Sony mobile communications has announced two new editions to the Xperia range of smartphones, the Xperia go and Xperia acro S. These two smartphones are aimed at adventurous and active users, since they incorporate scratch resistant mineral glass displays and meet industry standard IP (international protection) ratings for protection against dust and water immersion.

According to the Japanese firm, industry research has demonstrated that consumers consider durability and water resistance as important features when purchasing a smartphone. For example, a study conducted in Japan by Mobile Marketing Data Labo found that water resistance is in the top three most important features for smartphone buyers.

In a recent poll on Sony Mobile’s Facebook community, over a third of participants listed durability as the most important feature when choosing a smartphone.

Going off the grid with the Sony Xperia go

Sony’s Xperia go measures in at 111 x 60.3 x 9.8 mm and tips the smartphone scale at 110 g. This PlayStation certified mobile device is powered by a 1 Ghz dual-core processor (make not specified). It further boasts a 3.5" (320 x 480) Reality Display that features Sony’s Mobile Bravia engine for enhanced screen clarity, as well as scratch resistant mineral glass protection and wet finger tracking technology.

The Xperia go (to be known as the Xperia advance in the US) also sports the highest level of dust and water resistance to be found in a smartphone (IP67 rating) according to Sony, and features a 5 MP fast snapping camera that goes from sleep to capture in just over a second.

This device also boasts 512 MB RAM and provides access to around 4 GB of user-accessible memory from the 8 GB of internal phone storage that the Xperia go is equipped with, and users can expand upon that via a microSD memory card slot (which supports up to 32 GB sized cards).   

Sony’s Xperia go (to become available in black, white and yellow colours) will be launching worldwide during Q3 2012, with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) running the mobile operating system (OS) show. The company did state that the smartphone is upgradeable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with an update becoming available at a later stage. No pricing details were revealed.