I think it looks quite nice but lacking wow. Love it or hate it, Serene definately has the wow factor.
Pulling this out of your pocket isn't going to make people do a double-take like they do with Serene.
I was hearing today that the speaker is a 'proper', HiFi quality speaker as befits a 'phone/MP3 player.
Can't see it being less than a grand (£1000) and guess I'll stick to my Serene for a couple more years.

Andy T.

I actually quite like it! The built in speaker should be interesting, I imagine it'll be quite impressive if B&O's engineers have had a proper stab at it! I like the idea of music on my phone, although it isn't an iPod replacement, and shouldn't be compared to an iPod...

Not sure, but either way, it'll be interesting to see how it sounds. All mobile phone speakers seem to be absolutely rubbish, even if you take their minute size into account...

Oh dear. I was hoping so much for something special this time around. First impressions I would have to say that I don't like it at all. I agree that 'in the flesh' it might suprise me, as the Beo 5 remote did earlier today, but only slightly. I don't particularly like that much either and will stick with a Beo 4. I am not holding out much hope. What is going on with B&O honestly? They really have lost their design edge. I am actually very disappointed if I am to be totally honest. B&O no longer means to me what it once did. I will never buy a B&O product with Samsung (or any other brand name) written on it.

Simon. 

I am actually quite impressed. Good to see it is upside down and doesn't have the normal keyboard. I love eccentricity, thats why i love B&O. From the reactions here, i would say that B&O haven't done a bad job at all with this design. Look at all these strong conflicting opinions!

Simon, you are clearly happy with their older designs. B&O are always ahead in design ideas, and i believe that the serenata will be something to remember, as will the Beo5. 

I look forward to reading a review on what it does, how it does it, and how well it works.

To me, David has summarized in one word what B&O has become: excentric...

When I discovered B&O in 1989, I fell in love with ALL their products , even the BeoSat RX and the video tape packagings..

Now almost everything they release is not receiving comments like "wow, this is beautiful, I wish I could have one", but rather like "ok, what is this supposed to be? weird design!". Apart from the BeoVisions that are still -or finally- flat and square, the rest of the range has become a combination of curves and straight lines, a circle and a square (Beo 5, BeoLab 3, BeoSound 4, and now Serenata), and I find that really ugly.

 And as for function, the upside down screen is a total nonsense to me, same for the metal wheel that will burn your fingers if you leave your phone in the car in summer, and burn your cheek once you hold it for a conversation!

So - basically, the Serenata should be like most other mobile phones, while being Beo-Eccentric? 😁

The problem here is that a lot of other CE manufacturers have discovered the power of design and are using it, where B&O ruled the roost quite on its own during the 80s and 90s. It's simply a lot harder for B&O to stand out.

I don't buy into everything that comes from B&O, but I've been quite intrigued by Lewis' exploration of the square, triangle and circle, which I personally find is done to perfection in the BL5, but which you'll even find in the BL4s, BL3s, etc. Finding the circles in the BL4, and realizing it's actually constructed by the intersection of spheres, is fun.

As to the Serenata, only days to go.