Samsung Galaxy A16 was released a while back in October 2024. The Galaxy A17 should follow the same timeline this year, to be unveiled in the third quarter of 2025. Usually, these phones come out with minimal upgrades, but this time, Samsung’s budget A17 is expected with a huge camera improvement trickled down from one of its higher-end siblings.
For those who don’t know, Galaxy A1x devices have never had optical image stabilization, since it is considered a budget phone. Even the latest Galaxy A16 didn’t qualify for OIS support, but the company has decided to mix things up a bit. This year’s A17 will have the hardware stabilization feature for its Main camera.
This feature was once exclusive to flagship devices, but we’ve been seeing a lot of mid-range devices lately that come with OIS cameras. The entry-level devices have been slowly catching up, and now they have reached the point to officially sport hardware stabilization, and this could skyrocket the phone’s value.
OIS helps with stable and less blurry images. It even allows for better zoom shots and high-quality night photos that usually require longer exposure. Aside from all this, the biggest improvement might be the OIS hyper-stabilized videos on Samsung's latest budget model.
The report says that Samsung might ignore the traditional approach to OIS cameras that need magnetism for sensor stabilization. The company would rather use a spring-loaded OIS system that would be 20 percent cheaper to produce and might keep the A17’s price consistent with its predecessors.
OIS alone will bring the A17’s camera up to the performance of Galaxy A27. To put things into perspective, the Galaxy A26 and its precursors have been the cheapest devices so far to have OIS support. Galaxy A17 will surely earn a rank in the customer’s books if it comes with an OIS Main camera.
As always, we can’t confirm nor deny any of the details we found in the leak today. We advise you to take these early predictions with a healthy dose of sarcasm. The Galaxy A17 is still a few months away, so there’s a lot of time for more credible information to come out. Stay tuned for further updates.
