A UK-based company you've probably never heard of before has just launched a pair of new smartphones. The Wileyfox Swift and the Wileyfox Storm will hit the market priced at £129 and £199 respectively and on first glance offer a competitive set of specifications for those prices. Interestingly Wileyfox wants to stand out from the 'me too' Android crowd by its choice of OS, Cyanogen's OS 12.1 (based upon Android Lollipop 5.1.1).
The London-based company says that it exists because "tired of paying over the odds for mobile phones". So it wants to offer a killer combination of value and choice. The pair of phones that it has just announced are said to offer "Unrivalled customisation, Unrivalled privacy, and security and Unrivalled freedom". These claims appear to stem from the choice of OS (they echo those made by Cyanogen) rather than some kind of Moto-Maker store concept – as far as physical customisability both new smartphones are listed as being available in only one colour, Sandstone Black.
Wileyfox Swift (£129)
The Swift is pre-orderable now exclusively online, but ships in September to Europe, the Middle East and African countries. It is based upon a 5-inch HD IPS screen, protected by Gorilla Glass 3, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC at its heart. The Swift has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage on board plus a microSD card slot. For imaging duties it employs a 13MP primary camera and 5MP front camera. Dual micro SIM slots are present and it supports 4G LTE connectivity. Its battery boats 2500mAh capacity and is removable. It weighs in at 135g and is 9.37mm thick. Full specs can be found here (PDF).
Wileyfox Storm (£199)
The Storm is pre-orderable now exclusively online, but ships in October to Europe, the Middle East and African countries. It is based upon a 5.5-inch Full-HD IPS screen, with a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC at its heart. The Storm has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage on board plus a microSD card slot. For imaging duties it employs a 20MP primary camera (using Sony EXMOR IMX220 BSI sensor) and 8MP front camera which also includes an LED flash. A dual micro SIM slot version is present but it sacrifices the microSD slot. 4G LTE connectivity is supported. Its battery boasts a 2500mAh capacity and is not removable. It weighs in at 155g and is 9.2mm thick. Full specs can be found here (PDF).
Both smartphones come with a two year warranty as standard, extendable to three years for a fee of £9.99. Screen replacement insurance can be bought at the same time for £9.99 per year. It will be interesting to see how these smartphones fare against big brands with their marketing budgets and against China-brands boasting flagship specs for similar money to the Storm. In recent related news Lenovo's ZUK branded phones will be shipping to international markets with the Cyanogen OS pre-installed.
