My Serenata:

I have a 'free' Seranata from my purchase of a BS5, though sadly it gathers dust; as a mac user the inability to transfer album art is a killer, and the interface while appealingly retro, is also clumsy.

P

i must say i agree with the album art i have to go on the pc for that and for the time and effort i just cant be bothered so im having to live without it but having said that thats the only thing im not keen on so far, i like the interface although i can see why many dont as it is very retro and there isnt much too it. One thing i do like on the other hand is the operation wheel i like the feel of that and i think that it works nicely :)

I have a Serenata that I use as a phone for work, and as a portable music player on weekends at the beach, and believe me or not, the phone is very robust, because I work on ships & not in a top clean office, it has to deal with dust, dirt, grease, heat & cold, and after one year it still looks like new.

The music player is really the great winner, the sound is fantastic, compared to my previous BeoSound 2, even at similar compression rates, the Serenata sounds better.

The only downside for me is SMSing, it can be done but if you're used to typing long messages & at high speed, it does show its limitations!

On the audio part, the downside for me is the extremely thin cable for the earphones, I'm very careful when using the earphones, because it looks like it will break at the first stretch of the cable.

I've been a fan since I first got my hands on the Serenata. I use a smartphone at work and the Serenata at home, but I have started to use the Serenata at work too - simply because it doesn't hang (Windows Mobile...) and the sound quality is great (talking). The built-in speaker is, to me, a much more practical way of listening to music without blocking out the rest of world and you can move around in a room without dealing with cords going from your ears to the mp3-player.

My smartphone's (HTC) display goes black/blank during a call, so activating it and locating the speaker phone function is too frustrating compared to just sliding up the speaker on the Serenata. And, as stated above, it comes with a pre-installed "rubber housing" that makes it robust and the battery capacity is 2x-3x that of the smartphone.

The Serenata is fairly good at browsing the web (wap), but for texts (sms) and emails it must be among the worst on the market.  Also, I must admit that getting music on to it is too slow (I do not mind the interface) compared to the iPhone.

The polite ring tones and the clever charge station are the icing on the cake - the phone is always fully charged when I pick it up on the way out of the house.

Roger

Umm...sounds persuasive...maybe time to wipe off the dust and have another play!

But how to get album art without buying a pc? I did speak with B & O and was told there are no plans to support the product further (on the software side with Beoconnect).

P

i use a HTC Diamond for business im guessing you do too by the sounds of the hang ups your having? and the screen going to standby during calls? 

Close - it´s the one with the sliding keyboard, HTC Pro, but it is basically the same phone as the Diamond.

Roger

Well I guess I should chip in here!  Per my other post, I was lucky enough to win a Serenata in the prize draw. 

It's certainly a unique and unusual thing. In some ways it feels like it's from the past, certainly compared to an iPhone it's hopeless in many respects. But it is different, which I like, and nicely made - although even the design is frustrating (for example: the plugs on the earset, USB cable and charger are a tight and tricky fit and of course you have to unplug before you can use it on its stand). Not sure how durable the screen will be as it's obviously exposed to scratches, etc. unlike a folded Serene.

It was a nightmare trying to set it up on a Mac, so I installed Windows on the Mac to try that. I have to say I don't think it's a whole lot better with Windows!!  Although I have now got some music on there with album artwork.  I love the idea of being able to relax and listen to my music and not have to worry about missing a call (previously I used an iPod for music and my Serene as a phone... but often I'd be listening to the iPod and unaware that the Serene was ringing in my pocket!). Also being able to use speakerphone is great (although I'm not sure I'd listen to music on the speaker).

Completely given up (after trying for days!) on getting a video onto it, but I guess it doesn't look so great on a 240 x 240 screen anyway! If anyone has managed to get video to play on their Serenata, please let me know.

I find the sound quality of music through the earset 3 is unexpectedly good, to my ears even better than the iPod with A8s - although I guess the music playback is really just a Samsung MP3 player?

Anyway, I like it, and although I do prefer the design of Serene I feel lucky to be able to use both!