London-based smartphone company, WileyFox, has launched the Swift 2 X, which happens to be the company’s first release this year. The device is already available for purchase from the company’s own website, at a price of £219.99 (US$270). The major selling point for Wileyfox devices has always been its software, with all the earlier releases from the company running Cyanogen OS out-of-the-box. This one is no exception to that rule either, and runs on Cyanogen OS 13.1, which is based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Of course, now that Cyanogen is officially dead, Wileyfox is said to be working on its own Cyanogen-based ROM, so it will be interesting to see when that particular update finally rolls out to this device. It is important to note here that the company has already announced that it will roll out Android Nougat to all of its handsets during the current quarter, although, we don’t have an exact ETA for that just yet.
Taking a quick look at some of the tech specs of the newly-launched device, the Wileyfox Swift 2 X features a 5.2-inch Full HD screen, and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC. It comes with 3GB of RAM along with 32GB of internal storage, and supports micro SD cards of up to 64GB for capacity expansion. The device carries a 3,010mAh battery that supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0, while dual-SIM functionality and LTE connectivity come as standard features. The handset also comes with a fingerprint scanner as well as an NFC chip, which will make it compatible with mobile payment systems, such as Android Pay. Imaging options include a 16-megapixel camera on the back and an 8-megapixel shooter on the front.
All of that points towards a fairly standard-issue mid-range device in 2017, so it will be interesting to see how the smartphone fares against its competition in the coming months. In terms of availability, the Wileyfox Swift 2 X is already up for sale on the company’s own website. Just like its predecessors, though, this one is also currently available only for U.K. residents, and there’s no word on whether the company wants to expand its operations to international markets at any stage in the near future.