Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness review, Price, pictures, Details, model specifications
Luxury phones are having a tough time being unique nowadays. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness is having a hard time being… luxurious. But that’s no way to start a proper review now, is it?
There we go again then. Rare metals and precious stones are commonplace, but a transparent screen? Now, that’s a first. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness keeps only the essential phone functions and that explains the Pureness moniker. And just like a proper luxury phone, it comes with a concierge service.
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You can access the concierge service 24/7 via a phone call or email and have them book you a hotel room, buy tickets for a game or ask for advice. But it’s not just a simple booking service – going through the concierge service has some perks, like free room upgrades in some hotels, discounts (well, well), complementary champagne and so on.
You see, the luxury of owning a Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness doesn’t just come from what’s in the phone itself. But since we’re not going to be using the concierge service anytime soon, let’s focus on what the phone has to offer:
Key features:
- Quad-band GSM support
- 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA support
- One-of-a-kind transparent greyscale display (1.8″, 240 x 320 pixels), scratch-resistant surface
- Very lightweight, only 70 grams
- FM radio with RDS and TrackID
- Bluetooth with A2DP and USB (Fast Port connector)
- 2 GB internal memory
- Smart dialing
- Excellent audio quality
Main disadvantages:
- Small screen is poor on legibility
- Looks cheap and poorly built
- Fast Port instead of 3.5 mm audio jack means limited use as a music player
- Fast 3G connectivity with HSDPA/HSUPA is only usable for tethering
- No camera
- Non-removable battery
- Internal memory not expandable
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A phone with a transparent screen is nothing short of unique. But the display certainly is a liability in terms of actually using the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness. It limits the physical space available inside the phone, leaving Sony Ericsson engineers with very little room to work with.
Plus, the low-resolution greyscale display makes a camera (even just a video call camera) and proper web browsing pointless. This leaves tethering as the only reasonable use for the fast 3G data.
Design and construction
When the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness is turned off it looks quite intriguing – the display is icy white, almost translucent. Below is a black plate with three small square knobs and four thinner strips with no symbols on them. Like an ice pop on a chocolate bar instead of a stick.
At this point it’s not easily recognizable as a phone, only the Sony Ericsson logo along the bottom at the front gives it away. A careful inspection of the Pureness reveals the hidden power key on the back.
Turning the XPERIA Pureness on is when the display magic unveils – in an instant it goes from solid icy white to near transparent. The strips of keys on the keypad are illuminated in turn from top to bottom, like a wave of light washing over the keypad.
The see-through display
Now, it’s time to talk about the killer feature of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness – the transparent screen.
While the phone is off (or locked) the screen has the appearance of frozen glass. When it comes on, the whole display becomes transparent, except for what’s drawn on the screen, which remains grayish white.
A transparent interface
The XPERIA Pureness interface is the regular Sony Ericsson feature phone UI stripped to the bone. Or dressed to match the Pureness if you wish – in monochrome. The luxury XPERIA offers nothing more over the standard Sony Ericsson UI.
The standby screen is arranged in the usual manner with information on top indicating signal strength, the currently used data carrier and battery status. At the bottom of the display you can see the labels for context keys.
Good telephony, sweet concierge service
Handling of calls is excellent and we didn’t experience any voice quality or reception problems with the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness. Call clarity is great both through the earpiece and speakerphone.
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness offers fast 3G connectivity, but has no camera so videocalls are a no go.
Smart dialing or “Smart Search” as Sony Ericsson call it, is a great boost to usability. It looks up contacts whose numbers contain the digits you have typed or whose names begin with the corresponding letters.
No media center, but still media capable
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness does not feature the flash-based Media Center, it only has the music player from it.
There is no dedicated gallery and that’s understandable given the size and type of the screen, but you are still able to view images in the file manager.
The XPERIA Pureness music player is version 3.0 – a slightly abridged edition of the Walkman player 3.0. The player supports numerous file formats, including the regularly used MP3, WAV, WMA, M4A and E-AAC plus the MegaBass equalizer preset and Stereo widening.
FM radio with RDS and TrackID
The integrated FM radio of Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness has memory for 20 stations and supports RDS. It has a nice interface and makes great use of the TrackID music recognition service. The radio can be minimized in the background much like the music player.
Great audio quality
Apart from being on the quiet side as far as volume in the headphones is concerned, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness seems fit to replace your dedicated music player. Its audio output is very good all over with no weak points.
The frequency response remains within 0.09 dB of the perfect straight line, which is as good as perfect for all purposes practical.
Mid-range connectivity
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness is not an internet-centric or multimedia device and scores modestly on connectivity options. Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G are all on board for worldwide roaming. 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, as well as 2.0 Mbps HSUPA are also supported.
Besides the network-based connectivity, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness offers the usual Bluetooth v2.0 and USB options.
The XPERIA Pureness supports local and remote synchronization of contacts and calendar events.
There are no premium connectivity options such as Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.5 mm audio jack or even microSD card slot.
See-through browsing
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness has an Access NetFront browser v3.4 featuring the extended home screen available in most of the company’s feature phones. Plenty of shortcuts arranged in a tree structure are listed on the homescreen, right under a search and an address bar. They grant access to free content, such as clips, tracks and games on the Sony Ericsson site, including a step-by-step guide for setting up email accounts or internet connections.
Elaborate web pages are rendered correctly and there are a number of configurable settings too. View modes include Text only, Pan and Zoom, and Zoom page. The Panning/scrolling speed is up to standard.
Organizer and apps
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness offers the usual set of time-management features. The Calendar offers monthly, weekly and daily views. When you add a birth date in the phonebook, the phone prompts adding it to the calendar. The to-do application allows storing of two types of tasks: simple Tasks and Phone calls. Notes are written similar to messages and the T9 dictionary can be used here as well.
