Wileyfox Swift unboxing: The £129 smartphone gunning for the Moto G

The entry level phone from brand-new company Wileyfox is the Swift, a 4G smartphone that will set you back just £129, and is powered by Qualcomm’s sprightly quad-core Snapdragon 410 chipset.

Competing head on with the latest 3rd generation Moto G, the specs are remarkably similar on paper. Like the Moto G, the Swift comes with a 5-inch 720p display, 16GB of internal storage (and a microSD card slot), and 2GB of RAM. In the camera department, both phones come with a 13-megapixel camera.

Battery capacity is also pretty evenly matched, with 2,470mAh on the Moto G and a (removable) 2,500mAh battery on the Swift.

While both phones offer 4G access (at Cat 4 speeds for 150/50Mbps), the Swift can also take a second SIM.

But, just like the Moto G and all other Snapdragon 410 powered devices, the Swift misses out on 5GHz Wi-Fi and, with it, 802.11ac support. Still, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi is likely to be with us for years to come, even on the very latest routers, so there’s little risk of being left unconnected for the foreseeable future.

The highly adaptable and regularly updated Cyanogen OS 12.1 promises to be bloat free and comes with a huge selection of themes to personalise screen layouts, icons, notification buttons, fonts, and much more. A load of additional security and privacy features are also baked in.

With a two-year warranty, extendable to three years, and a £10 screen replacement fee if you should break through the Corning Gorilla Glass protection, the Wileyfox Swift seems set to be a very shrewd investment. The Wileyfox brand also looks fresh and exciting.

I was fortunate enough to take away a Swift from the launch event, and will be testing it over the coming weeks. With my Moto G review still to be published, it’s going to be a great chance to test both side by side, remembering that the Wileyfox is far cheaper than the Moto.

Until then, take a look at the unboxing and hands-on photos below. Any questions? Ask me on here, or via Twitter.

Unboxing

Specifications

More info: Wileyfox