The Sony Ericsson Pureness may not pack a see through keyboard like the LG Crystal slider, but it goes one better and doles out a translucent screen instead. It’s the mobile equivalent of an ice cube on display in the Tate Modern: ridiculous, bold, and ultra cool. But does it leave practicality by the wayside? Read on and find out in our full Sony Ericsson Pureness review.
The Sony Ericsson Pureness is a world away from the beefy touchscreen smartphones that make up the rest of the phone peddler’s Xperia line. On paper, it’s a plain and simple dumbphone, with Bluetooth and music playing skills. Up close though, it’s a work of art: slim, light and magically see through.
You can genuinely see your fingers through the 1.8-inch display on the Sony Ericsson Pureness. It’s a little bit like one of those tacky souvenirs you can find in any European city, with a landmark layered into a block of glass. The difference is, this block refreshes as you move around on the OS. It’s just as fast as a regular monochrome LCD in this respect – you can even play Pacman on it.
The Sony Ericsson Pureness doesn’t skimp on the swish factor when it comes to the rest of the handset either. A just 70g, it’s incredibly light, call quality is surprisingly good, considering the speaker appears to be floating, and the keyboard packs in some serious panache. The numbers are invisible when powered off, but light up in a slow reveal when flicked on. It’s easy to use for text input, although the directional keys are too close to the OK button for big hands.
The Sony Ericsson Pureness also comes with a “concierge service”, promising 24 hour local knowledge on anything you need wherever you are in the world for 12 months. Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson didn’t offer it for testing.
Read our LG GD910 Watch Phone review now
We like some of the goodies the Sony Ericsson Pureness comes with, including the choice of regular or in-ear headphones (Decent, but proprietary, of course). There’s no getting around the screen on the Sony Ericsson Pureness though. As cool as it looks, it’s impossible to see in the daylight, which is a big no no and can leave you blind when taking a call. It also means some of the specs the Sony Ericsson Pureness sports count for nothing too: what good is 3G when the Sony Ericsson browser, poor on colour screens, renders pages in white and nothing? Best of luck with email too.
Sony Ericsson says the Sony Ericsson Pureness is designed as a secondary phone that you can tote around with you of an evening, and we can see why. It’s a striking phone that’s only easy to see at night, when you’d rather be striking up conversations at the bar than checking your work email. And to that end, it’s got a SIM card slot tucked that’s easy to pop in from the side (Though one we might add that doesn’t make at all clear which way in it goes).
That’s a smart move, and one that should make using the Sony Ericsson Pureness ever so slightly easier on a day to day basis. Unfortunately, that £500 pricetag really won’t. Just like the LG Watch Phone before it, we’re fascinated by the Sony Ericsson Pureness, and can’t stop playing with it. But unless you have a serious wedge of petty cash lying around, it’s best to steer clear of this see through phone.
