Amazon may have been the first major company to offer customers a chance to save money on a smartphone by purchasing models with advertisements on the lock screen. But Amazon Prime Exclusive phones aren’t the only models available with lock screen ads anymore.

British phone maker Wileyfox has announced it’s now selling versions of its phones with lock screen ads for about 40 percent less than the price of a phone without the ads.

The company calls its ad-subsidized devices the “Add-X range” of smartphones.

Normally when you press the power button on an Android phone, you’re greeted with a lock screen that requires you to swipe or enter a PIN or pattern to unlock your device (or place a finger on a fingerprint reader).

The new Add-X phones from Wileyfox show an advertisement or offer on the locks screen. You can swipe left to find out more, or right to unlock your device.

Whether that’s a tradeoff you’re willing to make probably depends on whether you find targeted ads and promotional deals to be useful or annoying… and whether you’d want to see them every single time you turn on your phone.

Still, the savings are pretty significant. A Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus without ads usually sells for £190. You can pick up the Add-X version for £120. And the price of a Wileyfox Spark Plus drops from £120 to £70.

via TechRadar

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3 replies on “Wileyfox drops its smartphone prices… in exchange for ads on the lock screen”

  1. I have an Amazon Exclusive phone and the ads are very unobtrusive, and quickly disappear when you log in via the fingerprint scanner.

    My FIL has a Samsung Galaxy 8 and the ads on it are ridiculous. He probably paid 3x what I did and is being annoyed by far more obtrusive ads. (And it’s not due to a program he downloaded–I’ve already checked that out.)

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