Wileyfox

Wileyfox
Private company
Industry Telecommunications equipment
Founded 2015 (2015)
Founder Nick Muir
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people

Nick Muir, (Chief Executive Officer)

Victoria Denman, (Chief Marketing Officer)
Products Smartphones
Website www.wileyfox.com

Wileyfox is a British smartphone manufacturer, which sells its products and services exclusively online.

Their products use Cyanogen OS firmware, the commercially adapted branch of CyanogenMod, which, in turn, is the most popular aftermarket Android derivate. Another focus for Wileyfox is providing products that are more affordable than their competitors, whilst not compromising on quality.[1] The company claims that it achieves these lower costs by having a smaller workforce and no legacy devices to support. Wileyfox stated that its use of Cyanogen OS, as well as a commoditization of hardware, will enable them to differentiate its products from competitors using other Android derivates or iOS.[2]

Wileyfox's leadership team includes CEO Nick Muir, who has been general manager of Motorola UK, and CMO Victoria Denman, formerly marketing management at Motorola and Microsoft.

Products

This article states the actual device specifications, which may differ from specification sheets provided by Wileyfox.

1st Generation: Swift, Storm

These devices were announced in August 2015, originally running Cyanogen OS 12.1, with sales and shipments starting later that year. Both devices have dual SIM capability.[3]

Specification overview

Model SoC CPU GPU Storage capacity Removable storage RAM OS Size Weight Battery Display Rear-facing Camera Front-facing Camera Launch price
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 GB microSD up to 128 GB 3 GB Cyanogen OS 13.0.0 155.6 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 microSDXC cards up to 2 TiB (2048 GiB)[4][5] 2 GB Cyanogen OS 13.0.0 141.15 x 71 x 9.37 mm 135 g (4.76 oz) 2500mAh removable Li-Po 5" 1280×720 (294ppi) fully laminated IPS display from JDI with Corning Gorilla Glass 3[6] 13 MP with f/2.0 aperture 5 MP £129

Swift

The Wileyfox Swift is based on the Longcheer L8150, which in turn is based on the Qualcomm Seed reference design. Other notable rebrands of the Longcheer L8150 are several 2nd generation Android One devices. Wileyfox does not presently offer replacement batteries. However, due to several other devices with identical hardware, compatible replacement batteries are available. Video recording in 1080p is supported at up to 30fps; 720p recording is supported at up to 60fps.[7][8] The rear camera sensor is a Samsung S5K3M2 chip with Isocell pixels,[7] which provide better image quality when compared to BSI pixels.[9] The device supports GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning.[10] Two color variants, sandstone black and white, are produced; however, availability varies by country. At its time of release, the Swift was the cheapest Cyanogen OS device available in Western Europe.

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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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,[14] 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.[15] 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.[15][16]

Storm

The Wileyfox Storm is a 5.5" FHD smartphone based around a unibody design. Like the Swift, the Storm uses a 2500mAh battery, but the unibody construction makes the battery non-removable. A side mounted slot accessed by a pinhole reveals a tray that allows a combination of a Micro and Nano SIM card or a MicroSD card and a Micro SIM card. The front facing camera is 8MP and benefits from a LED flash for selfies. The rear camera is a 20MP Sony EXMOR IMX220 sensor capable of 1080p and 90fps slow motion capture. The device supports GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning.[10] Two color variants, sandstone black and white, are produced; however, availability varies by country.

2nd Generation: Spark, Spark +, Spark X

In June 2016, a new range of phones has been announced, consisting of Spark, Spark + and Spark X, which are using Mediatek MT6735 SoCs and provide dual SIM capability.

Specification overview

Model SoC CPU GPU Storage capacity Removable storage RAM OS Size Weight Battery Display Rear-facing Camera Front-facing Camera Launch price
Wileyfox Spark MediaTek 6735 64-bit Quad-core 1.3 GHz Mali T-720 8 GB 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 display 8 MP 8 MP
Wileyfox Spark + MediaTek 6735 64-bit Quad-core 1.3 GHz Mali T-720 16 GB 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 display 13 MP 8 MP
Wileyfox Spark X MediaTek 6735 64-bit Quad-core 1.3 GHz Mali T-720 16 GB 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 display 13 MP 8 MP

3rd Generation: Swift 2, Swift 2 Plus

In November 2016, a new range of phones has been announced, consisting of Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus, which are using Qualcomm SoCs again, specifically the MSM8937 octa-core clocked at 1.4 GHz, paired with an Adreno 505 GPU.

Accessories

Wileyfox also produces spare batteries, clip-on covers, and screen protectors specific to their phones.

References

  1. ↑ Woods, B (2015-08-25). "Wileyfox launches its first Cyanogen OS smartphones, the 5" Swift and 5.5" Storm". The Next Web, Inc. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
  2. ↑ Gilbert, D (2015-08-25). "Wileyfox pins smartphone hopes on Cyanogen software and budget pricing". International Business Times Co. Ltd. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
  3. ↑ Wileyfox. "FAQs". Wileyfox. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
  4. ↑ "Wileyfox Swift Review: On sale now – and why you should get one – JM Communications". JM Communications.
  5. ↑ See table 3-21 on page 74 of https://developer.qualcomm.com/download/sd410/snapdragon-410-processor-device-specification.pdf
  6. ↑ "Wileyfox - Swift - Affordable Smartphone technology".
  7. 1 2 "S5K3M2 - Mobile CIS - Mobile Camera - Samsung Semiconductor Global Website". Samsung Semiconductor.
  8. ↑ "Snapdragon 410 Processor Device Specification" (PDF). Qualcomm Developer Network.
  9. ↑ "Samsung Launches ISOCELL: Innovative Image Sensor Technology for Premium Mobile Devices". Samsung Semiconductor.
  10. 1 2 "Wileyfox". Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  11. ↑ 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
  12. ↑ Wileyfox has no USB Vendor ID, which is a prerequisite to undergo compliance testing; http://www.usb.org/developers/logo_license/
  13. ↑ Evaluation with early production date being visible: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/30/wileyfox-swift-storm-review/
  14. ↑ http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/wileyfox-swift-1302600/review/3
  15. 1 2 https://web.archive.org/web/20160326112356/https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=crackling&type=snapshot
  16. ↑ http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/cm-13-0-release-1
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