Review: Bang & Olufsen Serene

The first thing that strikes you with the Serene is the simplicity of the design. The Serene is an all-black matte clampshell phone, which is not completely square, nor completely round in its shapes. It is made from two almost identical pieces, held together by a rounded metal hinge. And apart from the laser-etched “Bang & Olufsen” and “Samsung” logos on the hinge, there is really nothing to reveal that the thing is indeed a phone.

Which means — there is no external display. And that again means you have no way of knowing who is calling, without opening the phone up. Not a big deal in of itself, but it does mean that you have to either open up the phone and press a button to receive a phonecall, or take every single phonecall that comes in. There is however a nicely concealed LED that will blink discretely from within the phone to let you know of any activity on the phone.

On the side of the phone there is a camera. Yes — on the side of the phone. This is great for taking covert photos of someone on the bus, for instance — but in all other situations pretty crappy. The camera quality is pretty decent as well, though the resolution is crap, so it won’t do much good for anything beyond screen use.

Different by design

But it is when you first open the phone, it all begins to go... unique. The phone has a power-assist engine, that will sense that you’re trying to open the phone and take over, and open the phone for you — all whilst making a delightful whirring-sound. And the best thing — it’ll close the phone for you as well...

And when your phone has opened itself, you’ll notice a couple of completely different things from the usual phone. First off, the screen is at the bottom. ‘What?!’ I hear you scream. Yes, at the bottom. And though this both looks and seems funny at first; once you get used to it, it comes really natural, and it feels much better that way... The screen itself is actually rather good, with nice clarity and great colour. You don’t really get to see the colours, though, simply because the whole menu system is laid out in black, white and blue only.

Above the screen is the input controls. Here, B&O has made both their best and their worst decision. First off, they have gone for an iPod-style clickwheel. This is absolutely terrific to use, and just feels so natural. Finally, my thumb gets the workout it deserves from a phone! Then there is the numpad, much akin to that of the horrid Nokia 3650. Even typing short messages on the thing takes forever, and is utterly confusing.

Technology

The Serene is made to last. The surface is highly scratch-resistant (though the hinge has obtained some, much akin to the backside of the iPod, after falling to the floor), and there is no soon-to-be-gone tech on the inside. That means, though, that there is no cutting-edge tech on the inside, either. What you have is a very basic phone, indeed.

You have your phone capabilities ('doh), SMS, MMS, email, WAP, phonebook, calendar, to-do-lists, alarms, voice-memo, world clock, calculator, currency converter and camera. And that’s it. As for connectivity, you have basic tri-band GSM & Bluetooth, but no 3G, no EDGE and no IR. This is, in other words, no iPhone-killer. (Bang & Olufsen will release an iPhone/Prada/Gucci-competitor soon, from what I hear, but that’s another story.) I still need my Qtek 9100 around for proper messaging and internet stuff, because I do that stuff, and that isn’t what the Serene is for.

Form over function?

The Serene is meant to be a phone. Not an iPod, not a breakthrough internet device, but a phone. A perfect example of this mentality is the ringtones. You can choose between four ringtones in a variety of “steel”, “bronze” and “wood”. These twelve ringtones have been especially designed for the speaker in the phone. So on one hand, you have the limit of not being able to download “Final Countdown” in crappy quality for your ringtone. But on the other hand, this makes the experience that much greater. This is a design phone in the true meaning of the word.

The phone also comes with a stunningly beautiful docking station, that will charge it, and sync it with your Windows PC (if you have that) via Bluetooth automatically. If you’re on a Mac, however, your syncing capabilities are a bit more limited. A travel charger also included. Some people have complained about bad battery life, though I can’t really say that's been my experience. I use my phone quite a bit, and it holds up for at least a good couple of days.

Conclution

Like we’ve come to expect from Bang & Olufsen, there has been paid great attention to details in putting together this product. I feel like comparing it with the iPod in that it does very few things (make calls and look good) and it does it extremely well. The price point is a bit high, and if you’re not willing to fork over that amount of money for a sexy toy — noone can blame you. But if you, like me, enjoy beautiful product design and attention to details — you’ll have tremendous amounts of fun with this phone, whilst waiting for the iPhone.