Xperia™ go and Xperia™ acro S brings extra durability and stylish water resistance [video]

Today, we’re announcing the Xperia™ go and Xperia™ acro S, our two newest additions to the line up of Sony Xperia™ smartphones. Xperia™ go is a refined IP67 classes smartphone , meaning it has the highest level of dust and water resistance you can find in a smartphone. Xperia™ acro S also offers PlayStation® certification. Designed for extra durability and water resistance, both Xperia™ go and Xperia™ acro S have scratch-resistant mineral glass displays and meet industry standard Internal Protection ratings for protection against dust and water immersion. Read more about the stylish durability of the Xperia™ go and Xperia™ acro S after the jump.

The features of the stylish Xperia™ go include:

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Xperia™ go signature features – IP67, pressure sensor, access to Sony Entertainment Network
Xperia™ go features an Ingress Protection (IP)  rating of 67. The IP number specifies the environmental protection of enclosures around electrical equipment. The first number refers to protection against solid objects; the second refers to protection against liquids. For Xperia™ go, the device has total protection against dust, and protection against the effects of water immersion between 15cm and 1m.

It also comes with a pressure sensor, which developers can utilise in the weather-related or barometric pressure-apps through the Android sensor API. For more information on the pressure sensor, check out our latestbarometric pressure article. Xperia™ go also offers access to Sony Entertainment Network*, including Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited.

Fluid graphics and low power utilisation
Xperia™ go incorporates a 1 GHz dual core ST-Ericsson NovaThor™ U8500 processor to deliver superior performance. The U8500 uses SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) dual core technology with a high-end 3D graphics accelerator, which enables a full web-browsing experience. For more information about the U8500 platform, check out ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor U8500 product page.

This new smartphone also has an ARM Mali 400 GPU that is OpenGL ES 2.0 conformant and provides 2D and 3D acceleration with performance scalable up to 1080p resolutions. To learn about OpenGL ES, read our previous blog post on 3D for Android. Xperia™ go provides a vivid viewing experience on a mineral glass and scratch-resistant, LCD display, and is powered by the Mobile BRAVIA® engine for colour management, noise reduction, sharpness filtering, and contrast management for close to real image reproduction. Great sound is achieved with xLOUD™ to enhance loudness and maximise sound without breaking.

Xperia™ acro S signature features – dust & water resistance, NFC and PlayStation® certification

The features of the sleek Xperia™ acro S include:

* This service is not available in all markets.
**Not available for payments.

Xperia™ acro S fully builds on the success of Xperia acro HD in Japan, which has been a bestseller in the country for DOCOMO for 10 weeks since launch in March. Xperia™ acro S also has an IP55 rating, which means it’s protected against dust limited to ingress and from water projected by a nozzle (6.3mm) against enclosure from any direction. It also has an IP57 rating, with the same dust protection as IP55, and further protects against the effects of immersion between 15cm and 1m.

Xperia™ acro S is also PlayStation®-certified, ensuring that the smartphone can run PlayStation® content smoothly. You also have access to the Sony Entertainment Network*, including Video Unlimited, Music Unlimited, and the PlayStation® Network for PlayStation-certified content to guarantee high-quality smartphone gaming and access to the PlayStation Store. Finally, Xperia™ acro S supports NFC, so that you easily open apps with one touch against an Xperia™ smart tag, or share content with our other NFC-enabled smartphones (like Xperia sola,Xperia S, Xperia ion, and Xperia P). Read more about NFC in our recent NFC blog post.

Amazing graphics plus OpenGL support

Xperia™ acro S incorporates a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 MSM8260 dual core processor for stunning, fluid graphics, plus long battery life. You’ll also find the Adreno™ 220 GPU for an enhanced level of 3D graphics performance, and allows for support of a number of APIs, including OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenVG 1.1. For more information on OpenGL, see our previous OpenGL blog post.

Xperia™ acro S boasts a 4.3-inch, HD reality display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine for razor sharp clarity, a 12.1 MP fast capture camera with full HD and pulsed LED photo flash, and easy HDMI TV connectivity to enjoy content on a big screen. Patented xLOUD™ technology enhances loudness and maximises sound without breaking.

Develop Xperia™ games, apps and custom app extensions

A wide range of SDK and developer tools are available in conjunction with using Xperia™ go or Xperia™ acro S. With the Smart Extension SDK, you can create apps for Smart Extras™ accessories (SmartWatch and Smart Wireless Headset pro). You can also create extensions that enhance the capabilities of Timescape™ and Music player, signature apps in every Xperia™ smartphone, by using our Extension Developer Kit (EDK). Post developer questions on the EDK forum thread on Google Groups. Developers interested in creating games for Xperia™ go and Xperia™ acro S will find it easy with the Unity game engine. See our previous blog posts on using Unity for game development. For developer help on Xperia smartphones, post your questions on our external developer forums.

Availability and colours

Xperia™ go and Xperia™ acro S will be available to consumers globally from the third quarter 2012. Xperia™ go will launch in the US market under the name “Xperia advance”. For Xperia™ go, the available colours are black, white and yellow. For Xperia™ acro S, the available colours are black, white and pink.

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