News - 17/07/2015

Marshall announces the “London”, its very own music-oriented smartphone

Marshall announces the “London”, its very own music-oriented smartphone

Marshall yesterday surprised the web by announcing not a hot new amp but a hot new smartphone. 

This is not the first foray of the company into personal electronics, after all it launched a reasonably successful line of headphones, but headphones and amps went pretty well together - but by moving into smartphones the company is taking on a much different, more complex challenge. 

The new Android phone, called the London, most notably features two front-facing speakers - the company states it may be the loudest phone on the planet, two headphone jacks with separate volume controls and an ad-hoc music button that immediately brings up the phone’s music interface. 

Under the hood, Marshall has included a dedicated high-res audio processor which is able to breeze through FLAC files, as well as a replaceable battery and MicroSD storage. 

The phone comes with special Marshall earbuds and is now available for preorder in the UK. The price tag is a hefty £399, just over $600, which makes it a premium option even though there are much more advanced headsets available for similar amounts. 

It will be interesting to see who ends up owning these headsets. Marshall has great brand recognition but up until today nobody would have associated it with smartphones. Will the company’s traditional customers buy into it or will they see it as a further dilution of the brand into non-essential, non-musical pursuits? Will it become a ‘hipster’ accessory? Those eager to be the first with the phone n their hands may pre-order today, but many may wait for the first full reviews to surface before committing to version one.

 

(Andrea Leonelli) 

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