on the face of it

Fig. superficially; from the way it looks. 

• This looks like a serious problem on the face of it. It probably is minor, however. 
• On the face of it, it seems worthless.                            ........ McGraw-Hill idioms

when first considered 

• On the face of it, the new system just moves our company into the computer age, but it may be more complicated than that.                     ...... Cambridge American Idioms 

something that you say when you are describing the way a fact or situation seems in order to show that you think it may really be completely different 

• On the face of it, the trip seems quite cheap, but there could be extra expenses we don't know about yet.                                                    ....... Cambridge Idioms 

.... http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+the+face+of+it