330 paired with the four [music] gigs of RAM, that's right, four gigs of RAM in this phone performed pretty poorly when compared to the CMF Phone Pro 2 as well as the Pixel 9A. We're talking 40-ish percent of the CMF Phone 2 Pro's performance, as well as only 18% of the Pixel 9A's performance in our stress test. >> [music] >> In our regular benchmarks, it did better, getting nearly the same performance as the CMF Phone in single core, and 70% of the CMF Phone's multi-core performance, but again, gets absolutely demolished by the Pixel 9A. Sure, those phones are a little bit more expensive, but when you're hopefully getting a device that's going to last a while, you want it to work well in that time. Anyways, back to the screen. This is a 1080 by 2340 screen, so full HD plus, and yeah, it looks fine. It's a fine amount of brightness, it's a fine amount of detail. Even though it's a big screen, so you're not going to get the highest amount of detail when you get up close to it, I think it looks perfectly adequate. Wow, look at that full HD plus adequateness. It is an AMOLED though, so that's nice. Again, feels pretty standard for a phone these days. It'd be odd if it wasn't, especially from Samsung, but yeah, it looks good. It also has Gorilla Glass Victus on it, so if you drop it face first, it should be okay. Please tell me it's okay. Please tell me it's okay. One thing to note [music] is that it's not an HDR screen. So, if you're trying to watch Oppenheimer the way Christopher Nolan intended on a phone, you're not going to find the best experience here. But, it does get up to 1,150 nits, which is pretty darn bright. It also runs up to 90 Hz, so if you're, you know, trying to game at a high refresh rate on this old processor, you can dream of 90 Hz. Though, I'm not even getting it when scrolling around and anything, so >> [music] >> again, your your mileage may vary. But, how does it sound? We see the speaker port on the bottom. Maybe it's going to really blow us away, and you can bring this to your next party. I hate to say it. For those who were excited, it is only out of this bottom speaker, and it doesn't sound good. So, my right ear was pretty disappointed with what I was hearing. Really just >> [music] >> awful showing out, honestly. Does not sound good at at It's not even particularly loud. Mhm. Hey, maybe the camera is excellent though, you know, 5 megapixels used to be really impressive and maybe it will be here, too. We do have a 50 though. Wow, it couldn't even hold the app open. I just went to the camera for 2 seconds and the a YouTube app closed. 4 gigs of RAM is crazy. I know we're in a crisis. It feels weird to use the word crisis when it's about the ability to buy something for your computer, but 4 gigs of RAM in 2026 is insane. I can't keep the YouTube app open and open the camera for 2 seconds and go back to the YouTube app, something is wrong with your phone. Why would you Why would you sell this? That's crazy. Anyways, anyways, anyways. The camera. 50 megapixels sounds like a lot, so maybe it's good. Let's take a picture. They have built-in Snapchat filter. I should screen record. Does this phone not have the ability to screen record? That'd be crazy, right? I tried to screen record, uh, but there's no option and I'm wondering if it's cuz there's not enough RAM to screen record and do other things since I can't open the camera while YouTube is open. That's crazy. But, look at this angle. We have Snapchat filters built into the phone, finally. I've not wanted to use Snapchat since 2016, but, uh, I guess I can without an account now, which is nice. This is awful. This is truly awful. Taking a photo without the filters though, honestly, that's a that's a decent front camera. It feels like the appropriate amount of sharpness. My beard looks a little crispy, but like otherwise, not bad at all. And it has the ability to get just the tiniest bit wider. If you just need a little teeny bit more room. All right, let's try the main cameras. Here's our 1x, our ultra wide, and you can zoom up to 10x digital zoom though. It's not It's not optical. What is nice though, I'll give it some credit, the main camera has optical image stabilization, which is great for low light or recording videos. Let's take a look at the photos. You know what? In the top down, it It look bad. In the top down when you actually look at the photo, he looks a little bit like a painting, but actually there's no butt. That That's not great. If it's 50 megapixels, it should look, in theory, [music] better than that. Uh let's take a look at other photos. You know what? If you don't zoom in, this ultra photo is not bad. You do get fish eye, uh some some distortion on the edges of the photo, but it doesn't look bad quality-wise. You When you zoom in, yeah, again, it's not the sharpest and and there's a little bit of chromatic aberration around the lights, but this is a cool-looking photo. And for our main photo, again, perfectly adequate. It's not good, it's not bad, it's totally fine. If you don't zoom in, I'd be totally fine with this photo and the the level of detail it has. Let's put this into 50 megapixel mode. Maybe that'll make a huge difference. I do have to say though, I don't know if you'll be able to see on camera cuz I can't screen record. The preview does not look good. I'm surprised that the photos are turning out as well as they do considering the preview it does not look fantastic. Like, I don't know. Maybe I Maybe I'm just picky. Okay, throwing into 50 megapixel mode, it does look a bit better. Look at it. You can see the wrinkles in Reese's face. Again, this is actually not a bad camera. I I went over with pretty low expectations, but this is totally fine. For recording, we get uh just a couple options. You can do full HD or HD, and you can only shoot at 30 FPS in either mode. So, this probably isn't going to look amazing, but let's take a video and see. Uh this is a video. I'm talking. I'm moving the camera a bit. I'm I'm jostling. Not the name, I'm just jostling. And there's Reese. Hey, I'm going to try zooming in. How does it sound? You know what? The video, again, zooming in, it doesn't look doesn't look that bad. It takes a second to like stop fizzling, but not bad. Oh, and there's the switch to 0.5. Not bad. Jelly, but not not too bad. Again, I'm actually pretty impressed by the video. The optical image stabilization works quite well, and even going to the 0.5, it did stutter a bit going back and forth. In fact, it skipped something I was saying just very briefly, but that's that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Other than that, the specs are not anything to write home about. It's got Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.3, uh it charges at 25 W in that USB 2 port, and there's no wireless charging. So, I'm kind of just left wondering, who is this for? Cuz at $200, there's a lot of competition. I'm a believer in just buying an old flagship. Like, you can probably get an S23 FE for around this price. Uh the CMF Phone is only 70 bucks more. The Pixel A is, you know, 100 and some odd bucks more, which is a bit of a jump. This does come with 6 years of security updates and 6 years of major OS updates, which is nice. So, maybe this would be great for uh parent or grandparent, you know, throw it into uh easy mode. I mean, look at this. My grandma wouldn't be afraid of this. This is so approachable and friendly. But, again, it just seems like Samsung is kind of fallen asleep at the wheel, as there's so many phones coming out. There are so many great phones that have come out that are still great. At $200, 4 gigs of RAM is just kind of embarrassing. No HDR kind of puts off the people who really want to watch media on this. The gaming performance, don't play games on this unless it's cribbage or backgammon. I've been a big fan of budget Samsungs in the past, but this one seems a bit like a miss. But, what do you think? Does this design entice you enough to look past its RAM woes? Let us know down below. Get subscribed, and go have a big old glass of water on me."}