Does anyone actually take into account "IP Rating"/"Water Resistance" when they buy phones?
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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.
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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.
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wrote last edited by [email protected]
This 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 few microphones, 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 get water damaged 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.
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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.
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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
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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.
If you used soap, that could be why. Soap can deteriorate the rubber gaskets and adhesives that keep the ingress protection together.
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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.
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What's your one option btw?
XCover 6 Pro
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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.
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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?
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XCover 6 Pro
Well, it already has IP68 anyways so you got that covered
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wrote last edited by [email protected]
Yeaah, but what good is washing something without soap? (Germs aren't gonna come off)
Nowadays I just try to use alcohol wipes instead
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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
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)
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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...
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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.
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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.
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Well, it already has IP68 anyways so you got that covered
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.
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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.
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XCover 6 Pro
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.
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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.
