Marshall
London

When the Marshall London phone was announced it was a unique design which captured the imagination of tech reviewers and consumers. It was developed by Finnish company Zound Industries, was “aimed squarely at music lovers”, and was the only phone the company ever produced. After launching the Marshall London, Zound Industries decided to focus on its core product categories of headphones and speakers. The phone echoed the iconic Marshall guitar amp design with a faux textured leather back, brass buttons, white piping around the front of the phone and the classic logo on the rear of the device. A further nice touch was the branded battery with the slogan “Long live rock’n’roll”. At launch, the speakers were the loudest and highest fidelity in the phone world. Though they were subsequently bettered by some flagship smartphones, especially in the world of gaming phones. There was an “M” button on the top of the device that offered quick access to the music app. Furthermore, the phone had two 3.5mm headset jacks so an owner could share their music with a friend listening on a second pair of headphones. Each output had an independent volume control. Volume was controlled using a brass scroll wheel on the side of the phone, a particularly nice touch providing some real differentiation from other smartphones. Stereo playback was offered from two front-facing speakers, and the phone was powered by a Wolfson WM8281 Audio Hub sound card. It also supported Bluetooth APTX to offer the best quality wireless audio performance. Although the design and focus on the music and audio experience was excellent, it was a relatively standard Android smartphone with its 4.7-inch 720P screen, eight-megapixel camera and 2,500mAh battery. At a launch price of £399 (US$550) it was considerably more expensive than Android phones with a similar specification.