Wileyfox Swift 2, Swift 2 Plus budget phones revealed

UK-based brand Wileyfox made quite a splash last year thanks to its Swift and Storm smartphones. Featuring a cheap price tag but a notable spec sheet, the handsets made for a solid first impression.

Now, the company has announced a successor to the Swift in the form of the Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus range. So, do the new phones continue the “cheap but good” trend?

Well, the Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus share several specs, for starters. There’s the mid-range Snapdragon 430 processor (octacore A53), rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, 5-inch 720p display, 2700mAh battery with fast charging, 8MP selfie camera, hybrid dual-SIM support and Cyanogen OS (based on Android 6.0).

The Wileyfox Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus aren’t badly priced at all – here’s hoping Orange stocks them

Where the two devices differ is in the main camera, RAM and storage departments though. The vanilla Swift 2 features a 13MP main camera, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. The Swift 2, on the other hand, possesses a 16MP f/2.0 main camera, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

Otherwise, the phones look identical to each other, with a Xiaomi-style circular fingerprint scanner, dual bottom-firing speakers and USB Type-C support.

As for a retail price, expect to pay £159 for the Swift 2 and £189 for the Swift 2 Plus. There’s no word on a local release, but the Orange Store did stock last year’s models, so there’s definitely a precedent…