Wileyfox Swift review: the flagship budget smartphone
Late last year, a brand new British brand called Wileyfox announced and released the Wileyfox Swift, a £130 budget smartphone running Cyanogen OS 12.1, which is based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
I ordered the Swift from Amazon UK (you can get it here) for approximately £130 including free delivery by Amazon Logistics.
So, what exactly do you get for £130?
You get a 5" inch IPS display, 2GB RAM, quad core Snapdragon 410 processor and Android 5.1.1 (Cyanogen 12) phone.
Now, let's start talking about the different aspects of the phone.
Design
The design of the phone has a sandstone back, which is reminiscent of the OnePlus One device, and it is definitely nice to hold and touch and you can definitely grip it. It has a nice design, with a orange tint on the outer ring of the camera along with an embedded 'fox' animal emblem on the back centre of the device, which is a nice addition to the orange 'Wileyfox' text. The actual look of the phone as a whole isn't original though, with the phone following Qualcomm Reference Design, hence looking exactly like this General Mobile device and this Cherry Mobile Android One device.
Display
The display on the Wileyfox Swift is, hands down, one of the best displays I have seen in a while. It has a 5" inch, fully laminated IPS display along with vibrant colours and a very responsive touch screen. It's not one of those displays where you can use it with gloves, although I haven't tried this out myself. The Wileyfox Swift also features on screen buttons rather than physical buttons on the bottom of the device. This can allow for quick swipe up from the "Home" circle to access Google Now (personally, I have mine set to use Cortana!).
It is also worth mentioning that you can change the display temperature to suit whatever fancies your taste. It is also a very bright display and is easily viewable when you are outside in direct sunlight.
At the time of writing this review, Wileyfox offer a one year screen replacement program which costs £9.99!
OS & Performance
Out of the box, the Wileyfox Swift comes with Cyanogen OS 12.1, which is based on Android 5.1.1 "Lollipop". As the software/firmware for this phone aligns with the Cyanogen release schedule, we can expect to see Cyanogen 13.0 on this device, which should be based on Android 6.1 "Marshmallow".
Running an AnTuTu Benchmark on this phone provides it with a score of 21713, and I don't know much about these types of benchmark scores, but from what I can tell, this seems to be pretty damn good.
The Wileyfox Swift really does live up to its name, as the phone swiftly surges through anything you can throw at it, with the exception of heavy 3D gaming.
Of course, for £130, you're not getting a highly powerful phone, but games can easily be played, mostly without lag on this device. I tried playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with the graphics on the lowest and the game seemed to cope just fine, maybe with a few, but very short lags.
Camera
Image taken during visit to a Microsoft event in London, UK (Credit: Ryan O"Donnell)
The Wileyfox Swift sports the Samsung ISOCELL 13MP sensor, allowing to take clear, crisp images.
Happily, results from the Swift don't disappoint as you may be able to point out from the image above. Colours are well produced, detail is well resolved too with the centre of most images having decent sharpness.
The focus works extremely well, focussing on the one object and then blurring the background, which is what I like in close up photos, in my own personal opinion.
Connectivity
The Wileyfox Swift is a Dual SIM device, which is perfect for the business person who likes to have two numbers, but one device. Both slots support 4G LTE data connections with a Micro SIM, which is definitely welcoming. There is also a Micro SD card slot for expansion up to 32GB, which is considerbly less than my old phone, the Microsoft Lumia 535, which could expand up to 128GB, but it's still a reasonable size for this price point.
I have been using two SIM cards in this device, one on the T-Mobile network and one using EE's 4G network and I'm still over the moon at how I can use two SIMs at the same time, one for unlimited data and one for calls and texts.
Battery life
The battery life on this device certainly impresses me. Whilst I wait for the much anticipated Marshmallow release of Android for its "Doze" feature, I've been trying this Doze app (free from Google Play) which I highly recommend to keep on top of my battery whilst the phone is in sleep mode. The app promises for a better battery life whilst the phone is sleeping, and it certainly does that.
With the Wileyfox Swift, I can get an average of six hours screen on time with medium brightness, WiFi connected with mobile data off and doing several things like web browsing, the occasional game and messaging on Facebook.
Overall verdict
For the price range the Wileyfox Swift sits in, I would definitely recommend this phone to everyone who is willing to come into Android for the first time.
You can buy the phone direct from Wileyfox at www.wileyfox.com or go on Amazon UK and purchase the device over there.