Marshall's London smartphone is an interesting animal. On the one hand, it's a pretty mediocre smartphone with a high price tag, but on the other, it's a musician's dream, with hi-def playback and recording, dual headphone ports, and more. Read on for our thoughts on the audio-focused smartphone.
- The look of the London is stunning. The Marshall logo on the textured back cover is striking, and the gold accented button and volume dial (a nice touch in itself) mimic the iconic styling you'll find on the company's iconic guitar amps. It has all the hallmarks of the brand, and for this reason stands out from the rest of the smartphone crowd.
Unfortunately, in hand, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The buttons have a satisfying cushioned click to them, and the notched volume dial feels great, but the overall build is a touchplasticky, and the pronounced curve of the sides almost makes it feel like you're using a device entombed within a protective case that you just can't take off.
The combination of a bezel and speaker grille at the top and bottom add to that feeling, making the whole thing feel a little clunky, despite being a fairly modest-sized handset by 2015 standards.
If you view the London purely as a smartphone, it isn't all that impressive. It runs on a budget-focused Snapdragon 410 processor, paired with 2 GB of RAM, and there's a 720p display up front. The display measures 4.7 inches, which works out to 312 pixels per inch.
The sharpness of the panel is ... fine, and colors look good straight on, but they do start to look washed out when you're viewing the screen at an angle. Most modern flagships have good (if not great) viewing angles, so it feels like we're time traveling several years back to see a phone display that's weak in that respect.
Performance is okay during standard use, with no detected slow-down when zipping around the near stock Android 5.1 OS, opening and closing various apps one after the other. Don't expect to play more advanced games like GTA: San Andreas or Telltale'sGame of Thrones here though, as the hardware simply isn't up to it.
The device's cameras are a low point, with both the 8 MP and 2 MP rear and front shooters producing poor results. Captured images are grainy, lifeless and the tap-to-focus feature is far too slow and not as reliable as it should be.
One area where the London did shine was battery life, with the device easily managing a full day of standard use, and striving on well into the next.
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