Just curious if anyone knows where I could get my hands on an unlocked Serene, or if there are any at all. The more and more I think about it, I want one.

Thanks 

I believe they were hardly sold locked and tied to an network provider. You can just go to your dealer. It should work with any GSM provider which most are.

 

Cheers

JK 

I forgot to ask if they had a contract with anyone, but that answers my question. Would you happen to know what they run for?

They are $1,000 here in the US. They are all unlocked. 

Awesome. Are used ones common? ...And hopefully cheaper?!

I saw your post, and took a quick look at EBAY USA.

There are three available used for an average of  $  399. USD.

Good Luck !

My current phone is about to kick it and I really like the Serene. You guys' have any comments on it?

I love mine, but since I live in North America, I rarely use it. It is a tri-band phone and I'm not sure where else that affects its performance, but here it means sticking closely to metropolitan areas. 

That issue aside, I really love the phone. It's elegant, simple, and now that everyone owns an iPhone, still feels very special. It also gets more attention than the iPhone, so be ready for comments.  

I recently went to look at an iphone and the saleslady grabbed my Serene out of my hand and wanted to know all about it.

All Serenes are unlocked. The Samsung models might not be however.

 My Serene is still going strong, although I now use two phones. The Serene for private use and a Samsung smart phone for email and web use.

I want an iPhone also, but now that everyone and their mom has one its not a head turner. I like comments and I like being different, that almost sells it on its own.

The carrier that will be supporting it if I do choose to get one would be AT&T, and they're 3G network.

Mr. TripEnglish, do you think you could expound upon this tri-band business? I'm afraid i haven't familiarized myself with that and am alarmed by this as I too reside in the states, but spend most of my time in suburban areas.

Hope you do not mind my input on the triband issue. I find the phone works 90% of the time for me. I live near the Iowa/Illinois border. There are some rural areas where it will not work. Driving across Illinois to Chicago if I take the northern route I have a full signal the entire way. If I take the southern route the phone is dead for about 1/2 of the trip. Interestingly the southern route has many more cities and larger cities than the northern route. I recently drove to Rochester Minnesota and had a full signal for most of Iowa and part of the drive in Minnesota. I do find that many times in the interior areas of buildings or below ground level portions of buildings it will not work even though it has a full signal outside. 

My understanding is that there are four different frequencies that cell phones use. The Serene has three of them, but only one is used by AT&T and other US carriers. If you are in an area where the carrier uses the frequency the phone does not have, it will not work.

Thank you Razlaw, that was very informational and just what I was looking for.

The tri-band issue is significant in the US and you should check the coverage in your area for AT&T and TMobile. The Tri-band Serene phone is compatible  900, 1800, and 1900 MHz systems. In the US a fourth frequency (850 MHz) was added (primarily to the AT&T system) and TMobile has an arrangement with AT&T to swap secondary use of their 1900 MHz signal for secondary use of the AT&T 850 MHz signal. This is the basis for the so-called "quad band " phones which are now the standard in the US (with the exception of Verizon and a couple ofother providers). It has been noted that the 850 MHz frequency provides more reliable coverage in areas with obstructions (tall buildings, mountains, etc.). The issue of coverage for a Serene arises with either provider for the following reason. If you have TMobile as a provider they use the 1900 MHz freq as their "primary" band and if this band is weak, not available (due to use by other customers), or not available due to lack of coverage within thier system then they switch to the 850 MHz band as a secondary customer. If you have a Serene and you pass into one of these areas, your call will immediately be dropped because the phone does not have an 850 MHz capability. Likewise, AT&T use the 850 MHz band as one of thier their "primary" bands and with the Serene you can (depending on location) often be using their "secondary" back-ups, e.g. the TMobile system. In this situation, as you are secondary, coverage is very questionable because the TMobile customers have prioroty over the bandwidth. This is what I learned in speaking with TMobile, AT&T and the B&O Product Specialst.

The bottom line is that coverage with a Serene is highly dependent on your use area and a detailed analysis is in order. You might ask to borrow a live phone from your B&O store to determine how well it works for you. I did this and decided the coverage was too "sketchy". Too bad because for all of the reasons given above, the Serene is a great phone with nice B&O design characteristics.

There's always a catch! Well I am going to my dealer tomorrow anyway so I will definitely be askin about it. Thank you all.

Evan

Serene, Serenata, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola... All rubbish compared to iPhone.

 

It's a matter of opinion I know, and as a Finn I would wish nothing more than a Nokia phone on par with the iPhone.

 

I understand the idea of getting a B&O phone, if it was a B&O phone, and not a Samsung. If it had the goods to back-up it's price.

 

I realize the greatness of the iPhone, I have spent a lot of time with it, it is a fine piece. For me though, this matter of which is better comes down to originality and individuality. I don't want to be like everyone else in America and drive an Escalade with a bluetooth earpiece on. I want a mob of people to stop and ask me questions as if I were driving the new Bugatti Veyron. I could live with a lower resolution screen, and the other minor qwerks, I want to turn heads. With Bang & Olufsen I can do that.

The iphone is in its own little world. If you want to use it as a phone only there is no point. Someone here called the Serene a Dress Phone which in my opinion nails it. The market is there, Tag Heuer has one, Vertu has is an entire brand. They just need to get rid of that samsung logo for christ sake.

I n a way it all funnels itself down to style and image. I agree to your point about the iPhone. It is only utilized when used appropriately. I also second the urent need to do away with the Samsung nameplate.

Is there any option to send custom ringtones via Bluetooth or does the phone simply NOT accept them?
Did anybody try this out?
Any option to change the display orientation "forever"?

Oh, and please do not compare the Serene with a Vertu ;-)

There are worlds of quality between the Samsung plastic phone and a Vertu or Tag Heuer.

Ther are some fantastic 'phones out there, iphone being one of them, but....

....people still say "Wow" when I get my Serene out.

Sold!

Vertu = Nokia...

But they understood to leave the Nokia logo out.  

bayerische:

Vertu = Nokia...

But they understood to leave the Nokia logo out.  

Yes, you're right. And with that Vertu-Logo they suddenly understand about real quality

And as mentioned right above:

The Serene still stands out from the crowd because of its design. That's the good point :-)