Samsung and Bang & Olufsen now introduce Serenata, a new fashion phone combining music and mobile experiences for consumers. Designed by David Lewis, the Serenata measures 63 by 110 by 20 mm and weighs in at 136 gram. Most notably, however, is the phone's rather unique form factor, which slightly reminds us of the old Nokia 7700 communicator.
Boasting European HSDPA support and tri-band GSM, the Serenata will not hit U.S. shores, but with its music focus, it could be promoted as a competitor to the iPhone in Europe. Sporting a 2.4-inch 256K color display (240 by 240 pixels resolution), 4GB out-of-box memory, and a mediocre NetFront 3.2 browser, however, the Serenata doesn't stand a chance against the iPhone as we see it. In comparison, the iPhone offers a 3.5-inch 16M color display (320 by 480 pixels resolution), 8GB out-of-box memory, and a full-fledged Safari browser. If anything, the Serenata should be seen as a high-end fashion phone along the lines of LG's Prada phone.
When it comes to music management, the Serenata offers Bang & Olufsen's proprietary BeoPlayer, described as a simple application that can access and organize all music files on the PC and conveniently transfer them to Serenata. Also through the Samsung PC studio, the users can synchronize the contacts, calendar and to-do list from their computer onto Serenata via Microsoft Outlook.
To assist the user throughout, the display changes color depending on whether it is in Phone mode (blue) or Music mode (red). The on-board music player handles playback of songs encoded in MP3, WMA, WMA DRM and AAC formats. The WMA Lossless 9.1 audio codec is also supported. "Besides the color-coding and intuitive user interface, we try to help the first-time user with a 4-minute simulation tutorial, which is played in the display, explaining some of the most frequently-used functionality," said Bang & Olufsen Business Manager Brian Laursen.
A click wheel is claimed to give users a hassle-free control of music functions. "The basic idea is simplicity and one-hand operation. There are very few actual keys. We use the wheel for all primary operation in the context sensitive menus, like dialing, writing and accessing the music lists. For secondary operation, the wheel is supported by on-screen operation based on sensi-touch technology", said B&O Chief Designer David Lewis.
Serenata features a built-in stereo speaker system which aims to deliver outstanding sound quality, as well as a pair of EarSet 3 wired stereo headset.
The Serenata will be available later in October 2007, while pricing has yet to be announced (but it'll likely be expensive).
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