Phones.com » Cell Phones » Review of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness

The Xperia Pureness phone is all about design. It isn't meant to be a smartphone with lots of features; just a good-looking phone that has the basic functions a phone should have. 

With that in mind, Sony Ericsson has come up with a phone that is striking to say the very least. The phone has a transparent monochromatic display, which lights up like a neon light. The phone is the original candybar shape, small in stature and weighing very little.

The feel of the phone is very plastic, which accounts for the reduced weight. The keypad is laid out in strips of plastic, with lights as labels. In the power-off mode, the screen is merely a thick plastic square with a metal strip lining its edges. When lit up however, it does make a definite statement. 

The front of the phone has the screen, a row of control buttons - two call manipulation buttons and the 5-way directional pad. It also has the alphanumeric keypad. The left of the phone has the standard Sony Ericsson port which is used for the charger and the USB cable. There is a single button in line with the control buttons which was later discovered to be a volume control button. The right side of the button has the other volume control, and also the SIM card slot. The speaker is on the bottom. 

The back also has the screen, and the shiny strip that wraps right around the phone. On the extreme right of this strip is where one will find the power button. The battery cover cannot be removed. 

Unusual and striking are the adjectives that immediately spring to mind with this phone. Whether those are necessarily good impressions is dependent on the individual user.

Obviously this phone doesn't have too much in terms of features, even when the screen is included in the list. 

It does have the basic messaging capabilities, along with an email client, web browser and a music player. The main menu is very simplistic, reminiscent of the old Sony Ericsson design. The icons are large, and somewhat difficult to navigate when in a grid layout. While the messaging and email clients work fairly as expected, the web browser does seem funny to navigate in a monochromatic environment. The music player is fine, and it displays cover art as a background. 

The phone comes with no literature, which will inconvenience a novice user. However it does have Bluetooth earbuds, which is a rather nice touch.

Connectivity is very basic on this phone: there is Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE and 3G capabilities. There is most certainly no WiFi connectivity. The USB cable is configured to the special Ericsson port, so there is no possibility of recycling standard microUSB cables should anything happen the original.

The performance is good on the phone, with screen loading smoothly and without lagging at all. The music play well, and the phone evidently supports animation, which is visible with the screensaver.

When purchasing the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness, there is no question of value. The phone is terribly overpriced considering that there are virtually no features. The design is unusual, but it is the sort of novelty phone that a user will tire of eventually. 

Individuals buying this phone should not look for value, unless it is shock value.