Samsung, Bang & Olufsen to launch Serenata music mobile phone

Here comes another music-mobile phone. The latest entrant in the cell phone space comes as a joint product of Samsung Electronics and audio product maker Bang & Olufsen.

The new music-mobile phone, brand named Serenata, comes with the capability to hold 4G bytes of songs and has a number of other music features similar to the iPhone. Expected to hit the show rooms of Europe by the end of October 2007, Serenata’s pricing details have not yet been finalized.

The Serenata is not an usual cell phone. Review reports said that the handset doesn't look much like a mobile phone. It comes with a top half dominated by a navigation wheel with no buttons at all. The 2.26-inch LCD touch screen comes below the navigation wheel. The navigation wheel is intended to be used one-handed. All primary functions on the phone are controlled by the navigation wheel, including searching menus, dialing, writing and accessing music lists, the companies said. The touch screen is secondary.

A built-in speaker with bass system which can play amplified music for up to five hours through the speaker or for around 13 hours through a headset before requiring a battery charge, is one of the many added features. Besides, a button on the handset switches it quickly from music to phone mode, and the screen changes from red to blue to make sure the user knows exactly what mode the handset is in.

The reports added that the Serenata will work with GSM networks in the 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands, and with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access services on 3G networks. Users can send e-mail SMS text messages from the handset, and store up to 1,000 phone numbers in its address book. The phone allows users to create to-do lists, write in calendars, and has enough battery power for three hours of talk time.