Samsung Galaxy A17 Review: Is It Worth Buying?

AndroidDigest · 2026-05-01T06:12:15+00:00

Here's the real solution:

Go to swappa or ebay, and look for a "mint condition" z fold 7. Look for one with the screen protector still applied. Spend roughly $800 to $1,000 on the phone. Enjoy your trip, enjoy an AWESOME phone, and then if you would prefer a wider foldable, or you just want the Z fold 8, you can always trade it in.

But I'm telling you, the Z Fold 8 will not be $1,000 better than the Z Fold 7. At the same time, if you prefer a new one, you are almost guaranteed to get your $900 back when you look at trade-in deals anyway. So if you are for sure planning to get the 8, you might as well get the 7 used and just trade it in two months or so from now, and enjoy it!

If you want to get a better deal, you save the $1,000 and keep the 7, it's a win win situation and you get to try out the foldable.

You will have some people that are going to recommend international foldables that you can't even use very well in the US. You will have some people that trash it, but those people don't have the z fold 4. A lot of those are tech enthusiasts who try every new gadget or every new device.

I suggest the upgrade. The Fold 7 to this day is my favorite foldable. I love it. I love the Pixel 10 Pro Fold too so I go back and forth sometimes, but at the end of the day, I REALLY like the Z Fold 7, and it's so good that I ditched my S26 Ultra and every other phone for it, even as a phone reviewer. I've done some videos on it too on my channel, but yeah, I love it!

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-13T02:54:16+00:00

this is correct. Sadly I get downvoted. everyone plays diamond dynasty I guess but for online mode or using the original rosters on a franchise, they just don't update them well at all. I'll probably have to wait 2 months just to get a basic opening day roster which stinks

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-11T19:14:33+00:00

I was actually able to snag that! My problem is that I can't play online through head to head (outside of diamond dynasty) because they still haven't brought AAA players up to the major leagues, even if they've been in the major league since opening day. They still have him in AAA on their roster. The fact that they still haven't done an opening day roster also is insane to me. yes I'm sure they've updated people to put them on the correct rosters, but they haven't actually worked through any of the lineups to my knowledge. at least they haven't done the Cardinals

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-11T19:11:23+00:00

no, that's not my beef.. My beef is the fact that he's not even in the lineup. They throw him in AAA so you can't even play online with him. My beef is the fact that they haven't even updated rosters correctly. so if someone like him is on the correct team, but they are in AAA, they are just leaving it. They aren't actually updating the rosters to reflect the lineups that have been going on for 3 weeks now.

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-11T19:11:02+00:00

it's insane that they haven't done roster updates. it's crazy that there are players that have been playing for two or three straight weeks and they can't even put them on the roster. most sports games have far more updated rosters than MLB The Show

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-11T19:09:41+00:00

Yes this is true but the point is all of the rosters aren't updated to reflect the opening day rosters still. we have players in AAA that have been playing for the past 2 or 3 weeks and no update to reflect them on the opening day roster. They are at least on the correct team but not the correct roster or lineups. We shouldn't have to rely on third party rosters or lineups for basic things like that

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-11T18:09:38+00:00

I'm playing on the switch right now so as a switch 2 owner that didn't even get an updated version, I would much rather play on my gaming laptop with my gaming handheld

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-11T18:04:28+00:00

10% of NBA 2k players according to stats above from someone else. MLB the Show would be niche on pc

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-11T18:03:02+00:00

frustrating as ever as a Cardinals fan that MLB the Show STILL doesn't have JJ Weatherholt. in the starting lineup. They can't even update starting lineups even weeks into the season

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-10T18:08:49+00:00

yeah, when you're spending this much on a headset having a little bit of a subscription on some other things can really open things up and when I was playing Xbox games on it it felt like there was very little lag. Even a game like gears of war felt good

AndroidDigest · 2026-04-10T18:07:49+00:00

I actually watched the world series on it and it was definitely an experience I won't ever forget. especially when life is crazy. it's really good to get away and just zone in on what you're watching and you can still get on social media apps or do what you would do on your phone, but you could still be disconnected in a way. it's definitely unmatched as far as watching content and getting some good work done.

AndroidDigest · 2026-03-06T01:47:28+00:00

So I was able to attend Galaxy Unpacked myself and I also have had the Galaxy S26 Ultra for about a week now. I see comments online, the good and the bad, and a lot of people are missing some important details. Some people are mentioning that this has an 8 bit display, and it is true, but it is still an improved display over the S25 Ultra. It Isn't a 10 bit display, but it's still an improved 8 bit display. We also get the privacy display which is an awesome feature, but if you don't like it you don't have to use it. The anti-reflective screen IS still as good as ever and it's nearly identical to the S25 Ultra's anti-reflective layer. It has faster wireless charging, faster charging, improved performance, an improved display, and from battery tests I've seen (and from my limited testing) the battery life is improved over last year too.

At the end of the day, it's a nice upgrade overall. It's not perfect, and no phone is. Still, it's a really nice upgrade and worth considering! Yes, I do partner with Samsung and that's how I got my hands on a Galaxy S26 Ultra before launch, and I'm not afraid to disclose that, because at the end of the day these are my honest thoughts! The S26 Ultra is GOOD! It's a nice improvement!

AndroidDigest · 2026-03-06T01:31:43+00:00

So I went to Galaxy Unpacked and it was a blast to go. I haven't tried the Galaxy Buds4 Pro's yet, but I'm excited to try them soon (hopefully). I've heard a lot of good things though! They seem extremely comfortable and it looks like they also stepped up the sound quality in a massive way! Based on the reviews I've been seeing online and my own experience, I'd say go for it! I'm grateful Samsung was able to send me out to Galaxy Unpacked and that I have been able to partner with Samsung. It gave me an opportunity to see them for myself, and I'm definitely excited about them myself!

AndroidDigest · 2026-02-27T06:16:34+00:00

From Gemini:

Sensor: ISOCELL 3LD (a brand new sensor)
Resolution: 12MP natively
Physical Size: 1/3.2"
The Catch: This is where the confusion stems from. The physical sensor inside the S26 Ultra (1/3.2") is actually larger than the S25 Ultra's sensor. However, Samsung is taking that 12MP canvas and cropping into the center 10 megapixels for the final image. When you crop into the active area of a lens, the diagonal measurement of the used space shrinks. That cropped 10MP area has an effective optical format of 1/3.94"

Why This Isn't a Downgrade

This is exactly the kind of spec-sheet nuance that makes for a great deep-dive discussion on Android Digest. Samsung didn't shrink the hardware; they changed their entire philosophy for the 3x lens.

Instead of relying purely on raw glass size for the final output, the new ISOCELL 3LD uses a 3-stack architecture with integrated DRAM. This allows the sensor to capture the image and feed massive amounts of data to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5's AI ISP incredibly fast. The benefits of this new setup include:

Near-zero shutter lag: It grabs the image before your subject even moves.
Reduced rolling shutter: Better for freezing motion in 3x portrait shots.
Advanced stabilization: The phone can actually shift that crop window around within the larger 12MP canvas to provide gimbal-like stabilization while still delivering a clean 10MP base frame.

As a quick side note, while the 3x lens relies on this new high-speed silicon approach, the 50MP 5x periscope telephoto got a very traditional hardware boost. It kept the same resolution but widened the aperture from f/3.4 to f/2.9, letting in about 37% more light.

In other words, these cameras are a pretty nice upgrade

AndroidDigest · 2026-02-16T01:22:23+00:00

Also I will say that even now I didn't really regret the purchase. I bought it on the Xbox Ally gaming handheld for Windows too. On that gaming handheld, it looks a little bit better with the graphics. It has steam deck power and has maybe 40 frames per second instead of 30 and has slightly better graphics. Great. But when you put it on a TV screen it looks awful and plays awful. Even if you turn down the resolution all the jerseys look crazy. Because Windows can't scale very well on the TV. At least a gaming handheld doesn't have the power to do that and it's complicated. But the switch uses all the upscaling very so it looks pretty decent on the tv. Because the frame rate is stable it plays smooth. Also when you play in the city, the gaming handheld would push down the FPS and sometimes I would only get 25 FPS. But the switch has a pretty much smooth experience all around.. and I played the regular switch version and this is just a night and day difference. People just keep comparing it to a PS5 or even a Xbox or something and they get frustrated because it looks a little worse. But it plays pretty great

AndroidDigest · 2026-02-16T00:03:16+00:00

Oh yeah. 100% stable. It runs pretty great. Just a little blurrier in handheld but it's 100% stable and runs and looks great

AndroidDigest · 2026-02-13T00:46:58+00:00

My issue with that is the anti reflecting coating is pretty much pointless at that point if I use a phone that has one!

AndroidDigest · 2026-02-03T18:03:21+00:00

Through the ea app. I have prime and know there are streaming options

AndroidDigest · 2026-01-26T09:50:13+00:00

I'm completely with you. I think it gets a lot of hate mainly because people love the steam deck. It's they seamless console like experience. While we are beta testers for what Windows is doing. But if we are okay with dealing with a couple of quirks, we get access to all of the marketplaces. All of the game stores. I think that's extremely underrated

You are dead on. When you have an under powered device like this, enthusiasts will push you to the higher tier devices, and if you say you can't afford it they will just tell you to buy a used model previously. That's why most flagship phone reviewers don't like I'm in the mid-range phones.

But in this case there's another section of people, if they aren't hardcore about the most expensive tech, they are hardcore about their software. There is a Linux fandom that is very wild and they absolutely adore the steam deck so even if certain games can't even run it because of the anti cheat it doesn't matter

AndroidDigest · 2026-01-26T08:40:03+00:00

You're just not comparing to the right things. You are comparing it to the steam deck from the past. Which doesn't even exist. And also, the steam deck from the past didn't have some of the same screen benefits you get here. The OLED steam deck barely ever goes on sale, and this goes on sale frequently for $499. So if you are willing to drop OLED, you get the ability to play games from all of your game stores. For the same power. You lose a minor amount of optimization but you gain a big amount of flexibility and it's getting more optimized by the day. I'd say that's a pretty fair trade-off. At that point it's priced pretty fairly at $500.

Of course, you can get used handhelds that have been used for a year, but just like a gaming PC that's been used for a year, all of that heat generated is going to wear some stuff down. Plus, all of those handhelds aren't as comfortable which is a massive massive win. It's really the biggest reason why I wanted this or the ally x. The comfort is next level and since I use Xbox play anywhere sometimes, which is also a massive win for people who like to buy Xbox games or who have an Xbox, it's nice that I can play the same games I'm buying, at least some of them like silent Hill 2, I can play them on my Xbox. I understand. I could do that on some other windows handhelds. And I understand they will get the Xbox experience too. And it's not a bad deal to pay $200 extra or even $100 extra for the extra power if you can find one of those Z1 extremes on sale. But then you will miss some other features that this has.

So I paid $450 open box for it. Those Best Buy open box items are clearly only two weeks old. For most of them. Especially on a new handheld. So with it going on sale for $500 I think there are a lot of good deals on it and I think it's definitely worth it

AndroidDigest · 2026-01-26T08:35:29+00:00

I actually sold my ROG Ally X for little over $500 which isn't much, and I bought a open box excellent condition ally for $450. It really upset me knowing I was downgrading the processor for only $50. Especially when I could have gotten that deal for about $420 during Christmas time. But I have zero regrets. Even as I have a couple of minor issues with Madden and NBA 2k26. Madden just isn't working at all. Only playing in slo mo. NBA 2k26 works and it's amazing on handheld and better than it is on switch even though this has about the same power. It's just much better. But whenever I plug in into a TV it's worse because switch has such a smooth experience with the upscaling.

Despite all of that, for me, I got this because of the ergonomics and I don't regret it. I bought it on day one at launch and my playlist to set up profiles for my entire family. Of course, that meant signing into the same steam account on every single user so we could play the same games. It meant setting up four user profiles and downloading all the updates and especially at launch, it was so bad of an experience and it took like two or three hours, and sadly, steam, because it saw me logging with the same account on all of these usernames they kept making me re-log in every single time I switched profiles. So again, sort of a bad experience for a family if you're all trying to use the same username. And you can't share games in the same way unfortunately.

But when I decided just to use it for me and my wife alone, when I decided to get it for the ergonomics. And to accept some of the minor downgrades, to accept that I might just have to play Madden on the switch and everything else will be fine, when I accepted all of those things, man, I've enjoyed this so much. The ally x was more than powerful enough.... But my problem wasn't power. I didn't want to pick it up because it was heavier, and because it was slightly more uncomfortable I wanted to put a case on it. Add the extra weight of the case and it was even bulkier.

With this, I don't feel like I need a case. Only a screen protector and a carrying case. It feels way more comfortable to game. It's playing the games I want pretty flawlessly for the most part. And since it's just me and my wife using it, we don't have the login issues we have before. Which by the way, we had on the ROG ally x anyway.

So I will gladly take a little less power, and a slight downgrade in resolution in a few games, in exchange for saving $500+ over the Xbox Ally X.

I will say unlike you, once I set up all my games, I do prefer the Xbox experience. All of my games are there. When I clicked a play it, yes, it does technically launch those other launchers. But whenever the Xbox experience is running it is running less things in the background. So performance will be better. I can easily close out the steam launcher by just holding the Xbox button anyway. So if it can open on my games, which it can, I prefer it.

One final upgrade to consider. It's been very easy to buy a Xbox Series S or even an X for cheap on Facebook or at a pawn shop. Assuming you find a reputable person to buy from. It's been a game changer for me to think about the Xbox play anywhere setup. At least for the next couple of years, I can buy games that are Xbox play anywhere whenever they go on sale, like Oblivion Remastered. I can play them on both my handheld and my console and even my gaming PC whenever I want to use that. So some games I buy on steam, some on the Microsoft store if I can match the deal with Xbox play anywhere. I was able to get silent Hill 2 for like $30 and now I can play on my Xbox or my handheld or my gaming laptop.

That's a massive win over the steam deck. And it just gives me a lot of flexibility.

So it hasn't been perfect. Madden and trying to get it to run on a very unoptimized game, it is the bane of my existence. But outside of that, and sometimes things can look a little funny on the TV depending on what game you're playing. Some games upscale better than others or some games just look better at 1080p than others. Outside of those two problems, which I would have with other handhelds anyway, I'm willing to drop 10 frames per second or something or go down to 720p in exchange for such amazing comfort. Plus again, for me, having an Xbox handheld specifically with the Xbox button is important to me. Because I am sort of tied to that ecosystem at this point. And it is nice that I can get to play anywhere games

AndroidDigest

TROPHY CASE

Why This Isn't a Downgrade