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Explay Crystal revives transparent display phones with dash of color, low price
If you've been lamenting the passing of transparent display phones like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness as those vile, opaque smartphones took over, you'll be happy to know that Russia's Explay has taken up the mantle with the Crystal. The basic song remains the same, a numberpad-driven dumbphone with a display that will help you avoid the lamp post up ahead, but it's remixed through colors that render the experience a lot less monotone. We saw this in the Lenovo S800, but the dual SIM card slots and Bluetooth 3.0 at least see the Crystal keep pace with more recent phones in its category. By far the biggest advantage Explay has over its ancestors is pure cost: at 7,000 rubles ($218), it's less than half the $500 that Lenovo wanted and that much more palatable for a handset that isn't running a sophisticated OS like Android or Windows Phone. Russians have to wait until July 1st to pick up the Crystal, but wouldn't count on the see-through phone seeing its way to the US through official channels.
Video: Xperia Pureness (codename Kiki) announced
Xperia Pureness -- the phone formerly known as Kiki -- reared its head today, mostly in the form of press shots of stylish people who demand stylish handsets. Don't have any tech details yet, but we do know that it's a fine example of Sony Ericsson's new "brand direction," which -- as we heard yesterday -- can be summed up succinctly (and a bit nauseously) as "make.believe." Right. What we do know, however, is that it will be officially launched in November 2009 "through selected retail distribution channels in key cities around the world," that the company wants us to approach this as "a work of art rather than technology," and that the company hoped to "sculpt an object of design that reflected the purity of water and a sense of calmness when not in use." Just what we needed! We're sure Frank Lloyd Wright would approve -- you know, if only he hadn't died fifty years ago. See for yourself in the video after the break. [Via Mobile Bulgaria, thanks Reggie]
