Your waterproof phone won't be waterproof forever.

This is a somewhat slippery question: Do you take your phone with you when you take a shower?

Photo | The Mirror

In the LCD era, such a scenario was still hard to imagine. However, with the improvement of the protection level of mobile phones in recent years, it has become increasingly common to take your phone with you while taking a shower to listen to music, watch shows, or even play a game.

Coincidentally, after Apple first added water - resistance to the iPhone 7 in 2016, it once launched an advertisement:

In the advertisement, the veteran Belgian diver Giovanni Dolcimascolo jumped off a 27 - meter diving platform accompanied by the song "Mendez: Macarena's First Love" playing on the iPhone 7 Plus. The splashing water hit the phone, and the ripples vibrated with the music.

Although this advertisement showcases the powerful dual speakers of the iPhone 7 Plus, what Apple doesn't tell you is: If you take your phone to the swimming pool and it gets water inside, the after - sales service won't provide warranty for you.

Behind this contradiction, in an era when flagship phones with water - resistance are everywhere and even foldable phones can be used like skipping stones on water, there lies a fact that everyone should know:

Your water - resistant phone can't be waterproof forever.

What does the IP rating really mean?

When it comes to the external protection of electronic products, the IP rating is definitely a key term that can't be avoided.

The IPXX rating system we are familiar with today comes from the IEC 60529 standard established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1976. It aims to provide a quantifiable protection grading system for electrical equipment with a rated voltage not exceeding 72.5 kV.

The full name of IP is Ingress Protection. With the popularization of consumer electronics and the diversification of usage scenarios, the IEC 60529 standard has now been extended from industrial electrical equipment to most electromechanical products, including smartphones.

The IP ratings we commonly see are mostly in the form of IPXX, such as IP56, IP68, IP69, etc. The first digit corresponds to the protection against solid particles. The larger the digit, the better the sealing and the higher the dust - proof ability. The second digit corresponds to the "water - resistance level". Levels 1 - 9 represent different intensities and methods of water - resistance.

The size of this digit doesn't correspond to a single dimension (depth/water pressure/duration), which will be explained in detail later. Ifanr has also created the following image to help you understand the protection meaning of the IP rating. You can save it for future reference.

Smartphones have complex usage scenarios and compact internal structures. The dust - proof and water - resistance levels are usually complementary. For example, the sealing glue on the screen can prevent dust from entering and also has a water - proof effect. In this regard, Japanese and Korean manufacturers led by Sony and Samsung are undoubtedly far ahead:

Ancient Internet memory: Sony Z5 Premium in a hot pot

As a rising star in the mobile phone industry, the foldable phone category has also overcome the water - resistance problem after two or three years on the market. The Samsung Z Fold3 and Flip3 released in 2021 became the first foldable phones with IPX8 water - resistance. This year's Honor Magic V5 has been upgraded to IP58/IP59.

However, for foldable phones, due to the presence of movable mechanisms such as hinges, it is much more difficult to break through the dust - proof level of 6 than to achieve water - resistance. The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold released last week has won the title of the world's first "dust - tight" foldable phone with an IP68 rating.

Phones aren't as waterproof as you think

After looking at all this, even foldable phones have IP68 and IP59 protection ratings, and most mainstream straight - screen flagship phones in recent years support the IP68 standard. Sounds great, doesn't it?

However, there is more to it than meets the eye. There are mainly two reasons why phones aren't as dust - proof and water - resistant as we expect:

The digits in the IP rating don't have a progressive relationship with the intensity. A larger digit doesn't necessarily mean better sealing;

The actual usage scenarios of phones are much more complex than the water - resistance tests. The IP rating evaluates accidental protection, not the designed function of the phone.

Resistant to still water or flowing water?

Since the IP rating system wasn't specifically designed for consumer electronics but is mainly a technical standard for the electrical industry, its digit system isn't completely progressive. It distinguishes different scenarios, especially the most crucial water - resistance.

From the national standard documents based on IEC 60529, we can see that the current water - resistance ratings are divided into ten levels from 0 to 9. IPX1/2 is for protection against dripping water, IPX3/4/5/6 is for protection against splashing water, IPX7/8 is for protection against immersion, and IPX9 (referred to as 9K in some standards) is for protection against high - temperature and high - pressure water jets.

That is to say, although the digits of level 6 and level 7 differ by 1, the water - resistance structural designs may be completely different.

In daily life, your iPhone may be okay if it accidentally slips into the sink and soaks for a while, but if you directly rinse it under the faucet, water may seep in somewhere:

It seems okay on the surface, but actually, it has been affected for a while.

This is the first misunderstanding about water - resistance: IPX6 and IPX8 represent two completely different water - resistance scenarios. The requirements for resisting water jets and water soaking are completely different. So, there may be a theoretical situation where an IP68 phone may not necessarily survive in an IP66 environment.

Moreover, there is a contradiction in IP68 itself: IEC 60529 doesn't specify the specific test conditions for level 8 water - resistance. Instead, it is determined through negotiation between phone manufacturers and consumers. The only requirement is that it should be "more severe" than the conditions for level 7 water - resistance (30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter).

The test standard for the iPhone 16 Pro (top) is 6 meters for 30 minutes, while the Xiaomi 15s Pro (bottom) is 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. Both meet the IP68 standard.

In other words, the water pressure in the test standards of two IP68 phones marked by manufacturers can differ by up to four times. If you test the Xiaomi 15s Pro with the 6 - meter, 30 - minute standard claimed by iPhone, although it may not take in water immediately, if something goes wrong, the after - sales service can smoothly reject your warranty claim.

The laboratory standard can't prevent water ingress in daily life

Why do manufacturers always promote water - resistance but don't provide warranty when the phone gets water inside?

The controversy behind this is a huge topic related to advertising laws, consumer rights protection laws, national standard tests, laboratory standards, etc. But simply put, the fundamental reason why phone manufacturers promote water - resistance but don't cover water - damaged phones under warranty is that these two things are not the same at all.

From a legal perspective, what all phone manufacturers promote is actually "My phone meets the IPXX standard", not "My phone is waterproof". Therefore, any environment that doesn't match the laboratory conditions for IP rating evaluation is actually not within the scope of the contract between consumers and manufacturers.

However, the scenarios in our daily lives where we need our phones to be waterproof are much more complex than those faced by the IP standards. Take two common scenarios as examples: swimming in a pool or at the beach with a smartwatch, and putting your phone beside you to listen to music while taking a shower. In fact, no IP standard can cover both of these situations at the same time.

For swimming, currently, in order to meet the static water - resistance standard of IP68, most electronic devices use a combination of waterproof rubber gaskets, semi - permeable membranes, and frame glue in their waterproof designs. This is indeed more than enough for the environment of pure water immersion.

However, the chlorine in pool water will accelerate the aging of these waterproof structures, and the metal ions and salts in seawater are even more destructive. There are no effective protection methods for daily electronic products. But in a broad sense, they do fall within our expectations of "water - resistance".

Even extreme people think it's too extreme.

In the shower scenario, even though the latest IPX9 includes a test for high - temperature and high - pressure water jets and can prevent some water vapor, the IP test doesn't measure long - term results. Your phone may seem okay on the day of the shower, but long - term humidity combined with other components in the air can still damage the motherboard.

Moreover, all the above scenarios are based on the premise that your phone has no scratches, the frame is intact, the structure is tightly sealed, and most importantly, there is no aging.

Whether it's the sealing glue, semi - permeable membrane, or the waterproof coating on the motherboard, in the usage scenarios of phones with frequent temperature changes, shaking, and impacts, the effective protection time is limited.

After a year or two, the sealing strips on the phone body will age. Whether it's the back cover bulging or the screen adhesive coming off, the phone's functions may not be affected, but the water - resistance will definitely be lost.