Wileyfox Spark X & Sonyso Xperia E5

British company’s new phone lacks the X factor

Twotw budget phones fail to impress

When we tested Wileyfox’s £90 Spark phone (see Issue 482) we liked its reasonably well-made hardware, decent screen and customisable Cyanogen software (an open-source version of Android), but were disappointed by its slow performance, short battery life and terrible camera. The Spark X, currently selling for £50 more, tries to be bigger and better, but doesn’t quite succeed.

The ‘bigger’ part is undeniably achieved by the 5.5in screen, but it still has the same low 1280x720-pixel resolution, making it coarse at this size, and with only 85 per cent of the SRGB colour range covered it actually looks worse than the Spark. At least it’s bright.

The processor is the same, and although doubling the memory to 2GB has helped it to run slightly more smoothly, it’s still sluggish for web browsing and limiting for games.

A larger case means more room for the battery, and the Spark X lasted us just over 11 hours playing video, which is unimpressive but acceptable. The rear camera has a higher 13- megapixel resolution, and took reasonable photos outdoors, but its f/2.8 aperture – which controls how much light the lens lets in – left it struggling indoors and we were thwarted again by Wileyfox’s broken camera app, which doesn’t show the whole picture you’re taking.

Finally, while we still like Cyanogen’s extra options, the latest Android versions have caught up with some of them.

This isn’t a bad phone, but it’s not cheap enough to justify its shortcomings. We’d pay 20 quid more for the Motorola Moto G4.

VERDIC VERDICT: It’s good to see a British compancompany in the smartphone market, but Wilewileyfox needs a bit more cunning to beat the pack ALTERNATIVE: Motorola Moto G4 £157 A much faster 5.5in phone with a sharper screen, longer battery life and excellent camera