Marshall, known for their headphones, amplifiers and other musical instrument, today surprised everyone by releasing an Android smartphone. Dubbed London, the handset has a very Marshall-like design to it.
The company claims that the handset has been “created for music,” which is why it comes with two front-facing speakers. The handset also sports two 3.5mm audio jacks at the top thereby allowing you and your friend to enjoy music from the phone simultaneously.
As if the unique design and features of the London were not good enough, Marshall has also equipped the phone with a scroll wheel — instead of the traditional volume bar — to make finding that sweet volume level easier. Lastly, the phone also has a ‘M’ button at the top that provides quick access to your music library, irrespective of wherever you are in the OS.
Coming from Marshall, its obvious that the phone’s strength is its audio quality. The company has used a Wolfson WM8281 audio chip to deliver astounding sound quality. The handset is also capable of playing back FLAC files natively, and comes with a global equaliser to make sure your music sounds just the way you want it to.
Marshall will also be bundling the London with their highly praised Mode in-earphones to make sure that the handset’s owners can enjoy the audio quality offered by it.
As for the specs, the London comes with a 4.7-inch 720p IPS LCD display, a Snapdragon 410 chipset clocked at 1.2GHz, 16GB of internal storage, 2GB RAM, a microSD card slot, LTE connectivity, an 8MP rear camera, a 2MP selfie shooter, and a removable 2,500mAh battery. The handset runs on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop and will come pre-loaded with some audio focused apps like Loopstack and DJApp.
Marshall is selling the London for $499 and will start shipping the handset from August. The device is already up for pre-order on the company’s website.