Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness hands-on
By Chris Ziegler 
posted December 30th 2009 1:00PM
posted December 30th 2009 1:00PM
Anyhow, we've just taken delivery of a Pureness today and have had a few fleeting moments to check it out. If it weren't for the screen, you'd be looking at a $30 prepaid candybar here -- you don't have a camera, a high-res display, or any sexy metal or soft-touch bits to give the phone a premium feel. The UI is about the simplest possible incarnation of Sony Ericsson's typical dumbphone platform, owing largely to the fact that the display's just grayscale; you've got an FM radio (with a headset attached) and a basic music player and browser, but if you're in North America, don't expect any 3G.
That said, seriously, look at that shot we took up there: the display is insane. We can't quite get over it -- it's the ultimate conversation piece. Motorola Aura owners looking for a fresh way to draw a crowd might look at this as their next purchase, but if you're looking to do anything but talk (and occasionally browse an eerily translucent version of Engadget), make no mistake, this isn't your phone. Did we mention we want one really, really badly?
Nice Screen.
Shame about the rest...
@geekthree The screen isn't that nice when you use it outside. You can barely see anything. I was going to buy it but when I asked the store clerk to turn it on he said it was already on...
Is that the Rasta Phone?
@geekthree
Exactly. They really blew it. That dope screen could have gone in a way cooler phone. SonyEricsson, Nokia has given you plenty of examples of how to sell a non-smartphone for large sums of money. You use metals and glass, you make it sexy, and you sure as hell don't package it like candy! A plastic phone in a plastic bag for $1,000?! WOW
@allenvanhellen .E has always made a classy ads before, from their Xperia models and now, a concierge of sassiness again? lol, hopefully will be as good as that model.Expect that the price for the classiness won't be cheap too. Pureness details: http://bit.ly/xperia-pureness-sexy-rachael-ui
$1000, enough said.
@Giga
Dont worry, the KIRF version will only cost $0.50..
Schengen China was like.. "WTF? This is too easy to clone" HAHAHAHAH!
@NAME That would have been a clever comment if it wasn't for the fact that Schengen is in Luxenburg. I think you mean Shenzhen. Nice try though.
@PaulMdx I think you mean Luxembourg. Nice try though.
What? This isn't Schengen? (reaches up and scratches the fake letters off the Shenzhen sign.
SonOfA... they KIRF'd the town on me.... next you'll say I was cheated when I bought my ticket on Lufdhanza airlines?
What? Oh crap.... I need a new travel agent.
OK.. not real funny, but that was my thought flow.
@Giga
Except that's part of the point. I know a couple people who would buy this simply because it costs $1000.
The translucent screen, that no other phone has, is just icing.
Also, the people who this phone targets, don't read Engadget.
The display? I'm over it.
@conscious
Here's what I don't understand. How can that display be so incredibly expensive to produce? I thought all you would need to do is to take out the backlight on a regular LCD and replace it with a hole through the back of the device. Isn't that what's happening with the Pureness? Or is there something else going on with that screen?
@conscious Yeah I don't get it either... This device has the potential of causing sexual dysfunction from the huge turn off....
@conscious
I'd love to see some old Nintendo Game & Watch games on this thing...
Like "Mario's Cement factory"
Because this crap phone was made to play thse games...
sheet S.E. stick to making CyberShot phones... If I wanted I could have just bought a $20 MOTOFONE F3 and ripped of the back.
@streetstealth : It's not LCD-based. If it were, it'd be black-on-clear, not white-on-clear. You know those self-frosting windows you see in movies and TV, that turn opaque at the touch of a switch? Those are a real technology. In this case it seems they've built an entire matrix of those windows, on a tiny scale, into the glass panel. That's batshit insane, and also probably very expensive to make.
@sockatume If you look closely, the pixels are actually to block the background, but are also slightly illuminated. I think this is just an LCD with an inverted backlight. I've seen a $10 watch with a similar effect, minus the translucent background.
@chaos215bar2 : Nope, in that case you'd have an opaque, illuminated black surface with clear digits, not opaque, illuminated black digits with a clear surface. The light comes from LEDs around the edge of the glass plate, which light up the frosted areas.
@sockatume
LCDs can be white-on-black or black-on-white... it doesn't matter. Just rotate the polarizing layer 90 degrees.
@Mike
nope, the white you see is actually the reflective backing or the backlight. A black and white LCD works by blocking light. Therefore... blackness.
This is different since it turns white, not black.
Huzzah?
WEEEOW
I love the packaging lol
@poematik14 lol for such an expensive phone I was expecting mroe than a tetra pack airbag holding it
@poematik14 I was thinking the same thing. What a unique way to ship it. It just makes so much sense.
I hope you see other product get shipped like this. It seems to make more sense than foam.
@poematik14
The box says "talk text time." I get the talk text - those are about the only things this phone can do - but time? Dig deeper engadget, apparently this phone can control time...
@poematik14 Its like the delerlic Zoolander thing.
I think I could made this out of a few calculator displays...
only $1000?
@NAME
Calculator displays? Thats just absurd.
You'd need at least one discarded drinks carton, and some sticky-backed tape, and a responsable adult to help with the scissors.
@NAME
Here's one I made earlier :)
What is this mess?
@Rnjordan2000
LOL! :D
A thousand dollars for a phone? A fool and his money....
Somehow, this looks so old and obsolete - I don't see a great deal on having a translucent screen that people can see from the back..... Maybe if the whole phone was made of that screen and it was a touchscreen .... Sony disappoints me every day... and to think I used to look up to it.
@TikiTeko : You say that like it's the only phone they're ever going to make. You have to allow large companies little eccentricities like this, or their designers will start venting their crazy in actual end-user products. Do you want the new Cybershot line to come with scent-diffusing hug-activated lenses?
For a site that did not like the device at all since launch, you guyz have really putt a lot of effort on following it.
call me old fashioned.. but i dont get it.
@zom old fashioned
why don't we all get iphones guys.
http://www.tvlesson.com/video/44284_sony-ericsson-xperia-pureness-review.html
@(Unverified)
Cuz they suck....
It looks like the kind of technology they are all so proud about but which nobody realy cares about because it's kinda useless.
So one op for their funky screen
but so many more down for the real use and implementation of it
It looks like a Virtual Boy phone.
I don't get it, is the display transparent or something? It has rainbows built in every pixel? That's what makes it cool?
@216 Yeah the display is translucent. Pretty nifty :3
"Ultimate conversation piece"
Man1: Look at my phone! It has a translucent screen
Man2: The screen is small
Lady1: ugh.. It's black and white!
Man3: How much did that cost you by the way?
Man1: uh....nevermind....
@AstroSeven
My Nokia 3210 does the same! crazy stuff!
I just don't get the excitement level here. It just isn't blowing my skirt up, quite frankly.
@scjessey Please change your icon to you wearing a skirt ala Marilyn.
@fylraen
Please don't.
ifone killer