$200 on Samsung Galaxy A17 5G, announced on Tuesdayappears to be a smaller hardware refresh for the company’s lower-cost phone – with many similarities to Galaxy A16 that it be replaced. However, Samsung says that the A17 has access to many AI features, incl Google’s Circle Search and Gemini assistant.

Although both AI features become common in all phones running Android 16 (Motorola’s sub-$200 phones including them), the Galaxy A17 will be one of the broadest ways that Circle to Search and Gemini can reach new audiences. That’s because Samsung’s $200 phone is usually one of the few non-Apple devices that consistently tops the US sales charts, for example, the $200 Galaxy A16 currently ranks fifth in the. Counterpoint Studies back list Apple’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 17.

Like the Galaxy A16, the A17 has a 6.7-inch display with a 90Hz refresh rate, an IP54 rating for water and dust resistance (resists splashes but still prevents the phone from submerging) and is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 1330 processor. The cameras are also the same, including a 50-megapixel wide camera, a 5-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. Around the front is a 13-megapixel selfie camera.

The Galaxy A17 will also include a 5,000-mAh battery, 25-watt wired charging, 4GB of RAM with 128GB of onboard storage, the option to expand using a microSD card and will receive six years of software as well as security updates. That support period is very unusual for phones sold in the $200 range, as most phones costing $200 get two to three years of updates.

The Galaxy A17 goes on sale in the US starting January 7, and comes in blue, black and gray models.