A look through Sony Ericsson's Pureness phone

On Tuesday, Sony Ericsson showed off its latest handset, the Xperia Pureness, in London.

The phone is notable for three things: it has a see-through screen, it goes against the trend of ever-increasing functionality by offering fewer features, and it will carry a hefty price tag of £640 when it is released in the first week of December.

The Xperia Pureness comes with the tagline: 'Talk. Text. Time.'

However, the idea this represents — that the handset will do nothing more than voice calling, text messaging and waking the user up — has given way to the addition of more features, Sony Ericsson designer Daniel Mauritzson said at the London launch.

These features include video streaming, web browsing, email, sound recording, music playback and FM radio.

The above picture demonstrates what ZDNet UK looks like on a transparent, monochrome, 1.8-inch, 240 x 320 pixel screen.

The Xperia Pureness measures 102 x 43 x 13 mm and weighs 70g. Mauritzson said the phone would have been thinner, were it not for two factors. First, the transparency of the LCD screen means all internal electronics have to be shoehorned into the bottom half of the handset. Secondly, as the above picture demonstrates, the use of Sony Ericsson's proprietary charger connector prevents further thinning down.

As can be seen in this picture, the Xperia Pureness has a slot on its side for the SIM card. Most mobile phones have the SIM behind the battery, but the Pureness's non-removable battery is sealed into the handset.

As the phone's key lights only show when needed, and as the monochrome LCD screen does not use much power, the device has a standby time of two weeks and a quoted talk-time of seven-and-a-half hours.

According to Mauritzson, Sony Ericsson expects people to use the Pureness as a second phone, hence the ease with which a SIM card can be swapped in and out.

This picture shows the back of the Xperia Pureness.

Despite the fact its transparent screen would make an excellent optical viewfinder, the handset does not have a camera.