Which phone: Moto G5 vs. Wileyfox Swift 2 X

[vostok]

I wonder if you fine people can help me pick between these two.

Here's the Swift 2 X, if you've never come across the brand.

They're very similarly specced, and a similar price. Here's the essential comparison (G5 vs. Swift 2 X):

Price (Amazon): £165 / £170
RAM: 3gb / 3gb
Screen: 5in / 5.2in
Screen-to-body: 62.57% / 71.53%
Storage: 16gb / 32gb
Camera: 13mp / 16mp
Battery: 2800 mAh / 3010 mAh

I'm trying to convince myself to go for the Swift as it's an independent British company rather than a huge corporation but I'm aware the G5 is pretty much the perfect model in this price range (sub £200).

What do you think?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

G5. I heard Wiley fox has appalling customer support

 

[IceScreamer]

As someone who has used 3 Moto phones so far (1st gen, 1st gen 4G and G4 Play) I can wholeheartedly recommend the G5.

 

[notb]

I'm trying to convince myself to go for the Swift as it's an independent British company rather than a huge corporation but I'm aware the G5 is pretty much the perfect model in this price range (sub £200).

Why would you want to buy anything from "an independent British company" rather than from an established manufacturer?
I could understand this if there was a price difference. There are a few companies in Poland with similar business model, but they're usually 30-50% cheaper than the mainstream brands...

Wileyfox phones are still made in China and they mostly have the same parts as other Chinese models available.
This means you're not getting anything unique, but you're missing on the best things that make the large companies stand out.
G5 has a much better camera, better UI, better exterior design, better after-sales support. It's also from a tried and tested brand and, let's be honest, this is a phone after all - something that has to "just work" in the first place.

 

[vostok]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like it'll be the G5, then. Worth the extra £70-odd for the G5 Plus?

@notb, I accept that argument, but I also think there's a nobleness in rewarding locally-designed products. But only if it makes good purchasing sense, which was the crux of my question.

Re: better camera and UI, are you talking from experience of both phones? I had thought from the specs that the Swift seemed to have better camera, and the UIs, insofar as they're both essentially stock Android, seem the same.

 

[notb]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like it'll be the G5, then. Worth the extra £70-odd for the G5 Plus?

If you can spare the money, yes. G5 Plus is in fact a different phone. Better CPU, better camera, better screen, turbo charging. The naming is confusingly similar, but it's like a Samsung J vs Samsung A.

@notb, I accept that argument, but I also think there's a nobleness in rewarding locally-designed products. But only if it makes good purchasing sense, which was the crux of my question.

There is a point in rewarding a local company, if it makes an equally good product (including support etc). Here, the product is worse, the support is - from what I've heard - almost nonexistent.
You should not reward a company for making a sub-par product - this stops progress, not supports it!

Re: better camera and UI, are you talking from experience of both phones? I had thought from the specs that the Swift seemed to have better camera, and the UIs, insofar as they're both essentially stock Android, seem the same.

No, I've only seen reviews, some videos of phone working and photos. But hey... I'll be going around electronic stores this week a lot - if I find one, I'll give you some personal opinion as well.

As for UI, Wileyfox uses the (IMO rubbish) Cyanogen OS - just like all the Chinese brands - a good hint on where the design actually comes from. This is not a pure Android like on Motorola G lineup.

Camera is by far the easiest to criticize. Specs are good, but the cameras aren't. Image quality is really bad (noise, colours, sharpness... basically everything), autofocus is poor in good light and non-functional in low light.

Also the reviews point out some important design issues that we don't see that often in mainstream phones of late. Like the audio jack placed on top of the phone. Or some kind of activity LED that is supposedly so bright that this phone is distracting for people around you.

In fact this whole phone is clearly built around specs, not funcionality (much like all the OnePlus, Meizu and similar Asian brands).

 

[Shihab]

G5 owner here, coming from a "flagship" HTC One M8, I can't say I'm missing much with the G5. The nearly-stock Android is perhaps its greatest selling point. I did use, and love, CyanogenMod's and wouldn't say the OS itself is less of a competitor to stock, but the fact that it's discontinued puts it, and any phone shipped with it, completely out of recommendation. Unless hacking your own bootloaders and roms into your phones is your thing...

I say +1 going for the tried and tested on this case.

Also the reviews point out some important design issues that we don't see that often in mainstream phones of late. Like the audio jack placed on top of the phone. Or some kind of activity LED that is supposedly so bright that this phone is distracting for people around you.

Just one tiny note:
The G5 also has the audio jack on top.

In fact this whole phone is clearly built around specs, not funcionality (much like all the OnePlus, Meizu and similar Asian brands).

And 90% of all android handsets out there. Blame it on Samsung and a market of anti-Apple consumers on a crusade comparing specs post every iPhone release.

 

[notb]

Just one tiny note:
The G5 also has the audio jack on top.

That is correct! I was only interested in G5 Plus and totally missed that. Very, very weird.
As such, this is another big plus for G5 Plus. For me that would be easily worth 10 GBP out of the 70 GDP premium. Maybe even 12!

And 90% of all android handsets out there. Blame it on Samsung and a market of anti-Apple consumers on a crusade comparing specs post every iPhone release.

I disagree. Samsung is clearly a brand supporting a usability approach. Sure, they're also leading in hardware, but the phones are beautifully designed and well tested most of the time (although clearly not as well as Apple's).

It's actually not brands' fault. It's ours. We look at things through specs, not usability. That's why Nokia went down and was replaced by all the OnePlus-type rubbish. Because it's very cheap to just send a spec list and logo project to Foxconn, while it's hugely expensive to design and properly test every functionality of the phone.

It's 2017. I'm looking for a new mattress right now and the salesmen are still using arguments about being comfortable and good for my spine. And when I ask about the specs, they say: it has springs. I love it.
I'm 100% sure that by 2027 a mattress salesman will have no interest in what a spine is. Instead, he'll tell me that a mattress has full IoT compatibility, that it measures my pulse, that it has some ARS, HBC, SPU and all the other WTFs.
Don't take me wrong: I'm all for IoT, AI and the next industrial revolution. But when I think that smartphones are the centerpiece of this revolution and a sign of how it will look, I get pretty worried.

 

[vostok]

LOL re: mattress salesmen of the future.

OK so after a few days of research I've narrowed down to this:

- Moto G5
- Lenovo P2
- XPeria XA1
- LG Stylus 3

It's the Stylus I'm really interested in as I love the whole notetaking thing. But it's worse in just about all specs, though gets good reviews. Any further thoughts on these!?

 

[OneMoar]

they are all low to middling end phones the Xperia has the most hardware brawn the g5 will have the ablity to root/custom roms
the exception is if you can get the stylus(LS777) with the mediatek chipset go with that

 

[vostok]

they are all low to middling end phones

Such is my budget I'm tryint to get the best for the funds available.

So you like the Stylus? That's cheered me up. I was expecting that to be considered the poor relation to the others, especially the P2, which seems to have very impressive specs (4gb, 2ghz, insane battery etc).

 

[OneMoar]

only if you can get the LS777 one
you do not want the snapdragon powered one

 

[Shihab]

only if you can get the LS777 one
you do not want the snapdragon powered one

Care to elaborate on the reasons not to go Snapdragon?

 

[OneMoar]

Care to elaborate on the reasons not to go Snapdragon?

its slower by a wide margin
the snapdragon 435 is 4 core with a Adreno 405 gpu
the helios p20 is a 8 core with a maliT860

 

[Vayra86]

I have a Moto G5 Plus and I really like it. If you can/want to move to that, do it. Much, much better camera among some other goodies for a minimal premium. Dual sim is also nice to have + larger battery. I can last 2,5 - 3 days easy on a charge with average use. And its no slouch either.

The camera sensor in the g5 plus is the one from the Galaxy S7 btw

 

[plåtburken]

LOL re: mattress salesmen of the future.

OK so after a few days of research I've narrowed down to this:

- Moto G5
- Lenovo P2
- XPeria XA1
- LG Stylus 3

It's the Stylus I'm really interested in as I love the whole notetaking thing. But it's worse in just about all specs, though gets good reviews. Any further thoughts on these!?

Between all of those you mentioned, without any doubt, the Lenovo P2 is the best, 1080p sAMOLED screen, 4GB of ram a 5100mah battery, 32 or 64GB internal storage with microsd slot(you will be using the 2nd sim slot for that) along with a very power efficient SoC, Snapdragon 625.
Truly a beast for it's price.

 

[vostok]

Thanks, plåtburken. Be nice if any of the shops actually had this available to view where I live!

 

[plåtburken]

Thanks, plåtburken. Be nice if any of the shops actually had this available to view where I live!

I hope so too, you will be pleased with it, specially if you're gonna use for long periods and be using it heavy, like videos, browsing, music and more. It's not a power house but it's really efficient and the battery it packs is just godly.