If you woke up today and had to guess which company would be announcing a new smartphone, guitar amp-maker Marshall probably wouldn’t be one of your first predictions. Turns out that that’s exactly what has happened.
Marshall today showed off the London, a new Android 5.0.2 smartphone that unsurprisingly places a lot of focus on sound. For example, it’s got a Wolfson WM8281 Audio Hub soundcard that Marshall says allows the London to play music “at a higher resolution” for better MP3 sound and FLAC support. You’ll also get a global equalizer, Bluetooth aptX for better Bluetooth sound, dual microphones, and a Loopstack app that’ll let you record four channels of audio.
Marshall is throwing a pair of its Mode in-ear headphones with each London, too. And with the phone’s two stereo jacks, you’ll be able to plug two pairs of headphones at once and control their volume independently. If you’d prefer not to use headphones at all, the London has two front-facing speakers that you can blast tunes from.
Finally, the London has a “M” button at the top of the unit that’ll take you to your phone’s music with one push, as well as a physical scroll wheel on the side of the unit for that controls volume.
In terms of raw specs, the London offers a 4.7-inch 1280x720 display with Gorilla Glass 3, Snapdragon 410 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. There are also 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front cameras and a removable 2500mAh battery. All of that is wrapped in a body that’s modeled after Marshall’s amps and actually looks kind of nice.
The Marshall London is available for pre-order for 4,995 Swedish Krona, which works out to around $586 USD, and orders are expected to begin shipping on August 17.
Marhsall has been making headphones for a while now, but it’s kind of surprising to see them introduce an Android smartphone. And while it doesn’t quite offer bleeding edge specs, it’s got a decent enough feature set for folks that are interested in the London because of its musical features. Interestingly enough, the London does offer two features that are missing from many top-end phones lately: a microSD card and a removable battery.
What do you think of the Marshall London?
