Galaxy A17 vs Galaxy A36: What a $160 difference gets you

Phone Arena

9 hours ago

The affordable smartphone market is densely populated, and with the Galaxy A17 announcement, the crowd has become even thicker. This model is a successor to last year's A16 and offers some upgrades, such as the 120 Hz display refresh rate.
On the other hand, we have the Galaxy A36, which comes with the same 6.7-inch screen but offers a bunch of extras. However, it also costs a bit more at $399. So, which one of these is worth your "budget smartphone money"? Today we're gonna compare these two and find out.
Samsung Galaxy A17 vs Galaxy A36 differences:
Table of Contents:
Design
Display
Performance
Camera
Battery
Specs
Summary The Galaxy A17 is more similar to the Galaxy A36 than to its predecessor, the Galaxy A16. Both phones feature the elongated, vertical camera housing on the back, different from the other A-series separated camera holes (similar to the S-series lineup).
The big difference lies in the bezels around the screen. The Galaxy A17 sports a pretty substantial chin, and it also uses a teardrop-shaped notch for its front camera. The Galaxy A36 , on the other hand, comes equipped with much more subtle bezels (almost uniform around the screen, with just a tad wider chin), and there's also a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera.
Overall, a much more modern look.
In terms of materials, the Galaxy A36 has a slight advantage. It has the same plastic frame as the A17, but the back of the phone is made of Gorilla Glass Victus+, while the A17 features a glass-fiber composite back.
The dimensions are pretty close between these two. The bigger chin of the A17 results in the phone being a tad taller, and the Galaxy A36 is also slightly wider and 0.1 mm thinner. In the hand you won't be able to tell the difference, which is also true about the weight. There's a 3-gram difference in favor of the Galaxy A17, which is lighter, but this kind of a difference only shows on electronic scales. So, for all intents and purposes, size-wise these two phones are very close.
The color options are listed above. The new Galaxy A17 is available in Black, Gray, and Blue, while the Galaxy A36 can be bought in Black, White, Lime, and Lavender. Display Differences 120Hz for the masses It's incredible how a $200 phone can achieve a 120 Hz refresh rate, but Apple's expensive iPhone 16 only supports 60 Hz. But that's the way it is; the Galaxy A17 has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display that can run up to 120 Hz.
The resolution is FHD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels), with 358 PPI pixel density. In terms of brightness, the Galaxy A17 still supports 800 nits in HBM (high brightness mode), but we need to run some tests to find the peak brightness (as it isn't listed in the specs).
The Galaxy A36 has the same 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel on board, and it also sports a 120 Hz refresh rate. The resolution, aspect ratio, and pixel density are all the same, but the advertised peak brightness and HBM figures are both higher. In our display test the A36 managed an impressive result of 1748 nits at 20% APL. We can't wait to test the A17 and compare the results.
One of the key areas where Samsung has cut some corners with the Galaxy A17 is its chipset. The phone uses the Exynos 1330 platform, the same one as the A16. It's far from a powerhouse with very modest Geekbench 6 and 3D Mark scores. We still need to test the chipset inside the A17 but we don't expect a huge improvement.
In terms of RAM, both phones mirror their respective configurations, but the Galaxy A36 can be bought with up to 12GB of RAM, which touches upper midrange territory. In terms of onboard storage, both phones have only two available configurations with either 128GB of 256GB. You don't spend $300 on a phone and expect it to be a camera monster. The Galaxy A36 , which is the known entity here, comes with a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 5MP macro camera on its back. This is a rather underwhelming setup, especially that 5MP macro camera (we'd rather have a better ultrawide in a dual-camera setup or a telephoto).
Nevertheless, the Galaxy A36 managed a score of 120 in our camera benchmark, with a decent main camera score. The Galaxy A17 features the same main camera, so we expect similar results, but the ultrawide is a 5MP one, and the macro camera is even more pointless at 2MP.
Stay tuned for side-by-side samples. The Galaxy A17 comes equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery, and one would expect great things from that capacity paired with a budget processor and an AMOLED screen. Looking back at the A16 battery performance, this doesn't seem to be the case.
The A16 was able to get 6 h 12 m on a single charge in our composite battery test, which ranks it 101st among phones tested in the past 2 years. We will run the tests on the Galaxy A17 once it arrives in our lab, but don't hold your breath.
The Galaxy A36 features the same battery capacity but uses a Snapdragon processor. It managed 6h 26m in our test and ranked #89 among phones tested in the past 2 years, which is a bit better, not by much though.
In terms of charging, the Galaxy A17 supports up to 25W wired, while the A36 caps at 45W. A full charge of the latter took 1h 15m, and we'll have to test the A17 to compare the two, but even at this stage it's clear that the A36 will have an advantage. Neither of these two supports wireless charging. The Galaxy A17 is currently on pre-order starting at 259 euros (in Ireland). It's expected to get a price tag around $239 (a $40 increase compared to the A16). The Galaxy A36 , on the other hand, starts at $399.The $160 difference gets you a brighter screen, faster charging, a better processor, more RAM, and a potentially better ultrawide camera. Couple all this with the better overall design and building materials, and you'll get the picture.
Now, if you want to save money, the Galaxy A17 will do the job; the differences aren't that big. We'll update our verdict once we finish the review of the Galaxy A17, but this is a case of "you get what you pay for."