I have had mine for 1 1/2 year and i am a happy customer. The sound is great also with the pop-up speaker. Its nice when you are lying on the floor fiddling with something..

The music player works excellent, the sound is great and it definetely sounds better than both my ipod and creative MP3.

But.... I have to admit that when someone send me a text i call them up. I dont write many texts with it. It takes too long.

It has of course some scratches and small bumps but generally i must say that its very robust. Especially compared to the earlier phones i had(nokia sony etc).

But most importantly= i love the design! Its just so different from other phones..

your right with the cable, broke mine 2 weeks ago when i snagged it on my shirt! plastic casing came away from the cable and caused the wire to be exposed but on the plus side b&o are going to put a new cable on and should get it back this week! :) 

It's the marmite of all phones.

Just got mine back from being repaired, the left speaker stopped on the headphones and the button in the wheel became stuck so it was almost impossible to use. Having the phone back I love it again - like a previous member wrote, listening to great quality music and not worrying about missing calls is great. I do find browsing and texting almost impossible - in fact I dread having to reply to texts.

It does look different and it serves as a simple music player and phone. It isn't classic B&O as it won't (hasn’t) lasted the test of time. But it's fun and different, and I do use the speaker to listen to music in the garden.

My biggest gripe is the thinness of the headphone flex, mine has broken twice and unless I am very careful folding it away it becomes one almighty tangled knot - I'm not sure why it isn't the same as the A8's.

Like others, I also find texting a nightmare and always call people back instead. Its not the most practical of phones and I'll be using the Serene for that when it comes back from repair. However, for sound quality its unbeatable. Better than all B&O MP3 players before by far, even if a little on the large side compared to an iPod shuffle! Its OK but I don't really use it much if I am honest.

Simon.

A side question: does anyone know why the Serenata is no longer visible on the B&O website and the dedicated website (serenatamobile.com) taken down? Are they no longer producing this phone?

On the other hand, the Serene is still listed and also up on www.serenemobile.com, so I'm assuming it's still part of the product lineup?

Weird that the Serene is still their too. The Serenata was taken down a while ago now because its not part of the product portfolio anymore. You know something is wrong when they start giving things away when you buy other products. It just didn't cut it and I think its primarily because it has no useability. The Serene is slightly better but I never really thought either attempt at a mobile was a good one, and labelling Samsung on the products just finished them off! Sometimes I am amazed at B&O and just can't work out who comes up with such ridiculous ideas. They make some products that are fantastic and leaps ahead of the competition, then they make others that are a complete flop. No consistency like there used to be.