Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus review: Another mediocre Moto G4 rival

Display

One thing Wileyfox has improved on is the quality of its screen. Its 5in panel still has a resolution of only 1,280 x 720, but decent colour accuracy makes it much more pleasant to use than last year’s model. Now covering a much more respectable 91.3% of the sRGB colour gamut, the Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus’ rich, punchy colours would be the envy of many other budget smartphones.

And yet, Wileyfox shoots itself in the foot here (or should that be paw?), as the screen’s brightness is significantly worse than the original Swift. Topping out at a mere 344cd/m2, it becomes very difficult to read in direct sunlight, and I often had to squint or shelter it with my hand to see it clearly. Couple that with a rather underwhelming contrast ratio of 786:1 and the Swift 2’s screen isn’t particularly versatile.

Camera

The key difference between the Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus is the rear camera. As mentioned previously, I was sent the Swift 2 Plus for review, which is equipped with a 16-megapixel snapper. As a result, I won’t be able to comment on the regular Swift 2’s 13-megapixel camera until I get one in for review.

Judging by my test shots, though, it doesn’t look like you’ll be missing out on much. While colours were quite rich and vibrant, detail was sorely lacking, often lost in smudges of colour. The Swift 2’s camera also struggled to expose the sky correctly, blowing out the cloud into huge patches of white.

And despite being set to capture in 4:3, the onscreen viewfinder still displays as 16:9, making it hard to frame your shots accurately. I’ve complained about this several times on previous Wileyfox phones. It’s irritating to see this still hasn’t been fixed.

Indoor shots weren’t much better. They were extremely soft in low light, showing hardly any signs of sharp, crisp outlines. Things improved slightly when I turned on our studio lamps, but our still life arrangement still looked rather hazy around the edges.

Verdict

The Swift 2 is an improvement on the original Swift, but even its attractive metal casing isn’t enough to make it stand out from the crowd. And, given the mediocre performance of the Plus’ rear camera, I can’t see any reason why you’d want to pick this over the regular Swift 2.

Even if you do opt for the £159 Swift 2, though, the similarly-priced Moto G4 is just so much better in every respect, offering superior battery life, faster performance, a larger, higher resolution screen and better camera, that it’s hard to look anywhere else. The Swift 2 might look a touch nicer in your hand, but the Moto G4 is much better value for money.