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Wileyfox Swift and Storm review: Two cheap UK phones, one worth buying
There are two ways you can go about buying a new smartphone: Either you spread the cost over a year or two with a carrier contract, or purchase the thing outright. When you're finally done paying it off, a subsidised handset often ends up costing more than it's worth. However, considering the price of new iPhones, Samsung flagships and peers, that can still be preferable to emptying your bank account in one fell swoop. Thankfully, companies big and small are addressing this conundrum with phones that offer the kind of specs and user experience customers want at prices they're happy to pay upfront. Despite an abundance of competition in contract-free handsets already, new British brand Wileyfox is one such company, and it's hoping to make its mark in the UK with the affordable £129 Swift and higher-end £199 Storm.
Wileyfox's Storm is as chic as £199 smartphones come
New smartphone brand Wileyfox arrived on the scene brandishing the Swift, a midish-range device with an agreeable £129 price tag. Last week, it followed up with the Storm, its second contract-free handset you could call Wileyfox's flagship. A flagship of sorts, anyhow, since at £199 it's only a fraction of the price of true top-tier handsets. Now, the Swift is a perfectly charming device, but it doesn't feel like it's punching above its weight to any extent. The orange accents and quirky circular earpiece give it some character, but the physical buttons are plastic, the back panel removable. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but its compact size and general build quality are more or less what you'd expect from an affordable device. The newer Storm, on the other hand, is only £70 more expensive, and yet it feels like it's batting in a completely different league.
Wileyfox's Storm smartphone goes on sale for £199
Fresh-faced British upstart Wileyfox is hoping to make a name for itself in contract-free smartphones, joining plenty of other manufacturers searching for the perfect balance between performance and price. Its first handset, the £129 Swift, launched just last month, and today Wileyfox has announced its higher-end Storm smartphone is now up for grabs for £199. That much buys you a dual-SIM, 4G device with a 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32 gigs of expandable storage, a 2,500mAh battery, 20-megapixel rear camera with Sony sensor and an 8MP selfie snapper.
Meet Wileyfox, Britain's answer to OnePlus
Wileyfox isn't a smartphone brand you've heard of before. They're an entirely new player from the UK hoping to muscle into the already packed Android market with, you've guessed it, smartphones that combine "good enough" specs with competitive price tags. The company is announcing two phones today, the Storm and the Swift, which run the Cyanogen flavour of Android in sleek, but not particularly adventurous packages. The £199 (about $315) Storm is the more premium of the two, boasting a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 615 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. In the camera department, you'll find a 20-megapixel camera on the back and an 8-megapixel version up front.
