Wileyfox was a British smartphone manufacturer founded in 2015. It went into administration on 6 February 2018. On 19 March 2018 it was announced that Santok Group had agreed a licensing deal covering sales of handsets in Europe and South Africa.
The firm aimed to provide products that were more affordable than their competitors, whilst not compromising on quality. The company claimed that by having a smaller workforce and no legacy devices to support, they would be able to sell their devices for lower prices. Wileyfox stated that the commoditisation of hardware would enable them to differentiate their products from competitors using other Android distros, or iOS.
History
In 2017, founders Muir and Denman left Wileyfox, where they had served as CEO and CMO, respectively, to found a startup accelerator called Growth Hackers Global. In 2018, the company entered administration in the UK.
Products
1st generation: Swift, Storm
Specification overview
| Wileyfox Storm | Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 | Octa core (1.7 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 and 1.0 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53) | Adreno 405 | 32 Gigabyte | microSD up to 128 GB | 3 GB | Cyanogen OS 12.1 | 155.6 x 77.3 x 9.2 mm | 157 g (5.54 oz) | 2500mAh non-removable Li-Po | 5.5" 1920x1080 (400ppi) with laminated glass from LG Electronics | 20 MP with f/1.8 aperture | 8 MP with LED flash | £199 |
| Wileyfox Swift | Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 | 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 | Adreno 306 | 16 GB
/ref> | 2 GB | Cyanogen OS 12.1 | 141.15 x 71 x 9.37 mm | 135 g (4.76 oz) | 2500mAh removable Li-Po | 5" 1280×720 (294ppi) fully laminated IPS panel from JDI with Corning Gorilla Glass | 13 MP with f/2.0 aperture | 5 MP | £129 |
Swift
The device was well received by the public and media, however, comments have been made about the micro-USB port being too recessed (preventing many third-party cables from properly locking in the port). The plug shaft length of cables supplied by Wileyfox exceeds the minimum length mandated by the USB specification by approximately 0,5mm.Figure 4-8 on page 21 of the Universal Serial Bus Micro-USB Cables and Connectors Specification Revision 1.01, http://mgvs.org/public/shema/datasheet/usb_20/Micro-USB_final/Micro-USB_1_01.pdf Wileyfox's cables do not meet USB specification requirements in other aspects, and as of 2016-01-15, Wileyfox did not pass the compliance requirements to use USB logos or trademarks.Wileyfox has no USB Vendor ID, which is a prerequisite to undergo compliance testing; http://www.usb.org/developers/logo_license/ Because the metal ring holding the rear camera lens has sharp edges, moving the device on a comparatively soft surface, such as a wooden table, easily leaves scratch marks. The accessory clip-on covers available from Wileyfox alleviate this issue by protruding beyond the metal ring, and are offered in black and red orange. While these cases protect the back, rear camera lens and sides, they do not protrude to protect the screen. The device dimensions change to 73mm width, 143mm height, and 10mm thickness. GPS and GLONASS performance is fast and accurate, for early production dates. However, a metallic adhesive layer on the inside of the back cover was added in later production batches, for a purpose not known to the public. For phones produced with this layer GPS and GLONASS reception can be poor, unless it is manually peeled off.
In addition to the officially supported, proprietary firmware Cyanogen OS, its basis, the Android derivative CyanogenMod, supports the device. The first release for the Swift is version 13.0, which was made available on 2016-03-16, simultaneously with the first wave of CyanogenMod 13 releases. As of 2020, the device is still supported by LineageOS, with LineageOS 17.1 allowing Android 10 to run on the device. In February 2022, LineageOS support ended.
Storm
2nd generation: Spark, Spark +, Spark X
Specification overview
| Wileyfox Spark | MediaTek 6735 | 64-bit Quad-core 1.3 GHz | Mali T-720 | 8 Gigabyte | microSD cards up to 32 gigabyte | 1 GB | Cyanogen OS 13.0 | 143 x 70.4 x 8.65 mm | 134.5 g | 2200mAh removable Li-Po | 5" 1280×720 (294ppi) IPS panel | 8 MP | 8 MP | |
| Wileyfox Spark + | MediaTek 6735 | 64-bit Quad-core 1.3 GHz | Mali T-720 | 16 Gigabyte | microSD cards up to 32 gigabyte | 2 GB | Cyanogen OS 13.0 | 143 x 70.4 x 8.65 mm | 134.5 g | 2200mAh removable Li-Po | 5" 1280×720 (294ppi) IPS panel | 13 MP | 8 MP | |
| Wileyfox Spark X | MediaTek 6735 | 64-bit Quad-core 1.3 GHz | Mali T-720 | 16 Gigabyte | microSD cards up to 32 gigabyte | 2 GB | Cyanogen OS 13.0 | 154.35 x 78.6 x 8.75 mm | 134.5 g | 3000mAh removable Li-Po | 5.5" 1280×720 (267ppi) IPS panel | 13 MP | 8 MP |
3rd generation: Swift 2, Swift 2 Plus, Swift 2 X
All third-generation phones support Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 standard, although no charger is included in the box. The devices are codenamed marmite.
The device codenamed champagne seems to be marmite devices with the back of the phone coloured gold.
Specification overview
| Wileyfox Swift 2 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 | 64-bit Octa-core 1.4 GHz | Adreno 505 | 16 Gigabyte | microSD cards up to 64 gigabyte | 2 GB | Android Nougat 7.1.1 (upgrade from Cyanogen 13) | 143.7 x 71.9 x 8.6 mm | 155 g | 2700mAh non-removable Li-Po | 5" 1280×720 (294ppi) IPS panel | 13 MP | 8 MP | 159 GBP |
| Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus | Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 | 64-bit Octa-core 1.4 GHz | Adreno 505 | 32 Gigabyte | microSD cards up to 64 gigabyte | 3 GB | Android Nougat 7.1.1 (upgrade from Cyanogen 13) | 143.7 x 71.9 x 8.6 mm | 155 g | 2700mAh non-removable Li-Po | 5" 1280×720 (294ppi) IPS panel | 16 MP | 8 MP | 189 GBP |
| Wileyfox Swift 2 X | Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 | 64-bit Octa-core 1.4 GHz | Adreno 505 | 32 Gigabyte | microSD cards up to 64 gigabyte | 3 GB | Android Nougat 7.1.1 (upgrade from Cyanogen 13) | 147 x 73 x 8.2 mm | 152.8 g | 3050mAh non-removable Li-Po | 5.2" 1920x1080 (424ppi) IPS panel | 16 MP | 8 MP | 219 GBP |
Accessories
External links
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