What does “waterproof” really mean for gadgets?

The easy fix

If you’ve bought a water-resistant phone, there’s a chance you did so because the advertising material suggested you could take it swimming, take photos underwater, and generally have a phone that won’t break if you take a dip in the drink.

It’s also fantastically liberating owning a piece of technology that lets you go in the water — even for a few minutes (like taking the dogs for a dip) — without fear that it will break the moment it inadvertently falls in.

But if it happens at a pool or the ocean, what do you do?

Simple: run it under a tap.

Even at the beach, there are showers connected to the freshwater supply to let you wash all that salt residue that off your body, and we bet the showers at the pool aren’t connected to the chlorine supply, either.

At home, your regular kitchen or bathroom tap will do perfectly fine, because freshwater is generally the answer.

If you have taken a phone or tablet carrying IP-rated water resistance into a body of water that isn’t likely to be supported by the IP rating, run it under a tap and wash off those impurities.

Remember that water resistance is about water type and depth more than anything else, and provided you’ve kept in the shallow end (for the most part) and for not all that long, running the phone under the tap should get rid of any chemical changes that make water different and potentially break your device.

What about beer and wine?

The cheeky question about water-resistant gadgets is often about liquids that aren’t your typical immersible liquids, like what about beer and wine?

We all go for a cheeky drink here and there, and technically a waterproof phone should survive a chance encounter with intoxicating beverages better than one that hasn’t, but most devices should be fine with a splash here and there.

Basically, unless you’re going to be swimming in tubs of wine or beer (do they even exist?), your device should be ok, but again, resistance to liquids that aren’t pure or fresh water fall under that same problem of residual chemicals.

Specifically, if you drown it in a pint of beer, you have to deal with all the impurities that make the beer what it is — beer — such as malt, hops, and other elements.

Again, washing it off under a tap might be required, though you’ll want to do it pretty quickly, because some liquids — such as red wine — can stain and begin to smell.

So why aren’t all devices waterproof?

It’s all well and good to argue that devices should be waterproof hereon in, but there’s more to it than that, and water-resistance can affect design.

Simply put, it often comes down to that design and whether a company deems it as important to include the technology into its product.

Back in 2014, Samsung certainly saw that a hint of ruggedisation with a “made for Australia” element was ideal for its then-flagship the Galaxy S5, a model that had evolved from the Galaxy S4 Active, but this year, the Galaxy S6 and its subsequent variants ditched that water-proofing in exchange for a metal frame and curved bit of glass.

Sony hasn’t let nice glass and metal frames stop it from being water-resistant, and has even kept this feature in its flagship phones since 2013, while deciding to bring liquid resistance to other less premium smartphones, such as the M4 Aqua.

But what about other manufacturers?

At the time of publishing, neither LG, Huawei, or Samsung had opted to come back to us for a comment on the area, though we’re continuing to push for an official comment from all three of the majors.

A Motorola spokesperson did tell GadgetGuy that water proofing is “very important”, going so far as to say that was “why they support the nano-coating, where the IP rating is not available”.

In fact, Motorola does have at least one IP-rated product, the mid-range Moto G, and the company has experimented with liquid resistant coatings in the past, as its reinvented RAZR was the first time we had seen the nano-coating concept applied to a phone, even if it was the inside of the mobile handset.

We’re also told Huawei has played with water-proofing before, and we know Samsung has, too.

Speakers even get a dose of the resistance, with Logitech’s Ultimate Ears or “UE” brand pretty much sitting at the front, though you’ll find a few from other companies, such as Braven and Philips, while a few waterproof earphones have popped up — one from Plantronics we can think off the top of our heads — not to mention the small pool of waterproof cameras, with action cameras like the GoPro Session taking point on this one.

As for why more companies aren’t using it in products, that is anyone’s guess, though given that at least one major company is trying to push for it across its devices, we suspect it’s only a matter of time before it’s no longer a feature and just something standard.

If waterproofing is important to you, however, look for it on the box of a product with one of those “IP” ratings, or even in a review. If it’s there, you can bet we’ll talk about it, and we’ll probably even show it off with one of those water splash photos we love so much.