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Following the launch of its Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus smartphones a couple of months ago, Wileyfox has introduced a third member of the family with the Swift 2 X.  As with the earlier offerings, Wileyfox has adopted the approach of melding together aspects of London-based design concepts with best-in-class Chinese manufacturing using tier one components and the Popular Android software supplemented with some additional tweaks.

In some respects the Swift 2 X is rather similar to the earlier models.  If is not for the fact that my Swift 2 Plus had a distinctive orange cover, I might struggle to identify at first glance which was which if I laid the two handsets side-by-side.  However there are some differences that the more observant might pick up on.

To encompass the slightly larger screen size of 5.2 inches, Wileyfox has increased the width of the Swift 2 X handset to 73mm while still managing to reduce the height and depth to 143mm and 8.2mm respectively.  There is also a drop of 3g, down to 152g, in the weight of the unit.  The unit’s body has an aviation-grade aluminium metal back with a diamond CNC cut.

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The Swift 2 X’s 5.2-inch curved display is full HD with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 delivering a PPI of 474.  Protected by Gorilla Glass, the display features a glove mode (which probably explains while reviewers were given a pair of branded Acrylic / Polyester gloves with their review unit) and a smudge resistant oleophobic coating which did seem to be far more effective on my unit than the one being used by the Wileyfox demonstrator.  Finger smears apart, and the tendency to double as a mirror, the display delivers bright colours and sharp images.  As with the other models in the Swift 2 family, this handset’s screen comes with its own replacement service costing £14.99 for 12 months of ease of mind cover in the case of damage.

Like the other handsets in the Swift 2 series, this latest model is a hybrid dual SIM smartphone.  You have the choice of inserting two SIMs, consisting of a micro and nano units, or replacing the micro SIM with a micro SD card to increase storage capacity up to 64GB.  Whatever your choice, the cards are housed in a slot situated on the left side of the handset.  A standard pinhole tool is provided to help eject the card holder from the body of the unit.  The regular arrangement of a power button mounted above a volume rocker is located on the right side of the handset.

Wileyfox has paired a front-mounted 8MP camera with the main 16MP camera on the rear.  A dual LED flash sits alongside the rear camera.  Both cameras support digital zoom with the 8MP unit using a Sunny OV8865 sensor and the 16MP camera going with a Samsung 3P3 sensor.  The Swift 2 X has Phase Detection Auto Focus for quick capturing of images plus live filters, burst mode and slow motion video.

The Swift 2 X is built around an Octa Core Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 430 MSM8937 processor rated at 8 x [email protected].  There is also the next generation Adreno™ 505GPU.  As standard there is 3GB of RAM and 32GB of ROM with the micro SD option to increase storage capacity.

Providing the power is a 3010mAh battery, an increase over the 2700mAh used in the earlier models.  Charging the battery is via a Type C USB connection located on the base of the handset.  An appropriate USB lead, combining standard and Type C connection plugs, is supplied in the box.  The Swift 2 X features the Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 3.0 technology which allows you to get a 25% charge in 15 minutes, 50% charge in 40 minutes and 75% charge in 55minutes.  However to gain these charging rates you will require the appropriate Quick Charge 3.0 enabled power adaptor which does not form part of the package.

The Swift 2 X has a number of sensors built into the handset.  There is a fingerprint sensor with the reader positioned just below the rear-mounted camera.  Other sensors for proximity, ambient light and 3D G provide appropriate functionality.  The handset offers support for Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GPRS and NFC features but not OTG.

While at the time of conducting this review, plans are well advanced for the Swift 2 X to be upgraded to the latest Android 7 (Nougat) software with some tweaks popular with users, the initial batch of this new handset came with Android 6 overlaid with version 13 of Cyanogan.  Using this soon-to-be-replaced operating system, my Swift 2 X took 52 seconds, including an initial 2 second depress of the power button, to arrive at the lock screen.

Delivered in Wileyfox slim packaging style, which should fit through most letterboxes (but not mine), and available in a Midnight Blue finish, the Swift 2 X can be purchased from Wileyfox.com priced at £219.00.  It will be interesting to see whether the upgrade to Android 7, expected in February, will affect the slow boot up procedure of this product.

https://www.wileyfox.com/