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Battery life
Peel off the rear plastic cover of the WileyFox Spark and you'll find dual SIM ports, a microSD slot, and something that's a rarity in today's smartphones – a removable battery.
WileyFox says the 2,200mAh power pack should see the phone through a full day on a single charge, but I found that almost impossible to achieve.
I'm generally a moderate to heavy smartphone user, but due to the Spark's terrible performance I found myself using it less than I would a more capable handset. That said, any form of usage appeared to kill the battery. It's not like I was even pushing it overly hard.
A couple of hours of Spotify streaming, some infuriatingly slow social networking and email action, and some short-lived web browsing was generally all I put the Spark though – and, to be honest, was all I could bare to do on it most of the time – and it still was hitting 15% come 6pm.
I found myself requiring a top-up before leaving work each evening if I wanted the Spark to see me through until bedtime.
Leaving it off-charge (and connected to Wi-Fi) overnight, around eight hours, the Spark dropped by a whopping 25%. No screen-on time, just pure, idle drain.
Things didn't get much better when running the TechRadar video test. Turning screen brightness up to max, connecting to Wi-Fi with accounts syncing in the background and running a 90-minute HD video saw the Spark's battery life drop from 100% to 65%.
That's a loss of 35%, which puts it some way behind the Motorola Moto E (lost 22%), Vodafone Smart Prime 7 (15%), HTC Desire 530 (24%) and Moto G4 (17%), and which is far from convincing.
Camera
On paper the WileyFox has a surprisingly punchy camera line-up, with 8MP snappers adorning both the front and rear of the device. Round the back the camera is accompanied by a single LED flash, while the front offering is a more than acceptable selfie snapper.
There are HDR and night modes, plus the ability to capture full HD video. Not bad for a phone that costs just £89.
Thing is, performance once again gets in the way of what could be an impressive camera showing at an entry-level price.
The camera app takes a second or so to load up, and shutter speeds jump between fast and cripplingly slow, but in good light – and with a steady hand and a lot of patience – I was able to snap a couple of pleasing pics.
The Spark struggles more indoors and in low light, with noticeable detail loss and colours that lack vibrancy, but it's still not an awful showing from a sub-£100 handset.
The camera interface is relatively fuss-free, with video and panorama modes flanking the central shutter button, and further options at the bottom/left of the screen, depending on which way up you're holding the phone.
There are exposure and white balance controls, along with a variety of modes including Beach, Candlelight, Fireworks and Landscape.
In truth these modes don't add a great deal to the overall quality of your images, with the Spark lacking the processor powering to make the most of them.
Round the front, the secondary 8MP camera provides a perfectly serviceable selfie snapper. You can opt to use the power button as a shutter button, making it easier to snap those all-important selfies, while the volume rocker can be utilized as a zoom control.
