Samsung has teamed up with Danish home theatre designer Bang & Olufsen to launch the strikingly original MP3 phone, Serenata.

Set to ship in Europe by the end of October, its release is timed perfectly to when the iPhone is rumored for a European launch as well. Packed with features including 4Gb of music storage, the Serenata stands to lure many iPhone users away.

Not only does it look unique,  the handset doesn’t look much like a mobile phone: the top half of the nearly button free phone is dominated by a click-wheel. Designed for one-handed use, the click-wheel is used for phone dialing, writing texts and emails and accessing the music lists. All primary functions on the phone are controlled by the click-wheel.

Below the click-wheel, where the buttons are found on conventional mobile phones, is the 2.26-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) touchscreen. This screen displays menus, and album artwork.

Pressing a button in the center of the click-wheel quickly switches the Serenata quickly from phone mode to music mode. The phone is packed with an impressive set of music features, including: HSDPA connectivity for rapid downloads; 4GB of flash memory, built-in hi-fi speakers and a bass system designed to replicate the sound quality and functionality of your home music system. Also, the included PureMusic function allows you to listen to music without interruptions while calls are received by the answering device. Battery life is good enough to sustain amplified music for up to five hours through the speaker or 13 hours through a headset.

Included with the Serenata is a dock that charges the phone, provides line-out audio for speakers, and a USB connection that syncs files and music with both Macs and Windows. Bang & Olufsen also claims they will have extra software available to transfer music from iTunes.

The Serenata is compatible with GSM Networks (900,1800, and 1900 MHz bands) and HSDPA service. Pricing has not been announced.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 1:58 pm under Cell phones.

Read more entries by Ema Kwiatkowski.
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