Samsung and Bang & Olufsen this week announced the Samsung Serenata, a follow-up to their earlier and equally pretentious mobile phone collaboration, the Samsung Serene.

Both phones cost over $1,000, so their commercial viability is a little limited, but they're interesting exercises in creative design...

"Since we started our first co-operation with Bang & Olufsen, we have only been confirmed in our belief that both companies share a passion for innovation and consumer-focused technology," says Samsung's Geesung Choi. "Serenata is another example of new ways to think of the mobile phone."

The phone has its own speaker system for music playback (with 4GB of storage), and promises what the companies describe as "the world's best acoustic performance." And there's no dialpad - only a click wheel - so all other functions are handled through the touchscreen. The click wheel, though, is apparently what you use for dialing...

PC World's Dan Nystedt says the Serenata will be released in Europe before the end of the month.

More here from CNET News ... more here from Gizmodo ... more here from Mobile Gazette ... more here from TMCnet ... more here from Tech Digest ... and the press release is here.