I stupidly put my phone in the pocket of my swim trunks and thought “Remember to take it out before you get into the pool.”
I did not remember, walked into the pool, and had a small heart attack when I felt it in my pocket after a couple minutes.
Turns out, water resistance has come a long way since I last thought about it. The phone was still on, but I just had an alert that the USB port sensed water and it was disabled temporarily.
I set it on a towel in the shade to dry and when I came back to it, it told me the USB port was ready again. I have not checked the mic or speakers yet, but will tomorrow.
It’s a Pixel 6a
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I once drunkenly walked up to a river to pee into it. But it was dark, and the water so calm i thought the walkway extended further into it. Long story short i walked straight into the river, with my phone in my pocket. The xperia xa2 actually held out though, i replaced it a few years later because the battery only ran for like 2 hours
Meanwhile, my pixel 7 has condensation in the camera from being in a sweaty pocket…
I recommend turning it off after it gets wet just to be safe.
Even then, the danger these days moreso comes from corrosion than from short circuiting. So it could have long term issues.
In the shade to dry.
You chose wisely.
Most new phones today have an IP67 or 68 rating, meaning a quick dip in a pool isn’t an issue. I think the standard says the device must survive being submerged in water for at least 30 minutes.
This also means pushing your friends into the pool can be funny again instead of having to pay to replace their phone!
IP68 only specifies water resistance below 1 metre, but exactly how far below 1m depends on manufacturer. Walking into the pool and then realizing, or having it in your pocket when you jump in, probably won’t cause an issue, but if your friend is holding their phone when you push them in, when the phone hits the water it’ll likely have water pressures above the equivalent of 1m and may potentially cause damage. Not saying it will for sure, and in most cases it’ll probably be fine, but it’s just worth noting. 1m of water pressure really isn’t very much at all. I know for watches, 30m is the bare minimum in most cases, because anything less than that isn’t even rain proof for heavier rains. A shower is around 50m of pressure I believe, though it’s been a while since I researched it. I’ll try to find a chart later today if I remember.
Edit: below is a generic guide for water resistance for watches. Obviously a watch is going to be more likely to make contact with water than a phone, and if your phone’s in your pocket, the fabric will obviously buffer a lot of that water pressure, but still.
I’m having a bit hard time believing the chart. Surely swimming cannot cause the same pressure than being 50+ meters under water? 50 meters is a lot.
My smart watch (Pixel Watch 3) has the 5 ATM rating. I have been swimming and showering with it regularly and haven’t had any issues yet. But according to that chart, maybe I shouldn’t be doing it.
Well obviously swimming changes local water pressure. That’s how you move forward
And 5atm is not that much if you pinch an inflated 3bar bike wheel that’s already 4.3 bar
I’m not a smart man but I agree with you
Ip68 kinda does that. I regularly run my phone under a tap to rinse it. Until the seal breaks due to imperceptibly swelling battery.
I just said f*** it, and got a waterproof phone. It actually has an awesome underwater photography mode.
As for the speaker. There are sound generators that blast the speakers clear of water. You preferably don’t want to just let it air dry in the future. A build up of crap on the speaker could mess with sound generation.
Which phone model did you get?
Ulefone armor 27T pro
It’s a bit of a brick, but is ruggedised to hell and has a stupidly large battery. It also has thermal and night vision cameras. The only weaknesses I’ve found are the camera being less good than the top end pixel phones, and it’s heavy.
Back in the day I had an old slide phone.
I took it to a swimming pond 2 times (literally and hour or more and dropped it in a lap pool 1 or 2 times.
It always completely recovered and by the end of those 3 years or so only had very light LCD damage and 1 key that didn’t work.
I’ve heard for most pools: You should probably give your phone a light rinse under tap water, the chlorine isn’t good for the glue and seals, and the salt isn’t good for the metals.
No idea how true that is though, but the Pixel 6a is rated for 1 meter, so surely it can’t hurt.
This was salt, but I was going to upgrade soon anyway. I may still do a quick rinse with the power off tomorrow. Good idea.
I would turn it off for 24h+ just to be safe
Since the Galaxy S8 I’ve never wanted a phone without water resistance as a requirement. I have ADHD and I frequently get caught in the rain, spill stuff on myself, and honestly just enjoy using my phone in the bath. I did all those things with my original HTC Dream, aka the G1, which was the original Android phone and I loved it, but the fear of getting it wet was a drain. Modern phones are capable of resisting water to an insane degree, and my current main phone is a Pixel 6 Pro which can go into the shower without a problem.
Now headphones on the other hand are not great for water resistance. My solution was to buy a few pairs of crappy TWS headphones and just accept that they won’t last forever in my use case. So far they have lasted well over a year and I actually have two pairs going so I can switch them over when they run out of charge. I would prefer something waterproof but I haven’t found anything that actually performs at a level worthy of the price, so this solution will do for now.
I’ve had good luck with the shockz openrun pro bone conductive headphones, and they have a variant for swimmers (Bluetooth + built-in MP3 player, because Bluetooth signal is stopped by water).
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The rice thing is a total myth and story that just won’t die.
I think it’s because people are more willing to accept the magic of leaving a phone alone and powered off for 12 hours in rice vs actually leaving your phone powered off and on a shelf/table for 12 hours.
Surely, the rice does something! It’s like, idk, sucking the water out?
It feels like by using rice you’re actually doing something about the situation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, filling every crevice in your phone with stach dust which will turn to cement when it gets wet
