Hardware

While the Swift was an all-plastic affair, Wileyfox's new family of smartphones are encased entirely in aluminium. Indeed, this change is easily one of the headline upgrades. When I reviewed the original Swift, I thought it slightly generic but charming all the same. I have similar feelings about the Swift 2, 2 Plus and 2 X, since there's nothing notably fresh about their design. And yet, they look and feel like a completely different class of device compared with their predecessor.

This is down primarily to the use of more premium building materials, of course, like the contrast between an Ikea coffee table and a hardwood antique. The move to aluminium brings some side effects with it too. The Swift 2 and Swift 2 Plus are basically the same size as the first Swift but roughly 20g heavier and appreciably more robust -- not surprising given the upgrade from plastic to metal. There's no more pulling off the flimsy back plate to get at the necessary slots either. Instead, you plug your SIM (or two) and microSD card into drawers tucked neatly into the sides of each handset. This does mean, though, that the batteries are non-removable.

I enjoyed the subtle, quirky design touches Wileyfox included on the first Swift: The circular earpiece, for example, and orange accents here and there. Some of this character has been lost between the generations, making the three new phones a tad blander. The round earpiece has been faithfully preserved, though, and it makes sense that Wileyfox would gravitate toward a more serious design. The company's fox-face logo is now a simple mirrored-effect badge, as opposed to the textured, busier icon on the first Swift, and the main camera border is less prominent this time around.

The minimalist approach to branding complements the aluminium build, with its finely textured power key and volume rocker, neat loudspeaker grilles and Torx screws. The quieter design also frees up space for the new fingerprint sensor found on the back of each handset -- as responsive as any I've tried and a welcome feature you might not expect in this price bracket.

My review units are all what Wileyfox calls "Midnight," which is something like a deep gunmetal grey with a hint of blue mixed in. If you'd prefer something a bit more adventurous, gold, pink and mint green tints are also available, depending on the variant.

The Swift 2 series feature USB-C ports for data transfer and fast charging (Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, to be precise), but, importantly, they don't oust the standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The only other visible element of note is the multi-colour notification LED on the top bezel of each handset -- a useful little light I miss when I'm carrying a phone without one.

The Swift 2 and 2 Plus are both 5-inch devices, which means they're verging on small by today's standards. That kind of size perhaps isn't great for enjoying a full-length film, but the compact frame makes them very comfortable in the hand. That's partly due to the lack of sharp corners, with the flat back curving smoothly round to meet the sides at a neatly chamfered edge. The same can be said for the 5.2-inch Swift 2 X, which is identical, save for being a fraction bigger and thinner -- almost imperceptibly so -- due to its larger screen.

If there's one downside to the new Swift design language, it's that Wileyfox's engineering tolerances are just a tad lax. The circular earpieces, for example, are all ever-so-slightly off-centre. Similarly, the two seams cutting across the aluminium bodies could be tighter and more consistent in places. You have to examine the devices pretty closely to notice these little hiccups, though, and I'd rather they exist than Wileyfox avoid the material upgrade because of them. The metal cladding really elevates this generation above the last, and it's something you won't find on many devices starting at £159.

Swift Swift 2 Swift 2 Plus Swift 2 X Dimensions 141.2 x 71 x 9.4mm 143.7 x 71.9 x 8.6mm 143.7 x 71.9 x 8.6mm 143 x 73 x 8.2mm Weight 135g 155g 155g 152.8g Display 5" IPS LCD (720p) 5" IPS LCD (720p) 5" IPS LCD (720p) 5.2" IPS LCD (1080p) Glass Gorilla Glass 3 Gorilla Glass 3 Gorilla Glass 3 Gorilla Glass 3 Processor 1.2GHz quad-core 1.4GHz octa-core 1.4GHz octa-core 1.4GHz octa-core RAM 2GB 2GB 3GB 3GB Storage 16GB (expandable) 16GB (expandable) 32GB (expandable) 32GB (expandable) Primary camera 13MP 13MP 16MP 16MP Secondary camera 5MP 8MP 8MP 8MP Battery 2,500mAh (removable) 2,700mAh 2,700mAh 3,010mAh OS Cyanogen OS 13.1 Cyanogen OS 13.1 Cyanogen OS 13.1 Cyanogen OS 13.1 Cellular Cat 4 LTE Cat 4 LTE Cat 4 LTE Cat 4 LTE WiFi 802.11b/g/n 802.11b/g/n 802.11b/g/n 802.11b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 4.1 4.1 4.1 NFC No Yes Yes Yes Fingerprint reader No Yes Yes Yes

Display

Both the Swift 2 and the Swift 2 Plus carry 5-inch, 720p IPS LCD displays, representing no upgrade (on paper) over the first Swift. On the one hand, 720p is a perfectly acceptable resolution for this size of display, and more pixels would have a negligible impact on your enjoyment of YouTube clips and Twitch streams. Also, it's an understandable compromise that helped the company hit that sub-£200 price point. On the other hand, though, Motorola's first affordable Moto G device launched with a 4.5-inch 720p screen in 2013, and I'd expect to see some progression in this area, just as flagships have made the jump from 1080p to Quad HD over the past few years.

That said, the Swift 2 and 2 Plus do appear to have marginally better panels than their predecessor. They're just that little bit more vibrant, though I have noticed a slight inconsistency between the new handsets. On my review units, at least, the Swift 2's display is a hair richer than the Plus' where colours are concerned, even though the hardware is supposed to be identical.

This is compounded by the fact the screens on all the devices, the Swift 2 X included, have slightly different colour temperatures. Observed in isolation, the white balance on each is accurate. Only when put side by side can you see the variations, which are minor enough that I couldn't tell you what tinge is creeping in (red, blue, yellow, etc.). You can always manually adjust colour temperature using the LiveDisplay feature buried in device settings, which also allows you to set different day and night profiles -- say, if you want less blue light (the kind that can mess with sleepiness) in the evening. Blacks are deep on all Swift 2 models -- as deep as you'll see on any backlit LCD panel, anyway.

The Swift 2 X distinguishes itself from other members of the family, as it's the only one with a 1080p panel, though this resolution is stretched over a slightly larger 5.2-inch display. I'd be lying if I said you couldn't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at this size, because you'll struggle to pick out individual pixels on the Swift 2 X, while on the Swift 2 and 2 Plus, you can spot them if you look closely at skinny fonts, like the app names sitting beneath their icons. Personally, I don't feel like the 1080p display of the Swift 2 X elevates the user experience, but you might feel differently if you frequently watch shows or play games on your phone.

The 1080p panel of the Swift 2 X goes that bit brighter than the 720p displays of the smaller models, eliminating more glare when you look at the phone in direct sunlight. But this is barely noticeable, and all three devices are perfectly usable on a nice, sunny day, with glare having minimal effect.

Software

Out of the box, the Swift 2 range runs Cyanogen OS 13.1, a customised version of Android that uses 6.0.1 Marshmallow as its base. Without going into minute detail, the elevator pitch for Cyanogen OS is: It's similar to the stock experience, but enhanced with a few extra features and apps. These include small visual tweaks like the vertical, scrolling app drawer and bonus settings like LiveDisplay for adjusting screen colour temperature. If security is important to you, the PIN scramble feature randomises the number layout on the lock screen and access to individual apps can be managed by creating pattern-protected folders on the home screen.

Cyanogen OS carries a few additional preloaded apps, such as "Themes," which allows you to change almost every aspect of the UI, from fonts to icons to the appearance of the navigation bar and boot animation. AudioFX lets you tweak sound output so you can get the most out of your headphones, manually or via various preset profiles, and Truecaller integrates a special caller ID service into the regular dialler.

Cyanogen's browser and gallery apps offer alternatives to Google Chrome and Photos, respectively. I'd call these bloatware, since they duplicate much of the functionality of Google's services, but the gallery app lets you pull images from several popular online services into one place, and some people might prefer to avoid Google's apps for legitimate reasons.

The latest version of Cyanogen OS includes what are called MODs, which are value-adding features created by others. Microsoft in particular has taken advantage of this program. Microsoft's Hyperlapse camera mode is built into the Swift 2 family, for example, and you can make Skype calls from the stock dialler, provided you have the app installed. There's also a Twitter lock-screen MOD that keeps you on top of trending topics without your needing to fully wake your phone.

This is what the Swift 2 software experience looks like at the moment, but that could all change in as soon as a week or two. You see, as of last October, Cyanogen abandoned development of its custom OS. Nevertheless, Wileyfox intends to update the Swift 2 devices to Android 7.0 Nougat before the end of this month. While the plan is to keep as many of the neat, extra features of Cyanogen OS as possible, Wileyfox has no choice but to align itself with stock Android to keep its new devices up to date.

Camera

The new devices carry one of two different primary cameras. The Swift 2 carries a 13-megapixel sensor, whereas the Plus and 2 X boast 16-megapixel shooters. The first Swift also played host to a 13-megapixel main camera, but dig into the spec sheet of the Swift 2 and you'll see the model number of the Samsung sensor used this time around has changed.

When I reviewed the first Swift, I wasn't overly impressed with its primary camera. I have similar feelings about the Swift 2, though the sensor swap has improved things somewhat. The resolution might be the same, but in good conditions, the Swift 2 produces moderately more vivid, saturated images. That said, it can be inconsistent. Unlike Google's super-simple camera app, the Cyanogen OS version offers many more settings and modes. That means you can play around with all the standard values, like white balance, ISO, exposure compensation and metering, among many other things. But I prefer to leave everything on default and let the phone do all the work for me.