IPhone 12 may change concepts of water resistance

You might think that your iPhone (or any other phone) is liquid and water resistant, but it really isn't. It is not true water resistance, and it is not for all liquids, and this resistance does not always apply. The topic is somewhat complicated, but I will explain to you the reason for this, and what you can do about this topic, and most importantly, what Apple did with the iPhone 12 and what will be approved for the next.

Leakage resistance technically: It is the ingress protection of particles and liquid. In other words, any kind of dust, fine dirt, coffee, cola, or whatever. But, for most people, most of the time, the most important thing is: water ... yes, water resistance.

Meaning, if the weather was raining, and my phone or any other device was exposed to rain water, or it was splashed or flooded, or it fell into a pool with water, such as a swimming pool or in a river or lake, will the device break down? Or will he survive? This is the most important thing.

Global standard for dust and water resistance "IP"

There is an approved "global" system that classifies the levels of resistance of manufactured products to the point of their durability and protection from the ingress of water and dust, which is called "IP", an abbreviation of the word "Ingress Protection" and its Arabic meaning "protection against leakage", which some sometimes call the international protection standard "International Protection." “We will dwell on it in detail shortly.

How is this license taken?

Obtaining a license to use the "IP" standard costs manufacturers a lot of money, so not all companies do this on all their devices, and there are some classifications for this standard that are left open to the same companies to assign them (which may seem like a student who is conducting his own test and classifying it himself. ).

The most important thing for us in this matter, just because a device has a certain level of water resistance does not necessarily mean that it resists all types of water under all conditions, and all liquids equally, or that it will maintain even this level of resistance over time, and this is what I meant when I mentioned earlier Sentence (useless resistance).

Did you know that some phones and mobile devices are not waterproof at all? ... Yes, even when we are in the year 2020 with the current technological development summit.

For example, the first foldable phones that we saw from Samsung (The Fold & The Flip) and Motorola (The RAZR) that had movable joint technologies and had screens that couldn't be made waterproof (at least for now).



There are also other phones that the manufacturers have made water resistant to both financially and technically in every possible way, but they are not licensed under the “IP” standard and thus they are not marketed as such. For example, in the year 2015 with the iPhone 6s, Apple used rubber gaskets that were more efficient than the iPhone that preceded it, which in turn added a great deal of water resistance. But Apple never subjected 6S to the process of obtaining a rating to the "IP" standard, nor did they even announce it as an added feature of the iPhone 6s (new at the time).

What Apple did in the iPhone 6S was just a test to see how successful these new rubber pads are in reducing damage and resilience when immersing in water accidents. After that, Apple used the results and data to improve the feature and make the iPhone 7 "officially" waterproof for marketing purposes, especially after removing the 3.5 mm headphone jack in 2016.



Last July, OnePlus decided not to bear the expenses of licensing the "IP" standard on its new OnePlus Nord phone completely as water-resistant, although they certainly made a great effort to protect the device and make it water and dust resistant.

What do these licenses mean?

As mentioned earlier, unlike the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 7, Apple licensed it, classified it as water resistant, and marketed it on this basis. The company stated that it is distinguished by its dust and water resistance, with a degree of support of IP67 in particular. And with the iPhone XS, Apple raised this resistance to support IP68. And with the iPhone 11 Pro, she said that he got protection with a degree of support IP68 better than it was with the XS.

So what is the difference between the IP68 used in each of the iPhone XS and iPhone 11 Pro?

Apple said that the latter could withstand being submerged in water to a depth of 4 meters for 30 minutes, while the depth was up to two meters for the same period in the iPhone XS, here Apple raised the evaluation of IP68 support for more severe conditions, meaning that this rating is to this degree It is left to be determined by the companies according to the tests that they carry out and prove before giving the last license, and this is exactly what Apple has done with the iPhone 11 Pro.

What do the numbers that follow the letters "IP" mean?

The letters “IP” are always followed by two numbers indicating the degree of protection provided, in accordance with the British standard registered with BS EN 60529 of 1992. For example, IP67 represents the first number (6) protection against leakage of solid objects such as dust and the second number (7) represents protection from leakage water. Therefore, IP67 prevents dust from entering with degree (6) and protects against water leakage with degree (7). This degree means temporary immersion in water for up to one meter for 30 minutes.

The following is an explanation of each score used on this criterion:

Solid object leakage protection
X - This classification has not been tested
0 - no protection
1 - Protected against objects over 50 mm in diameter
2 - Protected against objects whose diameter exceeds 12.5 mm, such as a finger
3 - Protected against objects over 2.5 mm in diameter
4 - Protected against objects over 1.0 mm in diameter such as wires
5 - Dust is not completely prevented from entering, but dust does not enter in quantities that lead to harm in correct operation or may harm safety.
6 - Dust is strictly prohibited (this is the highest possible score on this standard)
Usually, special examination devices are used to determine the degree of this classification, as in this picture:

Protection against water leakage
X - This classification has not been tested
0 - no protection
1 - Protected against shedding of water droplets
2 - Protected against falling 15 degrees of water droplets in 4 fixed positions
3 - Low pressure water spray (similar to water dripping from a shower head) using a laboratory tube with a vertical arc angle of 60 ° for ten minutes
4 - Low pressure spray of water (similar to water dripping from the shower head) as in number 3, but at an angle of 180 degrees, for 10 minutes
5 - Medium pressure water spray of 6.3 mm diameter (similar to tap water) from any angle for 3 minutes at a distance of 2.5 to 3 meters
6 - High pressure water spray with a diameter of 12.5 mm (similar to the water pressure of a fire hose) from any angle for 3 minutes at a distance of 2.5 to 3 meters.
7 - Immersion - for temporary immersion in water under specified conditions (1 meter for 30 minutes)
8 - Protected from the effects of continuous immersion in water, and the ingress of water should not be in quantities that cause harmful effects, and the conditions must be more severe compared to the figure (7). (Note here that there are no stated limits on the level of depth or the time of immersion in water)
9 - Steam cleaning, high pressure, high temperature jet washing up to DIN40050 (according to German standard)

There are also letters that can be added to other indications such as protection against oil, against voltage (pressure), or weather. But for phones, we focus here only on the two numbers after the letters "IP", which is the thing that matters most to the user, dust and water.

There are some important things to be aware of

FirstWater means plain pure water intended for drinking. If the water contains something else, such as salt from the sea or ocean, chlorine from a swimming pool, sugars from coffee or cola, or acids as in orange or lemon juice, the risk of damage and corrosion is higher in these cases. So, if impure water comes into contact with your phone, regardless of the type of water or liquid, you will need to rinse it with plain clean water, then dry it and allow it to dry completely.




SecondThe more ports a device has, the harder it will be to make this device waterproof. Apple may have deleted the 3.5 mm headphone jack, but there is still a slot for the SIM card and the Lightning port, and if your device gets wet, pull out the SIM card and disconnect the Lightning connection, and this may not be enough, but rather to avoid any problem Others, after wet the device, it is recommended to let it dry completely before using it.

ThirdThe mere classification of something by immersing it in water for a distance of one or two meters or even four meters at normal pressure for 30 minutes does not mean that it will fail immediately after the end of this period, even if it is submerged under more depth and under stronger pressure or for a longer period. Your device might still be fine, but these are all possibilities only and nothing is guaranteed.

Certainly, we have all seen many articles and videos about iPhones being lost in the water and then restored after different periods of time, all completely intact, and no problem is noticed. But in fact, rubber gaskets "gaskets" break down and corrode under the depths or stay for a long time underwater. Even with the passage of time after the device is restored, the gaskets may fail and any liquid may leak later, resulting in a malfunction of the device.

This is why Apple and other companies are marketing water resistance as a "feature" rather than a "guarantee." Meaning, shipments are usually not covered by the warranty. And if you take your device to Apple-approved maintenance, they will know immediately if the device has been submerged in water by examining some places inside the device, which are called "Liquid Contact Indicator" and abbreviated to "LCI", which changes color to scarlet. "Al-Shata" when exposed to water, and if you do not have an AppleCare + warranty, you will be fully charged for repair or replacement in this case (of course if you want to) not to mention data loss if you haven't done a backup recently.

The subject must be taken seriously and cautiously, and try not to ever expose your device to getting wet, and if the device gets wet during an accident, make sure to dry it well and thoroughly.

What about the iPhone 12?

May come to mind what Apple did with the iPhone 12 and what improvements it will do after it?
The simplest way that Apple can improve the iPhone's water resistance is to repeat what it did last year. And it really happened. In other words, just as they improved the waterproof feature in the iPhone XS from a resistance of 2 meters to a distance of 4 meters as in the iPhone 11 Pro, the iPhone 12 now provides better protection by raising the resistance level to 6 meters for a period of 30 minutes. We are talking about IP68 it really depends on Apple and how confident they are in their certified tests.



Water resistant swim Proof
The first version of the Apple Watch came with IPx7 resistance, and the x here means that Apple did not bother rating to protect against dust and dust, the protection was only against water and liquids. But the watch was almost like the iPhone 7 if it wasn't better in some respects, and many users doused it in water while washing hands and even swimming while wearing it, and it wasn't really designed for this.

Until the advent of the second generation Apple Watch and beyond, which is what Apple has classified as really resistant to swimming ... Yes, resistant to all types of swimming and even to a depth of 50 meters, without specifying an IP rating. To achieve this, and to preserve the functionality of the speaker system, Apple has cleverly added to the mechanism for removing water from the watch head.

The reason why the Apple Watch is better than the iPhone in terms of protection against water is that the watch does not contain the Lightning port as on the iPhone, in fact the watch technically contains a small Lightning port, but it is closed and hidden inside a groove of the frame The band's wrist, and no one can easily access it, is a technical movement from Apple to solve the problems of the watch by its certified technicians when examining, for example, or operating in DFU Mode.

Some people may know where this leads us, right? … Yes, rumors say that Apple may remove the Lightning port from the iPhone in the future. Maybe not soon, or maybe we will see it in 2021, who knows?

I mean here not to replace it with the USB-C port, but to remove any charging port just as I did with removing the 3.5 mm headphone jack and the Home button from the screens and replacing them of course with modern technologies as Apple's habit of creativity in these areas and finding advanced and useful alternatives.

But will Apple go that far and make the next iPhone swim-proof like the Apple Watch? I don't think so, because no one is really interested in swimming with their iPhone. What people might really be interested in is taking photos and videos underwater with iPhones. Even if it's for a short while and at low depth, that's the kind of feature people are looking for in mobile devices. Pictures like this may be a nice memory that stays for a very long time.

Apple may add its watch features to the iPhone in the future, add a swimming mode, which stops the multi-touch feature and prevent unnecessary activities, and use the volume buttons only to take photos and videos, in addition to the water expulsion feature from the headphones.

People actually used their iPhones to take photos and shoot videos underwater years ago, and many of them were fine while other devices broke down under the same conditions, and the real reason is that these devices were not designed for this topic.

last word

Our true Islamic religion, at the hands of the noble Messenger Muhammad, warned us against waste, and this is what prompts us first to take good care of what we have.

The iPhone is a really beautiful and wonderful device, with everything in it, and it is not a low-cost device at all, and preserving it is a personal matter such as preserving other private property from damage and loss, this may require special care in a suitable work environment as possible to get the most benefit. Of these properties and enjoying them during the period they are supposed to work, this period may be longer or may be shortened, and this all depends on the degree of your care for these devices and their maintenance.

The author of the article: Engineer Samer Abdel Wahab and Wahib

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