General Forum

Re: To buy serenata, or not to...

Peter — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:45:14 GMT

Used one for a few days - very tactile and the audio speaker is clever.

But the phone is antiquated, the texting is different for difference sake and nothing like as easy as any other phone I have used (except the Serene!) , it is too bulky and heavy and I was delighted to send it back. It also doesn't work well with a Mac. Although it is now everywhere and as common as chips, my iPhone is simply better.

Re: To buy serenata, or not to...

kruppking — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:08:23 GMT

Had one for a couple of days and got rid of it straight away. Truly awful piece of kit, it was like going back in time.

Personal preference, but as I've been using touch screen for a few years I found it very difficult to revert back. You'd be better off buying a used BS1 and a cheaper phone for every day use.

Re: To buy serenata, or not to...

danezro — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:04:39 GMT

I've had mine for over 2 years now, use it every day and have no intention of changing it. I think of it more as a music player than phone, so it isn't really competing with other devices out there. The sound quality is superb, it's well made and although a bit scratched from drops etc it still looks great and catches people’s attention.

Re: To buy serenata, or not to...

lausvi — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:52:00 GMT

Dave:

Can i ask.. what is Metadata? I will be transferring from a mac...

I think i'm going to go for it... so long as i can work out how to tranfer music relatively easily from my mac!

*edit* Just purchased one! As new, unwanted prize, still 6 months warranty left on it > $560 AUD.
That's alot better than $2200 AUD (new price)

The word I was looking for was ID3 Tag. The familiar stuff from iTunes, album, album artist etc. The problem I wrote about is that when you are using a Mac you must use the Serenata in drive mode ie. it shows as any other usb-disk or hard drive on the desktop. Then you can drag and drop MP3 files into the Music folder. Under Music there are folders by artist names and I transfered some files and created folders for those by hand expecting the Serenata to show the folder names. In some cases this works but in some cases the artist/album name is fetched from the ID3 tags instead. One can of course browse the music by tracklist in Serenata. This problem is probably fixable but I haven't tried yet. I remember reading that the cover art can't be transfered from mac but I'd love to be proven mistaken! (The JPGs are in a special folder in Serenata but they are named cryptically and I can't figure out how they are linked to the music files in the Music folder). One way around this would be running a Windows installation in a VirtualMachine on the Mac and using BeoPlayer to transfer the music.

Anyway you already seem to have bought one, congratulations! I bought mine from german eBay and it was about the same price as you mention.

Re: To buy serenata, or not to...

Chrisreunion — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:20:53 GMT

Lucky you!

I bought my Serenata in Germany at the "normal" price, but apart from that, no regrets, the SMS typing is really the only minus on the phone, but the rest is great.

I once tried a Porsche phone, sold at the same price, it sits in my living room behind glass doors, the sound is horrible compared to Serenata, even for phone conversations, and the Serenata is very robust, I use it everyday; the built-in speaker is OK to my ears, although modest by B&O standards, last week-end I played music by the pool at some friend's house & they all thought it was the laptop computer playing!!

Re: To buy serenata, or not to...

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:53:30 GMT

Oh thanks! That's a really helpful description! Can i ask.. what is Metadata? I will be transferring from a mac...

I am curious about the web functions, such as e-mail and train timetables

I have to say after 3 years now of Serene, she's getting tired, and i am getting tired of her. Tired of having to now press the buttons so hard in order for her to respond... also so fed up of the message bank ALWAYS being full! Maybe i should delete some, but over 3 years you get so many loving messages saved up, that's hard to do! :)

I think i'm going to go for it... so long as i can work out how to tranfer music relatively easily from my mac!

*edit* Just purchased one! As new, unwanted prize, still 6 months warranty left on it > $560 AUD.
That's alot better than $2200 AUD (new price)

Re: To buy serenata, or not to...

lausvi — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:09:02 GMT

I bought a Serenata only a few weeks ago and use it daily.

I don't have much experience in all functions but in basic things I would say it's pretty nice. Everyone seems to complain about the typing with the scroll wheel but personally I really like it and with the touch-screen functions I like typing SMS's much more than I did with my Serene! All menus seem pretty straight-forward when you got the logic behind it and the music player is easy to use (but not as intuitive to use as iPod, I must say) and having a portable music system is a great addition. The built-in stand is very practical and the speaker is a fine one. Not too much bass but still beats many other portable music systems I have heard. What this music player can do that iPod can't is that you can actually delete files from the player menus. Also one can open videos (though the viewable area remains small as the timer bar is always on the bottom of the screen) and even Office- and PDF -files! I also like the quick menu; by touching the bottom of the screen in the default screen you have a customisable three-button menu which can be used fe. to access SMS inbox folder or to start a new SMS.

If you need any higher-than-normal-phone-functions like web-browsing or email I can't say much as I haven't tried yet!

To list some negative things; the only socket is the special one so headphones must be B&O ones, the plug doesn't connect in very easily and at least I can't get it in by the first try. If you transfer music from a Mac you can't get covers in (at least I haven't figured yet out how!) and if the music files include metadata they might not show by the folder names (which has caused me a lot of wondering).

The surface materials are good and don't get dirty, mine looks still like new.

To buy serenata, or not to...

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:27:56 GMT

I'd love to get some feedback from those who have owned Serenata, and what they thought of it up until now; good experience, or bad experience?? Do you still own it and use it everyday?

Thanks!