By Stephen Schenck

When you think “ruggedized smartphone”, what do you picture? A chunky-looking phone, obscured by a massive rubber bumper? That might make for a pretty reliable handset, but it’s hardly the sort of thing that would look right being slipped into the pocket of sports jacket. If you’re looking for a phone with a little extra toughness but that doesn’t sacrifice on design in order to do so, you might want to check out two new Xperia models Sony just announced, the Xperia Go and Xperia Acro S.

Both phones use scratch-resistant glass for screen protection, but when it comes to protection against dust and water, the Go has a small advantage; it’s rated for IP67 protection, which makes it well-nigh impenetrable to dust and able to survive for at least half an hour in a meter of water. The Acro is just the slightest bit more vulnerable, rated to be dust-protected but not dust-tight.

The Xperia Go (above) runs a dual-core 1GHz processor with a 512MB of RAM, has a five-megapixel main camera, and features a 3.5-inch HVGA display powered by Sony’s BRAVIA engine. It has 8GB of external storage, with expansion available via microSD, and is powered by a 1350mAh battery.

The Xperia Acro S (below), on the other hand, has a 1.5GHz dual-core chip under its hood, a gigabyte of RAM, a larger 12.1-megapixel main camera (with 1.3-megapixel front-facer), and a 4.3-inch 720p display. The phone also bumps-up internal storage to 16GB.

Both Xperia models will be available internationally sometime in Q3 of this year. The Acro S will arrive with ICS, while the Go will upgrade from Gingerbread at a point in the future. In the US, the Xperia Go will arrive as the Xperia Advance.