Samsung launches Galaxy A17 5G, its slimmest, most affordable AI phone; but is it?

Samsung has launched its most affordable AI smartphone under the A series, Galaxy A17 5G on Monday. The Galaxy A17 5G builds on its predecessor Galaxy A16 5G. The latest A series phone packs AI across display, camera, security, calling, and OS upgrades. The phone brings Circle to Search with Google, offering search for images, text, and music, and Gemini Live, enabling real-time AI conversations. Notably, this is the first Galaxy smartphone with on-device Voice Mail, a feature that is borrowed from Apple, lets callers leave messages when unanswered.

“Galaxy A17 5G is our most affordable Galaxy A series AI smartphone and comes with fan-favourite AI features such as Circle to Search and Gemini Live. It also features on-device Voice Mail, a new ‘Make for India’ feature developed by Indian engineers to improve calling experience,” said Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, MX Business, Samsung India.

The 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED front display comes with the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, while retaining the IP54 rating for dust and water splash resistance. The phone features a triple-lens camera system with a 50MP main camera with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), popularly known as the No-Shake Cam, with a 5MP ultra-wide lens and a macro lens

The device is powered by the Exynos 1330 processor. In Europe, the A16 5G came with the same processor, while the Indian version was powered by Mediatek Dimensity 6300. The battery pack also has stayed the same at 5,000mAh from last time and supports 25W fast charging. As always, the latest device is available in three colours – Blue, Grey and Black.

While the phone is not the lowest-priced AI phone in India, given there are options such as Redmi Note 14 5G, Realme P2 Pro 5G, Poco M7 Pro 5G that have AI capabilities, the phone indeed is the slimmest in the segment with just 7.5mm thickness. The latest mobile phone weighs 192 grams, higher than its lesser-expensive peers.

The latest announcement also reveals that Samsung is closer to touching the 100 million shipments for its A series in India, a tough feat to achieve for a single series over the years for any consumer electronics brand.

The announcement comes on the back of upcoming festive season, due to which one could see discounts on the base pricing of the product, on account of bank partnerships.

The base variant with the storage option of 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage phone starts from ₹18,999, with ₹1,000 cashback from select banks including HDFC, SBI Bank, and UPI, and goes up to ₹23,499 for the top-most variant of 8 GB RAM with 256 GB storage.