At first glance, you wouldn’t expect so much power under the hood: The new design cell phone Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness sports UMTS and HSPA support for fast mobile data transmissions, a web browser and an email client with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, a media player for music and videos, and up to 8.5 hours speaking time. But actually, this new phone is all about the liquid crystal display: The small 1.8-inch monochrome and scratch-resistant TFT screen is transparent so that you can look through. At rest the screen appears like a translucent frosted glass window. Thus, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is at least a real eye-catcher.

However, due to the size of the screen the Xperia Pureness is not suited for certain functions or applications we have gotten used to by other multimedia phones. For example, web browsing with the NetFront browser is no fun because you can hardly read the content of mobile portals or web pages. Because of that, support of 3G is rather important for tethering (that is, using the cell phone as a modem for a notebook or a computer). Even reading the phone’s menu or messages is a strain on the eyes because sometimes the screen is not bright enough. You can best read off the display in a bright spot when holding phone against a dark background.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness, Pictures: Phone Guide Germany

The music player with playlists and equalizer presets is one of the strong points of the Xperia Pureness because of a good sound quality. Sony Ericsson puts the Stereo Streaming Bluetooth Headset HBH-IS800 and set of wired in-ear earphones with a 3.5-millimeter headphone adapter into the box. There is no memory card expansion but a little more than 2 GB for storing contacts, calendar entries, songs, videos and photos. The Xperia Pureness also sports an FM radio.

Synchronizing contacts and calendar entires can be done with the software PC Suite by Sony Ericsson, for exchanging media files the Pureness phone can be used mass storage device. Setting up mobile email is easy with the help of the email wizard. Users only need to enter their name, their email address and their password – all other settings will be done by the phone. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness also supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is comparably small in size, the body is made of plastics and comes with minimal buttons. Some might call it chic, others kind of cheap-looking. The keys of the numeric keyboard are only visible when the phone is active, adequately responsive for texting and offer vibrating feedback when pressing them, but on the other hand they quickly collect fingerprints. The phone’s menu is quite simple and familiar to users of other phones manufactured by Sony Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson sees the Xperia Pureness as a work of art rather than technology. The company’s designers aimed to sculpt an object of design that reflected the purity of water and a sense of calmness when not in use. The design mobile phone comes without a camera, without A-GPS, without WiFi and without memory card support. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is rather suited for calls and text messaging. However, people buying this phone can also use a 24-hour concierge service, which supposedly provides support for all lifestyle requests (booking flights and taxis or getting a broken phone replaced within 48 hours) anywhere in the world.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is now available in black for EUR 699.00 without contract at selected stores in Germany. You can buy it at the web store of Sony Ericsson or at one of the concept stores The Corner Berlin at Französische Straße 40 in Berlin-Mitte or Serie A at Hildegardstraße 2 in Munich.

Specifications of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness:
Operating System: Sony Ericsson OS
GSM Networks: 850, 900, 1,800, 1,900 MHz
Data Transfer: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB
Screen: 1.8-inch monochrome TFT screen with 240 x 320 pixels resolution
Keyboard: numeric keyboard
Other: Media Player
Storage: 88 MB phone memory + 2 GB for media
Size: 102 x 43 x 13 mm
Weight: 70 g
Speaking Time: 8.5 hrs (GSM) or 3.5 hrs (3G)

Read more about the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness at www.teltarif.de (in German).