Whether it's a quick dip in the toilet or a journey behind the couch, our phones end up in surprising places. What is your device's ruggedness? Ingress Protection ratings were first released in 1976 and are meant to highlight a device's level of dust and water resistance.
It is helpful to compare the resistance to dust and water of new phones. It is important to keep in mind that the tests for the ratings are done in a lab. If you put your phone in a bag or buy a refurbished device, the protections could be greatly diminished. WIRED has a guide to saving wet phones before tossing them in a bag of rice.
What are the ratings for intellectual property?
It is one of the most common ratings for phones. Break it down.
The next character is the level of resistance to dust and objects. The scale goes from 0 to 6. The rating guide says that a five and a six mean "dust-tight".
The water resistance is indicated by the last character in the rating. A seven-digit phone can be submerged in shallow water for a short time. A device with an eight rating can go a few meters deeper than one with a seven rating. The max depth for the 11 Pro is 4 meters and the max depth for the 11 Pro is 2 meters. The nine rating is about resisting hot, high-pressure streams, not submersion.
The phone can be submerged in water if it's not sealed off from dust. The iPhone 13 can be submerged up to 6 meters deep if you look at Apple's website.
The device is rated for water or dust protection but not both. The absence of a rating doesn't mean that the "X" is a failed rating.
Is my phone dust- and water- resistant?
Would you like to know the water and dust resistance of your device? There are ratings for popular phones.
The Apple devices that earned the rating were the iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X, XR, and the second generationSE. The newer models of the iPhone are referred to as "SIP68." Older options from Apple only have a maximum depth of 2 meters. The recent picks can be submerged up to 6 meters.