Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness – scratch-proof transparent display
Thumbs Up:
Transparent display and can see through it; excellent audio quality; smart dialing; Bluetooth with USB and A2DP; stereo FM radio with TrackID and RDS; quad-band world-roaming; 3G with HSUPA and HSDPA support.
Thumbs Down:
Non-removable battery; no option to expand internal memory; no camera; Fast Port instead of standard 3.5mm audio jack; looks poorly built and cheap; small screen.
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: GSM/HSDPA
Band: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and HSDPA 2100
Phone Design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Monochrome transparent display, HSDPA/HSUPA
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness has internal 88MB internal memory. It can store 30 entries for each Missed Call, Received and Dialed categories.
1.8-inch monochrome transparent display has 240×320 pixels and features scratch-resistant surface. The messaging features are SMS, MMS, and email.
The additional features are T9 predictive input, Voice demo, MP3 Player, stereo FM radio with RDS and TrackID, MIDP 2.1 Java platform, HSDPA/HSUPA – 3G support, Class 10 GPRS, Class 10 EDGE, and NetFront Web browser.
The Pureness phone has standard lithium ion battery that has a life of 8 hours 30 minutes talk time in 2G and 3 hours 30 minutes in 3G. The idle standby time is 350 hours for both 2G and 3G.
Razzle Dazzle:
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness measures 4×1.7×0.5 inches and weighs 2.5 ounces. It feels featherweight while taking in hand. The display looks icy white and almost translucent when phone is turned off. As soon as you turn on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness, the display will change its color state from solid icy white to transparent. In addition, the keypad buttons will be illuminated from top to bottom like a light-wave washing through. The navigation array looks like a back plate and sits underneath the display. As the navigation array is flat and does not have any symbol, the phone gives a look similar to ice popped on chocolate bar.
Inside Dope:
Sony Ericsson always remains a highlight when it releases any new member of XPERIA series smartphones. Now, here is another luxury smartphone for you – Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness. It features transparent greyscale display with scratch resistant surface, quad-band GSM support, perfect audio quality, smart dialing and 3G support with HSUPA as well as HSDPA. Its display does not give some unique feature with its low-resolution, but limits other highlights of the XPERIA Pureness. It not only limits the available physical space inside the cell phone, but makes Web browsing a bit useless. It is important to mention here that the XPERIA Pureness runs with the pureness concept and leaves all the distracting features behind. The perfect metaphor for the Pureness is its transparent screen. We want to appreciate the Swedish-Japanese company for such a great engineering in the Pureness.
1.8 inches greyscale (monochrome) transparent display of Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness has a resolution of 240×320 pixels. The standby screen shows battery life, signal strength, date/time, and data carrier. The display is not completely transparent such as glass window even the phone is turned on, but is a bit more tinted. We do not like that white pixels at the display are not fully opaque, which results into poor contrast. Sony has used small fonts in most of the menu system.
Moreover, screen has a bit of yellow-brownish tint that makes difficult to view other items like furniture through it. In addition, the ambient light comes a lot under the screen that makes difficult to concentrate at display. We will prefer the manufacturer to improve the display illumination and ambient light sensor, especially for a transparent display.
The display and navigation array sits on the front face. Sony Ericsson logo is located on the bottom of the front face, whereas the power button sits on the back with inspection of “Pureness”. The volume plus key is on the right side, whereas the minus key is on left. The SIM card slot is hidden behind a plastic cover at right side, and Fast Port sits on the left side. Loudspeaker is located at the bottom edge under the logo. Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness has non-removable battery. The black plastic at the back hides the fingerprint, but quickly converts into a smudgy-mess.
Navigation array consists of three small squared knobs and four thin strips without any symbols on them. Two soft keys are located just beneath the display. The middle key is four-way directional pad with center select button. The Talk key is highlighted with green light, whereas red light spotlights End key. Menu key is highlighted with square-arrow icon is located under the Talk key, whereas the Cancel/backspace key is under End button. You will find gap between front strip with Talk key and directional-pad as well as at metal strip from back.
All the navigation array buttons are made up of plastic and raised above the surface. The plastic blends when you press any key to offer relative feedback. However, the all the keys are fiddle and tinny in size.
The keypad has stripped key made up of black glossy plastic and it looks very nice when phone is turned off. Each key row is only one single strip of bendy plastic. The keypad is very comfortable to type continuously. However, the keys creak on pushing and their plastic gives a cheap feel. We are disappointed that the keypad is screech and wobble when you slide down the thumb on it. This is completely unacceptable for a luxury cell phone.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness has similar user-interface like other Sony phones, but it is monochrome. There is an Activity menu that offers direct access to user-defined features, whereas Running Apps tab works for multitasking.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness can store 1000 contacts in its phonebook. Each contact can store multiple phone numbers, email addresses, and URLs. You can pair the contacts with voice command, message tone, ring-tone, and picture for caller ID. The basic features are T9 predictive input, text and multimedia messaging, calendar, tasks, notes, timer, stopwatch, alarm clock, and push Gmail account. The phone has only one game – Pac-Man.
Truth: Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness is not an Internet- or multimedia-centric phone. It supports quad-band of EDGE/GPRS/GSM and 3G for world roaming. The Pureness phone supports 2.0Mbps HSUPA, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, USB options, and Bluetooth 2.0 as well as remote/local synchronization of calendar, contacts and events. There is inbuilt Access NetFront browser v3.4 that features various shortcuts, address bar, virtual mouse pointer, Find on page, and search. Its view modes are Zoom page, Pan & Zoom, and Text only.
The inbuilt Music player 3.0 of Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness is a bit abridged edition of Walkman player 3.0. It supports eAAC+, M4A, WMA, WAV and MP3 formats. It features Stereo widening and MegaBass equalizer. The FM radio can store 20 stations as well as supports RDS. It features background option and music recognition Track ID service. You can access the TrackID in entertainment menu and it features “Artist Info”, “TrackID charts”, “Send music information via SMA”, “Find similar music” and online search for lyrics, album, and artist.
The video player looks like pencil drawing of Braille book and has simple interface. It supports 640×360 pixels resolution and video formats of 3GP and MP4. It features Landscape (full screen), file manager and basic options of play/pause, fast-forward and rewind.
We made few calls through Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness via AT&T service. The overall call quality was good. We received loud and clear sound at our end without any background hiss. The callers received good quality of sound at their end. The speakerphone call quality was also good. We received the best audio quality music on both speakers and included headset.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness is of the best looking, smallest and lightest phone in the market. It is only one premium handset with transparent display ever made. We like the concept of simple, minimalist, pure cell phone with transparent display and it worth a million bucks. However, it is suffered from clunky navigation array and keypad. The Pureness does not have any camera and its multimedia/Internet features are not like that of other smartphones.
The battery life is 8 hours 30 minutes talk time in 2G and 3 hours 30 minutes in 3G. The idle standby time is 350 hours for both 2G and 3G.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need a latest design cell phone with transparent display to show off and can work without camera and non-removable battery, then you can buy new – Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness.
