There are plenty of smartphones in the market today, but the Sony Xperia Go stands out from the competition because of its toughness. So how tough is the Xperia Go? The user can immerse the handset in freshwater up to a meter in depth and run it fully for up to 30 minutes. Its waterproof and dustproof body, certified with a resistance rating of IP67, is the basic feature of the rugged smartphone.
At the core of the Xperia Go is Android 2.3 Gingerbread, not the latest OS from Google but still an Android. There is still hope of upgrading to a more current OS because of news that the smartphone will eventually be compatible with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. A dual-core Cortex A9 processor running at 1GHz with 512MB of RAM powers the unit and makes switching from home screens to widgets easier.
Sony compensates for the Xperia Go’s modest 480 x 320-pixel screen resolution by using its Bravia technology in the 3.5-inch touchscreen that remains functional even when wet but not when submerged. Taking pictures and recording a 720p video will be a breeze with the 5-megapixel camera. The camera has a single LED flash and 16x digital zoom, and the Japanese electronics giant claims that its camera can record decent underwater scenes.
The rugged smartphone provides up to 8GB of internal memory expandable up to 32GB by a microSD card. Because it is dustproof, users will have to lift the covers off the 3.5-mm headphone jack and microUSB port to use them. On the top of the handset is the power/lock key and on the right side is the volume rocker. Sony arranged their layout in such a way that users can access them while holding the smartphone in one hand. Users can use five and a half hours of talk time from the battery or 260 hours of standby power.
A hard plastic material protects the Xperia Go’s 9.8-mm thick fame, and a textured surface improves grip under wet conditions. Consumers can buy the smartphone starting September. It may be too pricey at £250, but its ruggedness ensures that users will not be buying a new smartphone when they drop it into a bowl of water, get drenched by a downpour.