Wileyfox Spark X review: A new Moto G4 rival

Camera

On the back, you’ll find the Spark X’s 13-megapixel camera. Considering it has a fairly narrow aperture of f/2.8, it actually does a decent job for the money. Shooting in Auto mode has a tendency to blow out whites and leave shadows quite dark, but this improved when I switched over to HDR mode. Otherwise, its colour reproduction was good and detail levels were steady throughout.

However, the camera app itself makes it very difficult to frame your pictures accurately. Despite being set to shoot in 4:3, the app’s viewfinder still displays in 16:9, so you never know whether you’ve got everything in the shot. It’s something I’ve complained about on previous Wileyfox phones, so it’s disappointing to see this still hasn’t been fixed.

It’s particularly irritating when you’re taking indoor shots in close quarters, and I constantly had to lean back to fit everything in. The Spark X started showing its limitations indoors as well. Objects were very soft round the edges even in bright lighting conditions, and there wasn’t much contrast between light and dark.

On the plus side, there’s little to no noise and colours were still reasonably bright and vivid. The fur on our stuffed bear was a little greenish, but nothing too troublesome.

Cyanogen 13

For some people, a large part of the Spark X’s appeal will be down to the fact it uses Cyanogen rather than stock Android as its main operating system. Cyanogen is still based on Android, so it’s not too dissimilar in terms of its overall look and menu structure, but it does have a couple of extra features.

The Themes Store, for instance, lets you customise the look of the OS, while Truecaller is built straight into the phone’s dialler, allowing you to block calls and identify unknown callers without having to download an additional app. Another of Cyanogen’s big draws used to be individual app permissions, but this is now part of Android 6 and 7 by default, so it’s not quite so cutting-edge as it once was.

Instead, it’s the smaller touches that give the Spark X a bit of an edge, such as the option to select a left-handed mode when you’re using the phone in landscape mode, and the ability to add additional shortcuts to the power button. A double-press opens the camera, for instance, but you can also use it to end calls.

It’s also possible to configure separate system profiles for when the phone is set to silent or when you’re in your car, allowing you to alter the phone’s notification preferences, screen brightness, lockscreen mode and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS automatically.

Verdict

For all its merits, though, there’s still one smartphone that does it all better than the Spark X, and that’s the Moto G4. It is, admittedly, £50 more expensive SIM-free, but I’d say it’s worth the extra cost. Not only are you getting a sharper, higher-quality display, but also a superior camera and longer-lasting battery. 

The Spark X is still a good choice if you don’t want to spend much more than £100 on a smartphone (although this might change once I get the new Moto E3 in for review, which has a 5in screen, a splashproof design and costs just £99). However, if you’re looking for the very best budget smartphone that money can buy, the Moto G4 still reigns supreme.