No, it’s not a collective delusion — the iPhone 6s really is more water-resistant than its predecessors.
In a new teardown carried out by our friends at iFixit, the iPhone 6s was found to include a gasket-style “mystery adhesive” around the handset display, specially designed to keep water out.
As iFixit noted:
“Apple takes this gasket business pretty seriously: they didn’t just run a strip of glue around the existing display like they were caulking a bathtub. Instead, it appears the iPhone’s frame has been subtly reworked to accommodate the new gasket. We noted a slight, but measurable, increase in the width of the lip running along the perimeter of the frame—it’s about 0.3 mm wider than on the iPhone 6, making it just wide enough for that little gasket to land on.”
The website also notes that there are tiny seals surrounding the iPhone 6s’ logic board cable connectors, which show signs of waterproofing.
I wrote back in April this year that the new iPhone might be water-resistant, saying that Apple had applied for a patent for tech designed to prevent liquids or unwanted materials like dust from entering future iPhones.
In the patent application, Apple described how it had created:
“A sealed physical button for use with a portable electronic device that effectively presents ingress of liquids. Embodiments include a button cap having flange portions that interlock with complementary flanges from a button retainer. The button cap may also include a downward oriented central post, proportioned and oriented to interface with the top surface of a button attached to a bracket. The button retainer may include an aperture sized and positioned to receive the central post of the button cap. The button retainer may rest on a shelf within the electronic device housing such that the shelf interposes the bracket and the retainer to form a rigid seal.”
Sounds about right, eh?
This shouldn’t be enough to make you think it’s safe to take the iPhone 6s swimming, though. Although preliminary tests show that the new handset can withstand at least an hour submerged in shallow water, ports like the speaker or headphone jack will still take on water as they did before.
Think of this more as a reprieve for accidentally dropping your new phone in the toilet than as a feature to take advantage of!
Source: iFixit
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
9 responses to “The magic that makes iPhone 6s so water-resistant”
“Apple doesn’t want your iPhone doing if you accidentally drop it in the toilet.”
What exactly is the photo caption supposed to mean? Anyone happen to know?
Dying?
Proofreading?
Did I spell dying wrong?
“Proofreading” was my suggested replacement for the typo in the caption, not a comment on your post.
I’m surprised Apple didn’t announce this. It just survived an hour soak in water test and was fine per another story. This is pretty significant and something they should advertise. Many people buy phones because of this ability. Think “Active” models of other phones…..weird. I suppose they don’t want people purposely trying it but the fact it survived an hour submerged and came out perfect is pretty significant too.
They always have very good claims. Marketing claims = lawyer candy. Sony claimed waterproofing and is now up to their neck in fees.
Apple has a big pile of money that lawyers need to keep their aerobic breathing continuing. So they will attack any claim that isn’t 110% accurate.
This is why Apple doesn’t make claims, but this is also why consumers respect them so much. They under-claim and over-deliver.
They’re being smart by not advertising this. Consumers have shown that they have no grasp of subtlety when it comes to water resistance ratings. Everyone knows about the Samsung and Sony waterproof phones … eben though such phones have never existed. Both companies made phones with IP-68 water-resistance ratings. This means they’re certified to survive a half hour in a shallow pool. But people hear what they want to hear, and, and they take the stupid phones surfing.
The iphones probably have this same water resistance, which we see from all the tests where it survives for hours in a bowl of water. And from the test where it died after 30 minutes at the bottom of a pool.
Apple’s probably just playing it safe and rolling this feature out as an easter egg.
My favorite sentence on this post was the last one. “Think of this more as a reprieve for accidentally dropping your new phone in the toilet than as a feature to take advantage of!”