Our Wileyfox Spark unboxing and hands-on review takes a closer look at this £89 Cyanogen smartphone, the first new mobile in 2016 from British brand Wileyfox. What are the Wileyfox Spark specs and features, and is it an affordable alternative to more expensive smartphones?
Last year we were quite impressed by the Swift and the Storm, the first two phones from new British firm Wileyfox. At £129 and £199, these handsets offered strong value for money, although they were sadly lost amongst the maelstrom of strong affordable phones like the Moto G3 and Vodafone’s excellent Smart Ultra 6.
Wileyfox is back into the fray in 2016 with three new mobiles; the Wileyfox Spark, the Wileyfox Spark+ and Wileyfox Spark X. The most affordable of these three phones is the Wileyfox Spark, a 5-inch handset that costs just £89 (making it one of the cheapest smartphones of the year so far).
Check out our Wileyfox Spark vs Spark+ vs Spark X comparison guide to see what the difference is in terms of specs. We’ve already got our hands on the Spark, so here’s our unboxing and hands-on Wileyfox Spark review, including UK price and release date info.
Wileyfox Spark specs
For £89, the Wileyfox Spark is a cheap-and-cheerful mobile that packs some decent features. The Spark specs are as follows:
5-inch IPS screen
1280×720 resolution
135g
Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Cyanogen OS 13
Mediatek MT6735 processor
1GB RAM
8GB storage
microSD (up to 32GB)
Dual 8MP cameras
2200mAh
Wileyfox Spark unboxing and hands-on review
We’ve unboxed and gone hands-on with the Wileyfox Spark, so check out our video below for a closer look.
At 5-inches, the Wileyfox Spark is smaller than many other cheap smartphones launched in 2016, including the 5.2-inch Honor 5C and the mighty 5.5-inch Moto G4. It’s a decent fit for the hand, although not too compact, while the Spark’s design is very similar to last year’s Swift. From the soft-touch back to the super-cool fox head logo, the Spark is a decent-looking budget blower.
The Wileyfox Spark sports a 5-inch 720p screen and it’s pleasingly sharp with quite warm colours. There’s only 8GB of storage for media however, although you can prise off the phone’s back and slip in a microSD memory card (up to 32GB) as well as two SIM cards.
Performance in the first couple of hours has been rather stuttery, with the basic Mediatek processor and 1GB of RAM struggling to keep up with Cyanogen 13. We’ll be testing the Wileyfox Spark in full to see how it copes over time.
You also get dual 8-megapixel cameras, and you’ll see those in action in the video above.
Wileyfox Spark UK price and release date
You can pre-order the Wileyfox Spark from today, from the Wileyfox website. The Spark costs £89 here in the UK, or 119 Euros.
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