The competitors is sizzling within the price range smartphone house, however the Samsung Galaxy A17 5G and the CMF Telephone 2 Professional are main contenders.
Who can afford to purchase a model new telephone today? Flagship handsets price upwards of £1,000/$1,000, whereas even mid-range telephones are tipped to get costlier in 2026.
Fortunately, there’s a complete class of telephones that may set you again across the £200/$200 mark. The excellent news? Due to a mature smartphone market, they’re higher than ever.
Or a minimum of, the most effective price range telephones are. Proper close to the highest of that exact wallet-friendly class are the Samsung Galaxy A17 5G and the CMF Telephone 2 Professional. What’s actually thrilling is that they take very totally different approaches.
So which of the 2 is finest? We’ve spent a good period of time with each telephones. Right here’s which one we’d purchase if we had £200/$200 burning a gap in our pocket.
Do you care about… the most effective value potential?
Let’s begin with essentially the most urgent concern for anybody buying at this finish of the smartphone market – value. The CMF Telephone 2 Professional begins from £219 (not obtainable within the US), whereas the Samsung Galaxy A17 5G begins from £199/$199.99.
That may not sound like a lot of a distinction, however a ten% saving is tough to disregard.
Chris Martin / Foundry
As we’ll go on to debate, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional arguably justifies the premium over its price range rival. Nonetheless, when you have a strict £200/$200 price range, the Samsung telephone is the way in which to go.
Even right here, although, we should always level out that the CMF Telephone 2 Professional provides you better flexibility. It gives a second mannequin with double the storage (256GB) for £249, whereas there’s no such choice with Samsung’s telephone.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
Do you care about… an fascinating design?
The Samsung Galaxy A17 5G has what we termed in our evaluation a “Signature Samsung type”. It seems to be and even feels lots like different telephones within the collection, and even echoes the aesthetic of costlier Galaxy S telephones.
That’s nice for the all-around really feel of the telephone, nevertheless it additionally implies that the Galaxy A17 5G design isn’t significantly thrilling.
The CMF Telephone 2 Professional, in contrast, is a critical head-turner with a design that we haven’t seen earlier than in a telephone. You can name it ‘industrial-chic’, with seen screws and a digicam module that nearly seems to have been bolted on.
Luke Baker
That rear panel could be simply eliminated, providing entry to the battery. There’s even a bodily element in an Accent Level that screws into the underside nook, permitting you to connect varied equipment (reminiscent of a stand or a lanyard).
The CMF Telephone 2 Professional additionally gives a further bodily management within the type of the Important Key, which grants speedy entry to a wise AI-assisted journaling system.
Each telephones are IP54 rated, so there’s no benefit both method with regards to mud and water resistance.
All in all, although, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional is solely much more fascinating to have a look at and far more tactile within the hand than the Samsung Galaxy A17 5G.
It’s much more interesting from the entrance. The place the Galaxy A17 5G provides you an unpleasant teardrop notch, the CMF handset goes with a extra premium hole-punch variant.
Winner: CMF Telephone 2 Professional
Do you care about… intensive software program assist?
There’s a case to be made for each telephones with regards to software program. Samsung’s One UI 8 is as strong and versatile as ever, whereas Nothing OS 3.2 is super-stylish and stuffed with progressive little quality-of-life touches.
We’ve already talked about Nothing’s Important House, which lets you shortly doc your ideas and on-line findings with a button press.
Chris Martin / Foundry
Nonetheless, the place the clear distinction seems is with the 2 software program assist guarantees.
Whereas Nothing solely guarantees three years of Android updates and 6 years of safety patches, Samsung gives six years for each.
On condition that most individuals who purchase cheaper telephones don’t wish to be upgrading their telephone fairly often, this provides Samsung a noteworthy benefit.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
Do you care about… the most effective efficiency?
You don’t purchase an inexpensive telephone when you’re significantly involved with efficiency, however if you wish to get the utmost output to your cash, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional is clearly the higher selection.
Nothing’s telephone runs on a succesful Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Professional chip with 8GB of RAM, whereas the Samsung Galaxy A17 5G has to make do with a humble Exynos 1330 and simply 4GB of RAM.
The outcomes of our benchmark checks present a powerful win for the CMF Telephone 2 Professional in each CPU and GPU phrases. It’s not even shut.
Luke Baker
Not that both telephone feels particularly snappy. Anybody who’s used a extra premium telephone will have the ability to detect these little pauses when opening up or switching between apps, and even when navigating the house screens.
Nor would we suggest intensive gaming on both telephone. When you do, the graphics will probably be set to someplace close to the minimal degree.
Even so, there’s no denying that the CMF Telephone 2 Professional is the extra succesful telephone, no matter job you throw at it.
Winner: CMF Telephone 2 Professional
Do you care about… taking good photographs?
Once more, you don’t purchase an inexpensive telephone if pictures is a precedence, nevertheless it’s good if it will possibly do the fundamentals fairly properly.
Each telephones can take strong snaps in good lighting, however the CMF Telephone 2 Professional has a few noteworthy benefits within the {hardware} division.
Luke Baker
It begins with a 50Mp essential digicam that has a a lot bigger 1/1.56-inch sensor in comparison with the Samsung telephone’s 1/2.76-inch equal. Bigger sensors imply extra mild, leading to (usually) superior element and higher low-light efficiency.
Unusually for a telephone of this value, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional additionally features a devoted 50 Mp f/1.85 2x telephoto digicam. Which means that zoomed-in photographs are higher than the A17 5G’s, which has to crop in on its essential sensor.
Video seize can also be extra absolutely featured on the CMF Telephone 2 Professional, with assist for 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 120fps. The Samsung Galaxy A17 5G, in contrast, can solely hit 1080p at 30fps.
Winner: CMF Telephone 2 Professional
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G vs CMF Telephone 2 Professional: Conclusion
These are two of essentially the most completed price range telephones in the marketplace, however they’re surprisingly totally different.
The Samsung Galaxy A17 5G is your protected wager, providing a well-known Samsung expertise with a strong design and prolonged software program assist at a sub-£200/$200 (nearly) value. You actually can’t go incorrect.
Nonetheless, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional is the extra fascinating telephone by far. It’s additionally simply flat-out higher in most respects.
Its industrial design is extra interesting, its efficiency is way superior, and its digicam system is extra superior than on Samsung’s price range telephone. Nonetheless, it’s not broadly obtainable within the US.
When you’ve solely used Samsung telephones and also you wish to keep a degree of consistency to the expertise, otherwise you’re merely on a really strict price range, the Galaxy A17 5G might be the most effective telephone for you. Just about everybody else ought to simply purchase the CMF Telephone 2 Professional.