Bang & Olufsen will launch its first cell phone to arrive in North America this November 2006. The new mobile phone, entitled Serene, is a result of the cooperation between Bang & Olufsen and Samsung Electronics Mobile Business. The phone was announced about an year ago.

Serene consists of two equal parts that are bound together by a beautifully crafted aluminum hinge. The display and microphone are placed in the lower shell in a landscape orientation and the circular keyboard and loudspeaker are placed in the upper shell with an elegant thumb operated wheel in the middle taking care of all primary operations.

"Serene is the result of our vision to constantly push the boundaries of mobile phone development and bring to our customers unique and exciting products", says Kitae Lee, President of the Telecommunications Business in Samsung Electronics.

The colors, fonts, screen format and size have been specially selected with logical operation in mind. The relatively large, wide format display makes reading and writing on the screen even more pleasant. Additionally, restricting the number of features on the handset enables a decreased amount of user menus, which makes the experience both logical and intuitive.

Serene comes with a triangular table charger/docking station made in polished anodized aluminum with a cut-out for the phone. If the phone is placed in the docking station or is set to table mode it can be used as mini-laptop, as the display can turn 180 degrees for convenient use in this position as well. Serene includes built in camera, SMS, MMS, email, calendar WAP and Bluetooth technology.

Technical specifications:

-- Designer: David Lewis
-- GPRS Class 10 Triband (GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz)
-- 262144 color QVGA TFT screen (240 x 320 pixels, 2.1 inch)
-- Embedded VGA (300K) camera
-- 64 Polyphonic ringtones with specially developed harmonies
-- SMS / EMS / MMS / WAP 2.0
-- E-mail with Outlook synchronization
-- Bluetooth Wireless Technology
-- Thumb-operated navigation wheel
-- Premium anodized aluminum hinge
-- Special aluminum charger
-- Dimensions: 2.5 x 2.8 x 0.9 inches
-- Weight: 0.24 lbs

Serene will be distributed through Bang & Olufsen stores in North America this November. MSRP is $1275 US Dollars and also includes the charger/docking station and travel charger.

More Photos here