The long-rumored Kiki appears again as the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness, a phone you can see right through.
Back in early July we reported on a rumored new phone called the Sony Ericsson Kiki, which purportedly had some sort of projected screen. Today, the company shared a few details about the upcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness, clearly the rumored Kiki, and it turns out that the phone will in fact sport a transparent screen. The bottom half of the phone looks like a regular candy bar, except without any writing on the buttons. But the top of the phone looks like a piece of glass, and the interface seems to appear in this surface, while leaving most of the screen completely transparent and nearly invisible.
Along with a few scant images of the upcoming device, Sony Ericsson also shared a video of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness in action on YouTube. The interface uses all-white characters and graphics, and these figures seem to hover within an otherwise transparent display. Another rendered Xperia Pureness is always visible through the crystalline screen, and press images also bear this out. You can see video of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness below:
We've seen transparent designs for phones before. In the U.S., the Motorola Krave on Verizon Wireless uses a transparent cover that is also touch sensitive, and the underlying circuitry is just barely visible to the naked eye. We've also seen a beautiful transparent keyboard on the LG GD900 phone, a European model whose clear keyboard also doubles as a multi-touch trackpad. But neither of those models featured moving images on their transparent bits. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is the first phone we've seen with a dynamically changing transparent display.
Sony Ericsson has released few details about the devices, and promises more information will come as we approach the phone's launch in November. With such a unique design and Sony Ericsson's high-end Xperia branding, we expect this to be a pricy concept device, more for fashionistas than folks looking for a highly capable smartphone.
We're also confused about the phone's Xperia branding. The two officially announced Xperia phones before the Pureness came to light, the Xperia X1 and the just-announced Sony Ericsson Xperia X2, are both Windows Mobile phones. Both are super-capable business smartphones with high-resolution displays, and most importantly both run Sony Ericsson's Panels interface concept. Rumors swirling around a Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 peg that phone as a possible high-end Google Android device, and Sony Ericsson has always been clear that the Xperia family will not be limited to Windows Mobile phones.
So why make this artistic feature phone an Xperia model? Certainly, Sony Ericsson is not limited by the family name. The company recently released a bevy of high-end feature phones under their own enigmatic titles, the Sony Ericsson Aino and Sony Ericsson Satio phones, and the Satio even runs Symbian OS, which would make it an even more likely contender for Xperia branding.
In any case, we'll be keeping an eye out for this slick model, and we'll have more information and hands-on impressions as the device becomes available.
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