My benchmark scores aligned with my real-world evaluation. The A17 ranked barely larger than Motorola’s $200 Moto G in single-core efficiency, however a lot decrease in multi-core efficiency, indicating that the Motorola system typically has it beat whenever you’re juggling a number of apps. That is smart, as a result of I don’t recall having as irritating an expertise with the Moto G once I examined it a month in the past. Do not get me fallacious, that cellphone can be very sluggish and annoying to make use of, however I wasn’t this flabbergasted.
The Good Bits
I have never had any points with the 6.7-inch AMOLED show—it will get vibrant sufficient in sunny situations, and it is sharp sufficient. The only mono speaker is serviceable, although it is easy to dam when holding the cellphone in panorama orientation. There is a microSD card slot to increase on the 128 GB of storage, the cellphone is IP54-rated to resist rain, contactless funds have labored OK, and the fingerprint sensor is dependable. GPS has been effective, although Google Maps can generally glitch out, particularly should you attempt to do one thing else whereas navigating.
I’ve dropped the A17 just a few occasions (lower than 2-foot drops), and it has held up surprisingly nicely, so it will get an A+ for sturdiness. If it issues to you, there may be no headphone jack right here (Motorola retains it on the Moto G). It is also nice to see that this cellphone will obtain six years of software program updates, much better than something Motorola presents at this value. There is a good quantity of bloatware you will wish to take away, however the software program expertise is in any other case just like different Samsung telephones. For those who’re a fan of One UI, you will really feel at residence right here.
Samsung has stuffed a 5,000-mAh cell right here, however battery life is reasonably unremarkable. It lasts a full day with common to heavy use, however should you use the cellphone sparingly, then it’s going to simply keep alive by way of a second day. There isn’t any wi-fi charging, unsurprising for a funds cellphone, however 25-watt wired charging means it isn’t terribly sluggish to recharge.
