「黃家駒 Wong Ka Kui」 | (aka: 鳳凰院 凶真 Hououin Kyouma)Does anyone actually take into account "IP Rating"/"Water Resistance" when they buy phones?
gigachadNo. But I would love a replaceable battery.
YES!!!
Samsung Galaxy XCover series does both.
Sadly, Samsung doesn’t allow bootloader unlocks… so yea its a hard pass for me 🤷♂️ (also, spec to price ratio is horrible)
Same for me, locked bootloader is basically useless. Fortunately, from 2027 batteries must be replaceable in the EU. I guess it may have an impact on other regions in the world as well.
That is fantastic news!
I wonder if manufacturers will be allowed to say “waterproof until battery is replaced the first time” or if they’ll still be waterproof even with a replaceable battery.
I had always heard it was hard to make those waterproof.
I dunno about everyone else, but definitely not me.
I don’t swim and I’m not prone to dropping my phone in the toilet.
Also, if you get even one drop of water on the screen, the touchscreen doesn’t even work correctly.
Electronic devices aren’t meant to get wet in the first place.
Rain exists… 👀
Obviously, duh.
One rain drop on your phone screen, and already shit don’t work right anymore.
This message coming from a tech that has worked on thousands of mobile devices.
All my phones so far worked in very light rain to some extent. A single drop of water won’t make it unusable.
The IP rating isn’t meant for making the device usable in all conditions. It was meant for the device to survive those conditions.
I get a drop of sweat on a digitizer touchscreen, and my day is fucked, and my paycheck is fucked.
Phones aren’t meant to be waterproof or even water resistant.
Go ahead, drop a few drops of water on your screen. It won’t work right…
No, they tend to be good enough to have in a pocket while sweating in light rain which is the worst I’ll put them through.
Not phone, but I definitely look at IP or Denier ratings for other things.
Pope-King JoeSorta. I live in the Ohio Valley. It can literally be sunny one moment and the next be raining cats and dogs. I’ve walked out of the house and where I was standing, it was sunny, but 20 feet away it was raining. It’s pretty wild.
Nope
brapI don’t care for the number and just go by what they say it will endure, but absolutely. As the owner of a toddler it’s saved the day on as number of occasions.
I want stories please
Nothing crazy. Just a phone ending up in either the bath, the toilet, gravy, sand, whatever. Kinda surprising what an iPhone will endure tbh.
SockenklausAlso: Drool… My kids chewed on my more time than I can count…
Yes, outdoor work and phones are expensive.
No. If I add any more requirements for what I need from a phone I’ll go from 1 option to zero.
What’s your one option btw?
Carrier pigeons.
rmukThey also don’t work underwater.
Carrier salmon.
XCover 6 Pro
Well, it already has IP68 anyways so you got that covered :D
Allegedly so. Looking at that rubber seal behind the flimsy back cover doesn’t inspire much confidence however so I’ll keep treating it as if that rating doesn’t exist.
What’s the requirement that only this phone covers?.. If it’s not being more “resistant”? Its whole point seems to be to be rugged.
Has removable battery and a headphone jack.
xkcd phone
Not really, I just assume it can handle being rained on.
Yes and you should (good IP rating also means better hardware and assembly quality).
I was using 2nd hand (refurbished) samsung, 3 months later it just failed because of summer, rain, sweat …
Yes, absolutely. When my phone gets drenched in the rain on a cycling trip, I want it to survive.
Yes, but I also get into a rage about manufacturers being dicks about it. People by and large don't seem to understand the IP rating scale is in fact two largely-unrelated scales, and companies slapping IP ratings on their products use that in what I feel are underhanded ways.
The values IPx1-IPx6 correspond to varying levels of resistance against directed streams of water. IPx7-IPx9 are degrees of resistance to submersion. The latter does not imply the former, not even a little bit.
It is in theory entirely possible to build a device that could withstanding being put in the bottom of a swimming pool that's being slowly filled with water, but failed from the higher pressure of a small amount of water falling on it from a certain direction.
But you still see phones listed just as "IP68", which tells you nothing. The better manufacturers will explicitly write the likes of "IP65/IP68"; showing that it reaches the 5 rating of "water jets 12.5litre/minute" but not the 6 rating of "powerful water jets 100litre/minute", but also IP67 "immersion <1 metre / <30 minutes" and IP68 "immersion >1 metre / >30 minutes".
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_code#Second_digit:_Liquid_ingress_protection)
MudManThis is a bit obtuse for the sake of pedantry.
I mean, is it possible that you could build a device resistant to submersion but not splashing? Maybe?
But this isn't "a device", this is a phone. The problems with water ingress are very specific. You have a couple of speakers, a sim card slot and a USB port, plus the seams for the screen and backplate. If you secured those well enough for the immersion tests they're going to be splash-resistant. If you have a way in which you can somehow have a phone screen adhesive survive being underwater for several minutes but not falling rain or being placed under a tap/hose please do share, because I can't think of one. The scenario where your speaker seals are good enough for being fully submerged but can be bypassed by shooting high pressure water directly into them is so niche it's probably not worth it to further confuse people by having two different IP ratings listed.
Plus... you know, don't be shooting water hoses directly up your phone's holes regardless? I don't see why you would in the first place, but... just don't? It's not gonna happen by accident, so it doesn't need to happen at all.
Yes and no.
Taking advantage of the very real waterproofing of the phones I have owned (past and present), I will just wash the damn thing off under the kitchen tap if it gets dirty, which I have with one of my previous phones done with a high-pressure restaurant-sink-style spray nozzle (I was making beer, and boiling the wort kicks a lot of sticky crap into the air).
That phone was fine afterward, and continued to work for several years after.
Also at a more basic level, it is (at least in theory) an assurance that they actually tested the damn thing, and didn't just slap a largely meaningless (and as already noted, "bigger number better") rating on the thing, as is largely the style of our times because consumer protection is dead and regulations are meaningless.
This is exactly the kind of should be done properly, or just not at all. Test it and rate it for the people who do care, or STFU, put the unqualified but perfectly reasonable label of "water resistant" on it, and the bulk of people who indeed do not care (or will be confused) will be no worse off than they are now.
Anything else is just annoying.
Yeah, ok, so... don't wash your phone with a spray nozzle regardless, is going to be my advice. Wet tissue? Sure. Under the tap with light soap? If desperate. Just... don't hose your phone down, what are you doing.
But let's be clear, IP ratings are certifications. You can still be water resistant under the conditions of the test and not have the certification for it.
It makes perfect sense for... you know, people not using water jets on their electronics, to get just the certification that covers most real use cases (in this case the one that covers rain, accidental pool falls and the occasional toilet dunk) and communicate that. It doesn't mean your phone won't survive a bartop spray nozzle wash (which, again, you shouldn't be doing) or even that it wouldn't have gotten the IPx5/6 cert if the manufacturer had gone through the process, but it's extra cost that will only muddle how you communicate with your user.
Are people not clear that IPx5/6 and IPx7/8 aren't on a linear scale? They are not. That's on the IEC's poor formatting of the ratings. Are manufacturers leaning on the implicit user assumption that the higher number just means more protection? Sure.
Is it relevant/annoying/effectively problematic in real use? Not unless you're using a waterjet cutter to rinse ketchup off your phone. Which, again, don't do that, that's not a good thing to do.
Yup. Its not a deal breaker, but I try to find at least some options that have a rating and consider if its worth the other tradeoffs.
I don't bother with the exact ratings, but it has to be water resistant. If you're researching phone options, open a tab in desktop view and go to Versus.
Thanks for the link!
You're welcome!
ReallyZenBattery life (>5000mAh) and price (<$200) comes first - long days of work, often outside, it’be nice but.
Absolutely, I don’t want to worry about water damage, I also often just wash the phone while washing my hands, especially during flu-season.
I also often just wash the phone while washing my hands
I did that often around covid, water got in the supposedly IP68 water resistance anyways after doing that for a few months.
I’d consider their claims to be exaggerated.
If theu say its “water submersible” treat it as just protection against light splashes, if its just “water repellant”, don’t trust that near water at all. Expect less than their claims.
ChozoIf you used soap, that could be why. Soap can deteriorate the rubber gaskets and adhesives that keep the ingress protection together.
Yeaah, but what good is washing something without soap?
Nowadays I just try to use alcohol wipes instead
Yep. Non-negotiable. Not only do I live in a very rainy place, but I have uses for this stuff that require getting splashed A LOT very often for other reasons.
Yes. I use my phone in rain/snow and boats all the time plus it’s nice to be able to use it in sauna also
I feel like that defeats the purpose of sauna a bit…
But anyway, I thought heat rating was a different metric entirely?
Sauna is a place where you either chat with other people or sit with your thoughts. It’s blasphemy to bring your phone in there.
I thought that chatting was rude because people are trying to enjoy the silence (for a public sauna).
Well, that depends on the culture where you live, but at least here in Finland - the sauna capital of the world - it’s perfectly fine. In fact, Finns in general are quite introverted and don’t talk much, but in the sauna you don’t only undress your clothes, you undress titles as well. Everyone is equal there, which makes people more open to starting conversations with strangers. In the past, it was even a place where many political decisions were made.
Cool! I guess it’s just the culture where I am in the USA. Some people do chat (usually not English so idk what they’re talking about) but most people turn inward.
Nah it’s only an occasional thing when we also bring some bluetooth speakers there.
I keep the phone on the lower levels so it doesn’t get too hot
Sauna? Bruh you’re really pushing the limits of the water resistance, its water resistant, not water + heat resistant (rubber gaskets are gonna fall apart with the steamy hot air constantly)
Well no damage yet atleast and I’ve been doing it for 6 years now with this phone
Yes. Have exclusively used rugged phones for past ~10 years. Mostly Cat (RIP), now Doogee S96. My phone is exposed to a lot of particulate matter, metal fragments, sawdust, etc. It needs to withstand fall damage on hard surfaces. The IP rating indicates it’s resistance to anything entering the case, including water.
Yes. I’m not too demanding about it but I want my phone to survive being soaked in rain or a washing with clean water.
Bonus points if I can take it into the sea, but I never had a phone for which I was confident it could survive salty water.
Not me. I always used the phone in the rain if i needed to. It’s a nice plusy, but I woundnt trust the ip rating enough to carry the phone in wet swimming trunks after swimming.
No, I grew up with phones (and electronics in general) not being water tight or resistant so I sort of still have the mindset of not taking my phone near lakes/bathtubs and putting it away when it’s raining.
Haven’t really had a problem with water damage in all the years of owning phones. Most of my phones were not water tight/resistant because they were older Nokias, had a replaced battery or are Fairphones.