WileyFox Swift 2: A new champ of the 'for around £150' market British startup WileyFox has made the best "for around £150"* phone since the first Moto G shook up the market for low-cost smartphones back in 2013. There are two models, the Swift 2 at £159 (list) and dual SIM Swift 2+ at £189 (list), both the same size. I tested the "Plus size" here. Both variants have a fingerprint sensor …
"The £189 "Plus" variant buys you a larger display, 32GB of internal storage, and a 16MP main camera."
Except it does't does it, it gets you 3gb/32gb vs 2gb/16gb and a 16MP camera against a 13MP. Screen size stays the same at 5".
I've seen some ropey reviews about this handset, as I've been putting off getting a new handset and am torn between this and a G4. One review has the 430 being a quad core FFS. This is a real problem trying to get subjective reviews for me, loads of details wrong or omitted. No mention of it only having a 720 screen res? USB3? Rapid charge? Come on....
So, this or a G4?!
Am in a similar position, considering buying either this or the G4+.
The other recent review and comparison seems to crown the G4+ as the winner, mainly due to superior display resolution, better battery and faster charge.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/2476733/wileyfox-swift-2-plus-vs-moto-g4-plus-review
Honestly, I had similar qualms about the Nexus 4 (who's battery might as well be glued in - it's not exactly a quick swap job), but went for the plunge not long after launch anyway.
I've only replaced it in the last few weeks after the touchscreen went a bit flaky. So the better part of four years.
After the first few weeks, I simply stopped thinking about the battery; if you are worried about running out of charge halfway through the day, USB power banks are cheap and portable and arguably safer than having a soft-wall LiPo cell in your backpack/pocket etc.
Replaced it with a Hauwei P9 Lite because I'm cheap as all fuck, and it's not a bad thing itself, although I really, really miss the 'plain jane' android interface; the hauwei one is 'ok' but it's not as straightforward. Why can't I swipe down with two fingers to get to the system shortcuts, damnit?
Anyway, enough rambling.
Steven R
Agree it is all in the detail.
Recently I've had cause to research the use of a smartphone as cycle/bike computer, which dropped me into this problem, asking questions such as:
Does it support OTG, Bluetooth 4.0/Smart, ANT2+, GPS...
Does it support a reasonable number of bluetooth sensors eg. heart rate monitor, cadence, speed, power, plus headset for hands free music/calling.
Etc. etc.
This made me realise that we now at the point where the smartphone has gone beyond being simply a 'smart' phone, it was now in some use cases more of a cost effective, highly mobile compute and display platform; just that both manufacturers and reviews have yet to wake up to the market change...
I was looking into same things - went for the Moto G4 16Gb Dual Sim.
The 1920x1080 screen and the dual sim plus SDCard won the day.
13MP camera works fine, storage not a prob with 128GB SD, only use it for talking to people and playing music, videos, odd photos.
Best phone I've had so far, no problems at all (actually there was no USB charging cable but whatever).
"The £189 "Plus" variant buys you a larger display, 32GB of internal storage, and a 16MP main camera."
Except it does't does it, it gets you 3gb/32gb vs 2gb/16gb and a 16MP camera against a 13MP. Screen size stays the same at 5".
Icon for the review saying that, because it even says the screen size is the same at the start of the review: " There are two models, the Swift 2 at £159 (list) and dual SIM Swift 2+ at £189 (list), both the same size."
That aside, however, I have a WileyFox Storm - the larger of their original models - which I bought when they were first available. I have two regrets:
1. At the time, I wanted a bigger screen than my previous phone (the Samsung Galaxy S3) - and it didn't take long for me to realise that, no, I only thought I wanted a bigger screen. In practice, it's a pain because it doesn't fit in the ideal pockets of any of my jackets. So I want a smaller screen again.
2. The non-replaceable battery. I found the battery life was crap at the start - but somewhere down the line an update improved it - but over time it's gone crap again. I now tend to keep a spare charger in my laptop bag, because on days when I make a lot of use of the phone as a phone I find that without the charger the phone might not last the day.
So I may be in the market for a new phone because of both of these points - but point 2 means I will definitely steer clear of anything with a battery that can't be replaced. Lesson learnt.
Swift/Storm... Replacable/non-replacable battery
I bought the Swift (a year ago) because of the replaceable battery and have been trying to get a pair of spare battery... non available anywhere and WileyFox has no plans to sell them !
Ironically they have plans for a replacement battery for the Storm ;(
I was a very happy Samsung Note user and had 3 spare batteries. Otherwise Swift is great and I don't regret not having the extra size/bulge in my trousers :)
Unfortunately microSD card capacity is limited to 64GB.
Is it? Did you try?
If it supports 64GB it must be supporting SDXC, as SDHC only supports cards up to 32GB, so it ought to support cards up to 2TB. I would guess that it will actually work with the larger cards now available (I've seen up to 256GB advertised) but that WileyFox don't claim that because they haven't tested it.
That's just a guess, though. It'd be nice to see a reviewer actually try it.
It's also worth stressing that (unlike the case with the original Swift) the use of a micro-SD card is not possible with a second SIM installed, which rather spoils the point in my opinion.
The only way to find out that the SD-card slot is shared with one of the SIM slots is through reviews, because there's no manual included with the phone, there's also no manual on Wilyfox's website, or anywhere. (In fact, there's still no manual for the original Swift either.)
Personally I didn't need the manual, but my brother picked one up the other week, and it took quite a bit of trial an error for him to find out that he'd need to get a new SIM if he wanted to use an SD card.
So, Wilyfox are lacking in the documentation department, ie, they have no documentation at all.
"If it supports 64GB it must be supporting SDXC, as SDHC only supports cards up to 32GB, so it ought to support cards up to 2TB. I would guess that it will actually work with the larger cards now available (I've seen up to 256GB advertised) but that WileyFox don't claim that because they haven't tested it."
I've seen SDHC slots that balk after 8GB. I suspect there is some actual logic needed to address beyond a certain point, so if it can't go beyond 64GB, it may not possess the logic needed to beyond that point.
Since Fat32 will support up to 2TB, I am sure that the better file systems used by SDXC will support far, far more.
BTW, I have a Clarion car radio that claims only 32GB support, but it happily takes a 128GB card/usb drive when formatted correctly.
Still a POS though, I will never buy Clarion again.
Yes the MicroSD card limit is wrong and I'm not sure why so many reviewers repeat it, you'd think they'd know this stuff.
I was told that the the shyness about the real limit is to do with licensing and the real limit is much higher than 2TB.
I have the Swift with 64GB card (advertised limit 32GB), someone claims in the Amazon comments to have happily got a 200GB card in theirs.
The mixed reviews elsewhere about the Swift 2 seem to be inspired by some kind of backlash to do with the discovery that these phones are not made in UK and some brand snobbery.
The reviews on Amazon UK by people who've bought and used them are not encouraging. Granting there will always be a few people moaning about anything, but the same problems get mentioned again and again: battery life, screen quality, things breaking, customer support ... and the good reviews include a troubling number of uninformative one-liners.
I saw duff user reviews about the original Wiley Fox as well which doesn't inspire confidence in them, which is a shame. The swift 2 plus gets a right old kicking on expert reviews:
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/wileyfox/1405316/wileyfox-swift-2-plus-review-another-mediocre-moto-g4-rival
CM doesn't fill me with confidence either, I'd be looking at the Moto G series.
I only see three reviews for the Swift 2 at time of writing, I have had the Swift since it came out after reading about it here and it is nothing short of superb, I find the negative reviews for the Swift on Amazon to positively reek of Dunning-Kruger syndrome and brand snobbery. I have bought four for various people and none have had the slightest issue whereas every negative review seems to say that the phone arrived broken and they never got a replacement.
The battery life moans I simply don't understand at all, I have never once exhausted the battery in less than a day.
OK, I've had one about a week now and I've been reasonably impressed so far. It feels like a much more expensive phone, fingerprint sensor is quick (and I'm getting used to it being on the back), seems pretty quick (certainly quicker than my old Xperia Z3).
Re. the expertreviews review:
Display - I do wonder whether they're comparing specs here rather than actually testing it as I've had no issues either inside or out.
Camera - maybe this is just me but if I want top quality photos I'll use a proper camera. They seem fine to me.
Performance - again, I think they're just comparing numbers. This is probably one of the more responsive phones I've had.
OS - there may well be update issues in future but that could apply to any Android phone. I'm liking Cyanogen and the higher level of control over apps access. Was worth it for that alone.
Other comments:
GPS - drove into London yesterday and didn't lose signal once. Other phones I've had have often lost it in central London.
OTG - tried it with a USB-C OTG cable and didn't work. The cable was designed for a Mac but I'm assuming it should be standard and therefore the phone doesn't support OTG.
Bluetooth - got it connected to three devices simultaneously with no issues. Supports APT-X.
NFC - yep, works fine.
I've not compared it directly to a G4 but, for me, the extra size of the G4 would probably be a deal breaker. The Swift2 is just about useable with one hand.
Is it possible to disable one of the SIM cards in a dual-SIM Swift 2 via the Settings app? This capability disappeared when my first-generation Swift was "upgraded" to Cyanogen 13, which made it all but useless as a dual-SIM phone, particularly when one SIM is for UK use and the other is for the US.
It's an OS problem, not a phone problem. CM13 doesn't have dual SIM switches.
I think AO was talking about the £150 price bracket. Originally it was supposed to be the only phone costing less than £150 with a scanner, but even at £160 (okay, £159) it's still the only one with a scanner. £30 or £40 doesn't seem much when you look at kit costing £500 + but below £200 it's a pretty big chunk of cash.
Based on El Reg's rather positive review of the original Swift, I took a punt on the plucky little British startup last year and bought one. Sadly, any good points, and there were plenty, were thrown aside by stupid little niggles with the device and, more importantly, WileyFox's absolutely appalling support, although the term support is probably a misnomer, because they wouldn't know support if it walked up and shook their hand.
USB port recessed so far into the device that any connector apart from the supplied (non-standard and considerably longer than it ought to be) wouldn't attach securely? Oh yes. Seemingly trivial, but utterly frustrating beyond words. I wasn't the only one having issues here; BlackBerry charger, Lumia charger, HTC charger, Belkin in-car charger; none would attach. WF's telephone support people rather patronisingly informed me that there was an issue with all my chargers and cables, as theirs was standard, despite the connector being, if memory serves, about 6mm longer than the norm. They generously suggested I should buy one of their chargers, but that they weren't available yet and they'd no idea when they might be.
Battery life? Appalling. In fact, beyond a joke. Six hours of doing very, very little is not, despite what their support people insisted, normal or acceptable. Even the 3 year old S2 still held more charge on its original battery.
I wasn't the only person with these issues; plenty were shouting up at the time. The main issue really was that WF were rude, arrogant and patronising in their responses; untruthful, at times. That's the biggest killer and that's the reason that I'll never buy anything from them again; honesty is, apparently, the best policy, but I don't think WF got the memo...
What Ritch_b said really.
I really tried to like the WileFoxSwift 1 but it really was beset with problems - random crashing and bizarre battery life (would go from 30% to nothing quite frequently).
Happily Amazon were very good about taking it back.
I bought mine after glowing el Reg review too and would be rather more sceptical this time.
A pity really as it's a wonderful idea in theory.
I have an original Wileyfox Swift and I am very happy with it. The dual SIMM is very handy for PAYG - you can keep an existing PAYG number from a previous network and then add another SIMM for PAYG mobile data (Three do 1Mb for 1p). There have been regular system updates and I haven’t experienced any problems using Cyanogen. I agree with the previous comment about the USB connector being set back a bit more than normal, but you get used to it. If something went wrong with this phone I would happily buy another. Well done Wileyfox.
Just a note to say that whilst lots of people talk about the Swift (1 & 2), I bought the Spark for my daughter in the summer, and for £89 I can't believe what an amazing phone it is! If you don't care about the absolute latest greatest features in each area, but just competence in all of them, I can't imagine how you could beat the Spark for VFM! (it has dual SIM + MicroSD but I haven't tested it with both SIMs in operation).
Seems fast and responsive in most regards, the pictures it takes seem decent (if not the best, but, did you see the price!? ;) )
The CM OS plus the price/feature set was the reason it got bought, so that I could lock down the apps better than vanilla Android. Seems worth that alone for a fully working CM OS build!
HTH!
If the Swift 2 is £60 better than the Spark then it'll also be fantastic VFM!
"Nothing in the price bracket offers one [ a fingerprint scanner ]"
Elephone P9000 £185 on Amazon UK right now, with Prime delivery. Offers said fingerprint scanner as well as 1080p screen and 4GB of RAM and wireless charging.
I'm very pleased with mine - no issues since I've had it and a few OTA updates already, including the security patches.
Bargain of the year for me.
Just ordered a Xiaomi Note3 Special Edition (work on all UK 4G networks), for £120, IT has a finger print scanner, and far better specs than this WF phone - which, after all, is an off the shelf, budget Chinese model with a new back plate on it - it may even be an old Xiaomi phone based on the spec sheet.
I have one of these! It was very nice for the 23 hours I had it until it slipped out of my hand and the screen imploded as it hit the floor.
Using the Wileyfox replacement service was a bit of a pain as the site appears to be unable to cope with sudden popularity. Waiting on the return now.
Eh, no.
I had an original Swift and it was a great phone until I trapped it in the hinge of a cinema seat at the start of August. I pre-ordered a Spark+ based on the "mid August" dates in their April press announcements and then heard NOTHING. Nothing to say my order was ready. No explanation when the release date passed. No timely reply when I asked if there were delays. The only contact details on their website were for their support email address. I found a returns address on the order confirmation so at the end of August wrote to there to cancel the phone. Bought a G4 from Argos on my way home from work the same day.
THEN I get an email saying they're having delays meeting initial orders. (Especially annoying when it looked like it was available on Amazon)
THEN I get an email saying the phone has dispatched (we're now four weeks after ordering). If I want to cancel it I'll have to accept the delivery and then send it back.
I finally got a full refund 4 weeks after the supposed release date and 6 weeks after ordering. I have a G4 I'm more than happy with.
It's a shame because I loved Cyanogen on the Swift, but their Customer Service was a joke.
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