Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “When Phones Were Fun: Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness (2009)”.
[ Narrator ] From Star Trek Discovery to Minority Report to The Expanse. If there’s one thing, science fiction agrees on it’s that our future will be run on transparent displays.. So imagine my surprise when I learned that a clear, screened cell phone was not only just an eBay away, but also from 10 years in the past. ( upbeat music ), iPhone 3 GS, Motorola Droid Palm Pre., The smartphone world of 2019 was a calamitous maelstrom of Upheaval, but for all that excitement the number of Americans who actually carry the smartphone was still less than a third of the US population.. So there was still plenty of money to be made for those companies still playing in the dumb phone or more politely feature phones, space., Enter Sony Ericsson, eight years into a strategic partnership that would produce some of the decades most distinctive devices. To propel that reputation into The new decade, Sony Ericsson decided to target the same market as Motorola did with its Aura design the year prior. And namely people whose desire to stand out burned just as brightly as the cash burning a hole in their pocket.
On a TOS release. Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Pureness cost a Hamilton shy of a thousand dollars. And right out of the box. It wasn’t clear what you were paying for., Unlike the Aura, with its painstakingly etched steel casing or Nokia’s, Vertu phones with their gem studded leatherbacks. The Pureness comes out of the box and it’s just another creaky plastic, candy bar.. The glossy finish feels cheap and prone to skin oil smudges like a happy meal, toy., There’s no GPS, there’s no memory card slot, there’s not even a camera.
Chris Hall at Pocket. Lint said it had a feature list from 10 years ago and he wrote that 10 years ago., But all that fades away like frost on a warming car windshield. When you power up the Pureness., There’s no color to the 1.8 inch display.
But it doesn’t matter in the slightest because there’s also no back to it.. The interface just floats in space suspended in this frame glowing a futuristic white to match the back lighting under the keys.. It looks kinda like an ice sculpture., (, music box, music, ) And yes turn the phone around, and you can see the display in reverse.. It makes sense right It shouldn’t be surprising, but it is. It’s a bit like Google, glass, RIP or Focals by North also RIP in that it almost looks like a heads up display.
When the Pureness debuted it slashed Gear’s Chris Davies suggested that this would be a Great phone for augmented, reality. You’re, a true man of the future Chris, I’m sorry, the world hasn’t caught up with you, yet. You weren’t, just paying for the display. Like Vertu Sony.
Erickson was keenly aware that the kind of person who had $ 990 to drop on a dumb phone – oh that’s, probably the same kind of person who would use a concierge to book travel, make dinner reservations or deal with quote all manner of lifestyle related requests. As long as they are deemed to be legal and moral. Talk about casting a wide net., That’s right.
I want the original vinyl pressing of Brent Spiner’s, Old, Yellow Wises Back, and I want it by 4:00 PM., Rich guys., [, Narrator ], So yeah when you purchased the Pureness you got a year of said. Legal and moral assistance from a firm called Quintessentially.. Incidentally, Quintessentially is still in business today. In 2017. It arranged for the Sydney Harbor Bridge to be closed, so one of its members could propose to his fiance.
Rich guys. [ Narrator ] Back in 2009, the membership tier that came with the Pureness actually cost about as much as the phone itself and you were getting It for free. And if that didn’t do it for you, well, maybe the age old, minimalist pitch would. You wanted to create a movement that drives it towards purity.
Simplicity.. You want it to renew the preciousness of simplicity. [ Narrator ]. I sometimes think the true test of a designer’s metal is how well they can revamp in a warehouse interview with a camera man intentionally drifting in and out of focus..
I’M sorry, it’s just a really 2009 video. And I don’t mean to lampoon these designers at all.. In many ways, the Pureness does accomplish its aim of manifesting a minimalist intent., It’s very restrained., It’s very intentional. And with the exception of the cheap plastic, it’s executed fairly well too, from the matching chamfers across display and chassis to the clever one per side, volume up And down keys., I really liked those., It’s just that what manufacturers of minimalist phones are usually doing is shipping a significantly less capable device at a significant markup and all the while, just peppering in these platitudes that don’t really mean much.. So, what’s it like to actually use the thing Well in refreshing change of pace, this phone actually registered on T-Mobile’s Edge Network here in Brooklyn., Once I found a SIM adapter of the right size to convert my modern day, nano SIM into 2009’s standard size, footprint., Hey All right. And remember how much I complained about the cramped keypad on the Motorola Aura. Well, it only took me a few minutes on the Pureness to beg to be back on that phone.. These keys are horribly cramped with poor travel and, more often than not a creak with each click. Wait. Oh this D-pad dude.. On top of that, like all Sony, Ericsson chargers, I remember this one attaches with the timidity and hesitation of a kindergarten. On the first day of school. And as cool as the display looks and really does feel, futuristic, even today, it’s almost totally useless in direct sunlight or on a white table or really in any situation. That’S not a moodily lit casino in the middle of the night. In Montenegro. Yeah, that’s a Casino Royale joke Bond and Sony Ericsson went hand in hand for awhile.. Maybe it will get to it in the future, but don’t worry about it..
By virtue of its era, though, the Pureness did pack a couple cool capabilities. Plug in the included headset and the wire act as an antenna to pick up FM radio, broadcast., ( radio channels coming in ), And I forgot about this Sony phones shipped with an app Called Track ID that could identify songs that were playing on that radio., It’s kind of like an FM version of Shizam.. Sadly, Sony shuttered Track ID almost three years ago..
So, like your drunken missive to an ex in the middle of the night, your music query will be waiting for response forever.. I wish I could say the prospect’s looked better for a resurrection of the Xperia Pureness, but they don’t. There doesn’t seem to be any mobile manufacturer contemplating including clear screens in the near future. And who can blame them right. I mean, while it’s novel to browse the web on a heads up display, the limitations far outweigh the benefits., And that also seemed to be Sony and Erickson’s ultimate reasoning concerning their Alliance. In 2012, after over 10 years, producing phones together, the companies went their separate ways With Sony spending $ 1.5 billion to take ownership of Ericsson’s side of the business, so it could focus on smartphones. And that’s a battle. Sony is still fighting under the Xperia brand to this day.
And you can see the results of its efforts as recently as this month in my review of the company’s Xperia one mark two.. As for Sony, Ericsson and the Xperia Pureness.. Well, not only are they precious mementos from a time when phones were fun, but I tend to believe that they’ll always be a part of us like air., Thanks to all the people who suggested this phone, which I got for a pretty penny on eBay over $ 400 bucks more than a decade after production. Yowee.
As always, the manufacturer had nothing to do with this video, no compensation or copy approval. None of that. In between my regular reviews, I’m just making videos about old phones and I hope you’re enjoying them. Next up before smartphones really took hold.
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