Marshall – the British makers of what would have to be the world’s most famous guitar amplifiers (for the non musical readers, that’s the stacked up grey boxes at the back of Guns ‘n Roses music videos) – have come completely out of left field and released a smartphone.
It’s called ‘London’, and like most things made by Marshall, it looks like a guitar amp.
This surprising Android phone is styled and textured after the iconic amplifiers used by everyone from Hendrix to Hanneman, and in no great shock to anyone, is tailored to music lovers.
Billed by the company as the ‘loudest phone on earth’, (I would have gone with ‘the phone that goes to 11’, personally) the London features two headphone jacks, designed to resemble guitar inputs (of course) as well as actual tactile volume controls, also styled to resembled the larger counterparts featured on the amplifiers.
The phone also features dedicated sound hardware, for both playback of music – Marshall claims crystal clear playback of lossless FLAC music files, and the device will feature premium headphones and dual front facing speakers – as well as for recording both voice and instruments.
The phone’s specs will be decent rather than bleeding edge – it features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 with 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage and a 2500mAh battery.
The crisp 4.7inch display will be complemented with and 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front facing camera.
The device will likely run Android 5 and is set to cost around $600USD, with release set for August 2015.
Check out the full specs and details on Marshall’s site.
Would you rock the new Marshall phone? Let us know in the comments!