Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus review

For £189, Wileyfox has did wonders with the Swift 2 Plus when it launched. It's now cheaper, but the competition boast more up-to-date specs. That said, the Swift 2 Plus is still a solid budget smartphone.

It looks and feels like a more expensive phone, with an attractive aluminium build and smooth performance.

Its camera is capable of taking decent shots, its fingerprint sensor works well, and with an update to the latest version of Android it's still relevant.

But for a slightly (and we mean slightly) underwhelming display resolution and mediocre battery life, the Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus would be a true affordable classic. 

As it is, it’s still an excellent phone and an easy recommendation to make if you’re looking to spend around £200 on a smartphone.

Who's this for?

The Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus is for those who want that effortless, friction-free experience that flagship phones provide without paying a huge premium.

If you’re obsessed by specs and pin-sharp screen resolutions you can do better, even at this price. But you’ll do well to find a sub-£200 phone that feels quite so assured.

Should you buy it?

If you’re shopping for a smartphone with just £200 in your pocket, the Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus undoubtedly deserves your consideration. It has a sense of balance, poise, and class that’s hard to come by at this end of the market.

The Moto G4 Plus is a more capable phone all-round, but it doesn’t feel quite as special in the hand. It’s a quality that’s tough to pin down, but shouldn’t be ignored.

Perhaps the best thing we can say for the Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus, is that our experience of moving across to it from an iPhone 6S wasn’t remotely grating. An absence of annoyance might sound like damning with faint praise, but this kind of careful, frictionless design is the toughest thing to achieve at any price point.

The Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus is a polished phone, with a low price, but there are other handsets which arguably offer as much, or even more, for the same sort of money. The following are three examples.

Motorola Moto G4 Plus

While we’re a little disappointed that Motorola/Lenovo didn’t differentiate the Moto G4 Plus a little more from the regular Moto G4, it remains the phone to beat at this price point.

For pretty much the same price as the Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus you get a larger, sharper display, a better camera, and a faster processor.

However, the Moto’s plastic design doesn’t come close to the Swift 2 Plus, and it also lacks NFC for Android Pay payments. Ultimately it’s far too simplistic to label this as a choice between style and substance, as both phones punch well above their weight.

• Read our full Moto G4 Plus review

Honor 5X

If raw specs are what matters to you, then the Honor 5X is tough to beat in the sub-£200 market. It’s got a stunning 5.5-inch 1080p display, strong battery life, and a decent processor.

However, its custom interface is flat out ugly, and the phone doesn’t feel as premium as its aluminium back would suggest.

On paper it’s a more capable phone than the Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus, but in the hand it just doesn’t feel that way somehow.

• Read our full Honor 5X review

Bush Spira E3X

Again, for around £200 you’re getting a bigger and sharper display than the Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus, as well as double the storage, more RAM, and a faster processor.

However, the Spira E3X is built like a tank, it’s got a naff sandpaper feel and cheap Bush logo on the back, the fingerprint sensor is rubbish, and that 21.5MP camera isn’t as great as it sounds.

It’s simply a less well-balanced, less polished phone than the Swift 2 Plus, and it’s not as pleasant to use day to day.

• Read our full Bush Spira E3X review

First reviewed: November 2016