The competitors is scorching within the funds 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 cellphone today? Flagship handsets value upwards of £1,000/$1,000, whereas even mid-range telephones are tipped to get costlier in 2026.
Fortunately, there’s an entire class of telephones that can set you again across the £200/$200 mark. The excellent news? Because of a mature smartphone market, they’re higher than ever.
Or a minimum of, the perfect funds 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 perfect worth doable?
Let’s begin with essentially the most urgent concern for anybody buying at this finish of the smartphone market – worth. The CMF Telephone 2 Professional begins from £219 (not out there 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 funds rival. Nonetheless, when you’ve got a strict £200/$200 funds, the Samsung cellphone is the best way to go.
Even right here, although, we should always level out that the CMF Telephone 2 Professional provides you larger flexibility. It gives a second mannequin with double the storage (256GB) for £249, whereas there’s no such choice with Samsung’s cellphone.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
Do you care about… an fascinating design?
The Samsung Galaxy A17 5G has what we termed in our overview a “Signature Samsung fashion”. It seems and even feels so much 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 cellphone, but it surely additionally signifies that the Galaxy A17 5G design isn’t significantly thrilling.
The CMF Telephone 2 Professional, against this, is a critical head-turner with a design that we haven’t seen earlier than in a cellphone. You might name it ‘industrial-chic’, with seen screws and a digital camera module that nearly seems to have been bolted on.
Luke Baker
That rear panel will be simply eliminated, providing entry to the battery. There’s even a bodily part 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 approach in relation 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 in relation to software program. Samsung’s One UI 8 is as strong and versatile as ever, whereas Nothing OS 3.2 is super-stylish and filled with revolutionary little quality-of-life touches.
We’ve already talked about Nothing’s Important Area, 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 need to be upgrading their cellphone fairly often, this provides Samsung a noteworthy benefit.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy A17 5G
Do you care about… the perfect efficiency?
You don’t purchase an affordable cellphone when you’re significantly involved with efficiency, however if you wish to get the utmost output on your cash, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional is clearly the higher selection.
Nothing’s cellphone 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 assessments 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 cellphone feels particularly snappy. Anybody who’s used a extra premium cellphone will be capable to detect these little pauses when opening up or switching between apps, and even when navigating the house screens.
Nor would we advocate intensive gaming on both cellphone. For those who 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 cellphone, no matter process you throw at it.
Winner: CMF Telephone 2 Professional
Do you care about… taking good pictures?
Once more, you don’t purchase an affordable cellphone if pictures is a precedence, but it surely’s good if it might probably do the fundamentals moderately nicely.
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 most important digital camera that has a a lot bigger 1/1.56-inch sensor in comparison with the Samsung cellphone’s 1/2.76-inch equal. Bigger sensors imply extra gentle, leading to (typically) superior element and higher low-light efficiency.
Unusually for a cellphone of this worth, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional additionally features a devoted 50 Mp f/1.85 2x telephoto digital camera. Which means that zoomed-in photographs are higher than the A17 5G’s, which has to crop in on its most important sensor.
Video seize can also be extra totally featured on the CMF Telephone 2 Professional, with assist for 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 120fps. The Samsung Galaxy A17 5G, against this, 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 funds telephones in the marketplace, however they’re surprisingly totally different.
The Samsung Galaxy A17 5G is your secure guess, providing a well-recognized Samsung expertise with a strong design and prolonged software program assist at a sub-£200/$200 (nearly) worth. You actually can’t go flawed.
Nonetheless, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional is the extra fascinating cellphone by far. It’s additionally simply flat-out higher in most respects.
Its industrial design is extra interesting, its efficiency is much superior, and its digital camera system is extra superior than on Samsung’s funds cellphone. Nonetheless, it’s not extensively out there within the US.
For those who’ve solely used Samsung telephones and also you need to preserve a degree of consistency to the expertise, otherwise you’re merely on a really strict funds, the Galaxy A17 5G might be the perfect cellphone for you. Just about everybody else ought to simply purchase the CMF Telephone 2 Professional.