If you’ve been hoping that Google‘s upcoming Pixel smartphones — the Pixel and Pixel XL — would be water resistant like the Galaxy Note7, it looks like you’re out of luck because Android Police believe that the new duo from Google will have almost “no enhanced water resistance at all“.
This information comes from one of Android Police’s trusted sources revealed that the Google Pixel and Pixel XL will be advertised as having a water resistance rating of only IP53 — that is to say not water resistant at all. This doesn’t mean that if you get caught in the rain your Pixel smartphones will be doomed because an IP53 rated smartphone can survive a low pressure of water in an upright angle that doesn’t exceed 60 degrees from vertical.
In the world of Ingress Protection, you will notice that there are often two numbers associated (in this case the numbers would be 53). The first number, rated from a scale from 0-6 (for the Pixel it’s supposedly 5), indicates the level of protection the device has against solids or hazardous parts. The larger the number, the better the protection.
Most modern smartphones by default — due to the tightly sealed nature of their bodies — can be rated at a level 5, which is to say that it’s nearly impossible for dust to enter in such a way that would cause harm to the smartphone. However, this doesn’t mean that the device is “dustproof” as that would require a rating of 6 or IP6X.
The second number refers to the device’s resistance to harmful water on a scale of 1-9. Again, the same principle applies where the larger the number the better the resistance. In the Pixel’s case, the device only has a rating of 3 which means that while it can survive low-pressured water for relatively short periods of time in an upright position, water damage will likely happen if water seeps into the device’s ports and speaker grilles. It also means you can’t immerse the device in water as that would require at least a rating of 7 or IPX7 and above.
For comparison, the brand new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus has a water resistance rating of IP67 which means that it has complete protection against dust (IP6X) and can survive immersion in water up to 1 metre in depth for a duration of 30 minutes (IPX7). On the other hand, something like the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (and Note7), which has a rating of IP68 has pretty much the same resistance as the iPhone 7, only it technically should be able to survive immersion in water (generally) up to a depth of between 1 to 3 metres for 30 minutes.
