The WileyFox Spark X is the “top of the range” budget phone from WileyFox. Priced at £139 – just £10 more than the RRP as the original WileyFox Swift, it now has a larger 5.5inch screen, bigger battery, and updated selfie camera.
AnTuTu Benchmark gives it a score of: 31,676, (3D: 3268, UX: 12243, CPU: 11703, RAM: 4462) so gaming is not going to be a strong point. (As a comparison the Samsung Galaxy S5 scored 60,380, and the new Sony Xperia XZ scored: 136,989)
The phone doesn’t really feel like a budget smartphone, but ever since the Moto G, and subsequent models the quality of budget smartphones has improved massively.
The phone is solid, and has a number of stylish touches, such as a coppery chrome surround, a copper speaker grill at the front, as well as a copper fox logo on the back, there’s also a copper surround around the camera lens on the back.
(Compared to the current Moto G, the Moto G4, the Moto G4 is around £160, has a FullHD 5.5inch screen, 8-core processor, 16GB, a 13mp, f/2.0 camera, is waterproof and scores an Antutu Benchmark score of: 46,614 – Source)
The screen looks good, and the screen is bright, and it’s not really obvious that the screen is a 1280×720 resolution. The phone comes with a pre-fitted protective film, although it’s quite thin, so not going to protect it from drops.
In use, the phone is responsive, and does a good job with all the things I’ve used it for. Youtube, Facebook, etc.
The default keyboard is reasonable, but doesn’t have the numbers on a separate line, which is a shame, as a 5.5inch screen is easily big enough to accommodate this. Personally I use SwiftKey, and switch on the number row.
The phone has a decent speaker.
Lets go over the main specifications compared to the WileyFox Swift, with the Spark X on the left, and the Swift on the right:
WileyFox Spark X | WileyFox Swift |
13mp f/2.8 main camera (Samsung, 4mm) 8mp selfie camera 5.5inch screen 1280×720 (IPS, 2.5d Dragontrail glass) 1.3GHz Quadcore (Mediatek 6735, 64-bit) Removable 3000mAh battery 154.35 x 78.6 x 8.75mm (thinner) 162.9g (with battery) Black |
13mp f/2.5 main camera, Samsung BSI CMOS, Dual-flash 5mp selfie camera 5inch screen, 1280×720 (Gorilla Glass 3) 1.2GHz Quadcore (Snapdragon 410, 64-bit) Removable 2500mAh battery 141.15mm x 71mm x 9.37mm 135g Available in black or white |
Same: FullHD video recording (rear and front camera) Same: 2GB / 16GB built in Same: MicroSD slot Same: Dual SIM slots |
Sat-nav using Google Maps works reasonably well (not perfect, but good enough), the speaker is loud enough. Call quality is reasonably good.
Camera – When recording video (FullHD, 30fps) you can take FullHD resolution photos at the same time. The camera app has auto, steady photo, night, HDR shooting modes. Panoramic as well.
Unboxing video: