I took an iPhone X into a 3 foot deep swimming pool to take an underwater selfie (don’t ask, not the proudest moment) and it promptly died - apparently if you drop the phone, the water tight seal has a tendency to fail “silently”. Caveat Emptor :)
Thankfully, AppleCare was in effect and it got replaced for a small deductible.
Great to see gadgets standing up to being used as opposed to needing to be cradled and soothed all the time!
I took my phone out of the case today and noticed how dirty it, and the case was. I simply washed it off in the sink and it was nice and clean. I couldn’t help but think this was such a strange thing to do but also so natural.
Also, I’ve done underwater selfies too. It’s a lot of fun!
Just remember to let the phone dry fully before charging (unless you’re charging wirelessly of course). Moisture while charging gradually damages both cable and port.
iPhones are actually able to detect this and will give a pop-up saying moisture has been detected in the charging port and charging has been disabled out of safety concerns. It even shows you a bypass button for emergencies!
I get a similar notification when I take Apple Watch surfing. Also took an iPhone 11 in a waterproof bag around my neck for pics, but it was a hassle to zip up the wetsuit, and the bag fogged up.
But don't use soap, which reduces the surface tension and lets water get past seals. At the start of the pandemic I used soapy water on my iphone 11 and the faceid sensor broke immediatly. Apple replaced the phone, though.
Same, went swimming with my iPhone 7. It never fully died but the camera clouded up and it totally freaked out to the point of being near unuseable. AppleCare+ ,£70 and replaced in-store. I always get AppleCare+ now.
On the other hand I have a Samsung Active 2 watch which is IPX68 rated and has a swimming mode for a pool swim yesterday, in which it died. It lasted a total of 1 year and 4 months.
It also has an ECG sensor that died for most people(myself included) before Samsung released the ECG mode(one year later).
Oh, I also have that, I shower with it and took it swimming a few times, no problem.
So it's still working and I can fully enjoy the zero apps it has, because no one cares about Tizen, the continuous heartbeat measurement that stopped measuring after the last big update and the ongoing lack of ECG mode that I'm not allowed to use because I don't own a Samsung phone.
And people wonder why Apple owns the high-end smartwatch market.
I once dropped my SE into a pond while I was fishing. I didn’t notice until I actually saw the thing at the bottom of the pond. It was probably down there at least 5 minutes.
I fished it out and it worked completely fine. I don’t think SEs were even marketed as waterproof. They still had the headphone jack, which I think was the weakspot
Chlorine can damage the seals especially of something not actually rated as water resistant. Soap is also a weakness and can cause water to bypass the barrier due to water tension lowering.
> Ghodsi said the microphone is broken and the speaker sounds weird, but everything else is in perfect shape; the battery health is still at 96 per cent.
What? How is the battery still at 96 percent? Did she switch her phone off before dropping it?
Batteries surprisingly last a really long time as long as they are COMPLETELY drained (modern lithium has about 10-25% left after drain). Low cycling can make them last even longer in terms of decades expected, if you don't cycle the battery and keep it around 60-70%.
Yeah, if you buy into their ecosystem, and then you're locked into their stuff. How many online photo archive systems have gone and went in the last 10 to 15 years? Or how many end up fucking with photo quality at some point? Or lock your account with no recourse? Etc. The cloud is just someone else's computer. I'd rather vendors like Apple gave us the ability to build our own private clouds instead of locking us into theirs.
All my iCloud photos are also in /Users/ceejayoz/Pictures. iCloud is a backup and a way to not store ten years worth on your phone. Apple's quite happy to have you have a local copy of it all.
But it seems every year it gets a bit harder to store locally workout paying apple a monthly fee for iCloud. The UI in iTunes has stagnated while iCloud makes it super easy – for a price.
I can backup the phone just fine, but couldn't figure out a way to have all photos/videos on my computer and some on the phone (for when the total size exceeds the phone's capacity)
Yes, my phones have synced all my photos both to iCloud and Google for years now. It’s very unlikely that both will lose my data or prevent access at the same time.
My wife dropped her iPhone 11 off the side of our boat (at the dock), two days later our friend dove down and found it. We let it dry out for a couple of days and it has been working perfectly since then.
The glue makes it hard to open without breaking everything else too. Also the glue IS hard to replace since its a special silicon glue, most replacements use lower quality 3M 2 sided.
It can be waterproof sealed without the glue. I used my Kyocera Torque (rugged) until I couldn't update it's OS. (needed updated software for work) Changed it's battery once, you could use a nickel (or a fingernail) to unlock its backside and pry it open with your fingers. Battery slipped right off. Waterproof and tougher than a Nokia. I still use it as a hammer.
I am not sure the glue is that necessary for a waterproof seal, hence the crap.
The point is it might be worth trading off some repairability for reliability. I'd prefer a phone with more glue if it makes it more reliable when dropped or immersed in water even if that makes it harder to repair.
Despite the claims - apple devices through the apple care program have a good repair story.
If you have an elderly relative or parents, really consider an apple device with apple care, they can walk in and out if needed to an in person store. I've seen nothing simpler. They do some basic checks, will in a fair number of cases just swap you onto a new phone, then send your other phone to be looked at more closely.
There are no 5 calls to a script reading overseas call center, no mailing it in and back.
They seem to staff reasonably for calls in, and can actually solve problems. The only other company that can solve problems like this I've used is Amazon (who refunded me an $800 charge five minutes after my inquiry despite it having been recorded incorrectly in return system so I could have REALLY imagined lots of ways this would have gotten stuc). In short, this agent was able to single handedly (maybe with an internal escalation I didn't notice) get an $800 exception approved and I had money two days later. Calling google, samsung, huwai, dell even etc for stuff is a joke by comparison. Go to this forum, sign up for this paid support plan, pay this charge upfront.
The irony is Apple devices have BY FAR the longest useful life. The resale market is the best. The updates from Apple are the best. The devices flooding landfills are the “repairable” android devices. I have friends who’ve gotten ZERO updates after purchase!!
Battery at 96% after 6 month? That does not add up. Self discharge rate alone is higher I think. The average I think is 6%/month for Li-Ion. That is when completely disconnected which is not the case even if one turns power off
Apple shows how much maximum capacity a device’s battery still has, compared to a new one. That’s called battery health. If battery health is 96% and the battery is charged at 50%, it holds 0.96 * 0.50 = 0.48 times the charge of a new battery, i.e. 48%.
If battery health becomes too low a device’s speed can be reduced to preserve running time of the device. That’s what got Apple into problems before (“Apple is intentionally crippling devices”), see “Batterygate”:
I learned a lot about waterproofing years ago when I had an underwater (film) camera.
You had to be able to open the camera to get the film in and out, so there was a gasket around the door.
You had to be really careful - you had to keep it supple and clean. One hair or bit of pocket fuzz and you could destroy your camera (and film). You had to wash the camera with fresh water after using it. And depth mattered.
I figured that the digital age would bring cameras that were hermetically sealed, but that didn't seem to happen - they still seemed to put doors on cameras.
A big problem with hermetic seals is that if they aren't truly hermetic, water gets in and fogs up the lenses on the inside. If there's a hole that can be opened in the case, you at least have a decent chance of being able to dry out the insides (possibly with extra heat).
This is progress. If they're going to sell a sealed unit, it ought to be watertight. I expected that by now, phones would be totally sealed with no connectors. We have wireless charging and wireless headphones. SIM cards remain a problem, but there's probably some way to replace those with photographing a QR code or something.
My own phone is from Caterpillar.[1] Of course it's waterproof.
Water damage isn’t covered by Apple’s warranty. You can pay extra for AppleCare+, which covers accidental damage; however, you can do the same for just about any phone, and have been able to do so for years.
AT&T is fucking terrible about this and gives you physical eSIM cards. They refuse to give these to prepaid customers.
I've gone to an AT&T corporate store nuemrous times and get "sorry we've run out of esims" and they charge for them. The site itself is also out of them frequently.
They don't allow you to activate completely remotely without requiring the physical item from the store or shipped. They "run out of stock" of ESIMs. Unlike TMo or Verizon you cannot use the app to load an ESIM, you have to get your hands on a physical one. They charge for them.
My niece found in Porto Rico an iPhoneX, near the beach, about 1m underwater. It worked, but screen was locked and no way to find who the owner was. We could get the SIM card. When they got back, my brother in law went to Verizon and told them to find who the owner was, and to call him.
It was an Indian couple from New Jersey on their honey-moon vacation , and there were very happy to get their phone back, as they had all their honey moon pictures there. The estimate was that the phone was in water (about 1m of depth) for at least 3-4 days before my niece had found it.
So, it was a good story, also that the iphoneX, when new, can survive in shallow waters. Overtime, the 'water proof' coating does smear out, and eventually give in. I wouldn't swim with one, especially if it is an older phone.
I had the exact same experience. We found an iPhone in 1-2m of ocean in Mexico. It had been there a week, we found out after calling Verizon with the SIM and being put in contact with the owner. Someone in our group dropped it off in Portland on their way home.
In 2013, I got my iPhone 4S treated with the "Nano" protective coating from Liquipel. Not only could it survive being underwater, it could function underwater too.
We do wash freshly soldered PCB in a dishwasher. It’s got DI water and some other chemicals, but water nonetheless. Water is not the death of electronics.
I have always washed my iPhones in the sink (careful to run water over the screen and back, but not directly into the charging ports or speakers).
I have done this for my iPhone 6, 8 and XR over the last 5-6 years and it has never caused any damage. I used to wash the iPhone 6 in the sink nearly daily to remove the oils/sticky from the screen after eating lunch^. In my experience, you don't have to be extremely careful, you just need to be mindful that if you run the water jet continuously into a hole then it will eventually bust through... no matter what Apple marketing says.
^My workmates used to always tell me off for doing this, and I would explain that I've been doing it for years.
Part of the reason why so many beer cans and bottles are found it because of how illegal it is to drink on a boat without a bathroom and bedroom. And criminal to be drunk and in command of your canoe/kayak (or even floatie depending on how the judge feels).
My sister lost her iPhone 4 back in the day. Months later it popped up in Find My iPhone and they tracked it down. Turns out she lost it at the beach, and it spent months there, buried under a bit of sand. A kid and mom found it with a metal detector and brought it home to charge to try and find the owner. Still worked just fine.
107 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 182 ms ] threadThankfully, AppleCare was in effect and it got replaced for a small deductible.
Great to see gadgets standing up to being used as opposed to needing to be cradled and soothed all the time!
Also, I’ve done underwater selfies too. It’s a lot of fun!
It also has an ECG sensor that died for most people(myself included) before Samsung released the ECG mode(one year later).
So it's still working and I can fully enjoy the zero apps it has, because no one cares about Tizen, the continuous heartbeat measurement that stopped measuring after the last big update and the ongoing lack of ECG mode that I'm not allowed to use because I don't own a Samsung phone.
And people wonder why Apple owns the high-end smartwatch market.
I fished it out and it worked completely fine. I don’t think SEs were even marketed as waterproof. They still had the headphone jack, which I think was the weakspot
But Xs has been great in this regard. And with this pandemic, I regularly wash it with soap and water.
> (don’t ask, not the proudest moment)
don't be ashamed - that had the potential to be a super cool picture.
What? How is the battery still at 96 percent? Did she switch her phone off before dropping it?
Hah. Hopefully water didn't get into the battery in the first place ;)
yeah, 90% my ass. That battery was nearly dead.
All my iCloud photos are also in /Users/ceejayoz/Pictures. iCloud is a backup and a way to not store ten years worth on your phone. Apple's quite happy to have you have a local copy of it all.
They literally do. I have my iPhone 11 synced with my self hosted Nextcloud instance. It works pretty well.
iCloud is the default, not the only option.
I am not sure the glue is that necessary for a waterproof seal, hence the crap.
They get crap because the phones cannot be easily repaired and go into a landfill instead.
If you have an elderly relative or parents, really consider an apple device with apple care, they can walk in and out if needed to an in person store. I've seen nothing simpler. They do some basic checks, will in a fair number of cases just swap you onto a new phone, then send your other phone to be looked at more closely.
There are no 5 calls to a script reading overseas call center, no mailing it in and back.
They seem to staff reasonably for calls in, and can actually solve problems. The only other company that can solve problems like this I've used is Amazon (who refunded me an $800 charge five minutes after my inquiry despite it having been recorded incorrectly in return system so I could have REALLY imagined lots of ways this would have gotten stuc). In short, this agent was able to single handedly (maybe with an internal escalation I didn't notice) get an $800 exception approved and I had money two days later. Calling google, samsung, huwai, dell even etc for stuff is a joke by comparison. Go to this forum, sign up for this paid support plan, pay this charge upfront.
Many believed that she would never smile again.
If battery health becomes too low a device’s speed can be reduced to preserve running time of the device. That’s what got Apple into problems before (“Apple is intentionally crippling devices”), see “Batterygate”:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate
Would you care if you could buy the same apps 30% cheaper?
However, I would really love it so there can be a FOSS repository on the iPhone like F-Droid.
Is the App Store lacking? I’ve always been able to find what I needed.
That's not a defense. iOS is restrictive, and that's that.
You had to be able to open the camera to get the film in and out, so there was a gasket around the door.
You had to be really careful - you had to keep it supple and clean. One hair or bit of pocket fuzz and you could destroy your camera (and film). You had to wash the camera with fresh water after using it. And depth mattered.
I figured that the digital age would bring cameras that were hermetically sealed, but that didn't seem to happen - they still seemed to put doors on cameras.
My own phone is from Caterpillar.[1] Of course it's waterproof.
[1] https://youtu.be/pE8xN7kCUXk
This is not like a surprising or novel feature of the iPhone.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESIM
List of devices with ESIM support https://esim2fly.com/esim-supported-devices/
I've gone to an AT&T corporate store nuemrous times and get "sorry we've run out of esims" and they charge for them. The site itself is also out of them frequently.
They are QR codes on cardboard
They don't allow you to activate completely remotely without requiring the physical item from the store or shipped. They "run out of stock" of ESIMs. Unlike TMo or Verizon you cannot use the app to load an ESIM, you have to get your hands on a physical one. They charge for them.
It was an Indian couple from New Jersey on their honey-moon vacation , and there were very happy to get their phone back, as they had all their honey moon pictures there. The estimate was that the phone was in water (about 1m of depth) for at least 3-4 days before my niece had found it.
So, it was a good story, also that the iphoneX, when new, can survive in shallow waters. Overtime, the 'water proof' coating does smear out, and eventually give in. I wouldn't swim with one, especially if it is an older phone.
I have done this for my iPhone 6, 8 and XR over the last 5-6 years and it has never caused any damage. I used to wash the iPhone 6 in the sink nearly daily to remove the oils/sticky from the screen after eating lunch^. In my experience, you don't have to be extremely careful, you just need to be mindful that if you run the water jet continuously into a hole then it will eventually bust through... no matter what Apple marketing says.
^My workmates used to always tell me off for doing this, and I would explain that I've been doing it for years.
> My workmates used to always tell me off for doing this, and I would explain that I've been doing it for years.
Maybe they were telling you off for using your iPhone as a plate and/or utensils to eat lunch with?
“Nooo....” changed to “my phone, my phone!”
So people sink the evidence.
"Why does your phone need to be waterproof? Does the roman republic need to take selfies and make phone-calls underwater?"
"No", Pontius replied "Romans might go swimming with it."