Most flagships nowadays have IP68 mud and ingress safety, and for those who’re utilizing Google, Samsung, or Xiaomi mid-range units, you get IP67 safety towards mud and water ingress.
Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all issues {hardware}, together with telephones, audio merchandise, storage servers, and routers.
The IP68 score has been commonplace on telephones for practically a decade, with Samsung introducing it on the Galaxy S7 collection again in 2016. Different manufacturers adopted shortly thereafter, and nowadays, the score is now a desk stakes characteristic.
What’s attention-grabbing is that the majority Chinese language manufacturers are switching to IP69 on their 2025 flagships. Vivo’s X200, X200 Professional, and X200 Professional mini all include IP69 ingress safety, alongside OPPO’s Discover X8 and X8 Professional. Different producers within the BBK steady are getting in on the motion as properly, with each the Realme GT 7 Professional and OnePlus 13 getting IP69.
So what’s IP69 mud and water resistance, and the way is it completely different to IP68? At a high-level overview, an IP score ensures safety towards mud and water making its method into a tool. The 2 digits within the score point out the diploma of safety; the primary digit corresponds to safety towards stable objects (together with mud particles), whereas the second digit offers with liquids.
The 6 in IP68 means the machine is successfully dustproof. To attain this score, the machine is housed in a dust-filled enclosure with a gradual stream of air blowing in, and it wants to resist any mud from moving into the chassis after eight hours of testing.
The second quantity is attention-grabbing, as a result of that is the important thing change with 2025 flagships. The 8 in IP68 refers to a tool’s means to be submerged in as much as 1.5 meters of water for an prolonged period — often lasting half-hour. Most telephones conform to this commonplace, however the iPhone 16 Professional Max is ready to be submerged in as much as 6 meters of water.
Producers use gaskets across the SIM card slot and sealant contained in the chassis to guard the internals towards water harm. With IP69, you get the identical stage of immersion in water, however these units are additionally capable of face up to high-pressure water jets going as much as 1,450 PSI, and tolerate elevated temperatures of as much as 80 levels Celsius (176 levels Fahrenheit).
Even with an IP68 score, telephones have been just about immune to any climate circumstances, and IP69 goes one stage past — it’s the highest stage of ingress safety out there on client units.
Whereas IP69 has higher safety towards liquid ingress, it nonetheless has the identical caveats — it would not cowl salt water harm, so for those who submerge your cellphone in a water physique with excessive salinity, it is best to instantly rinse it with recent water.
Similar to with silicon-carbon battery tech, the IP69 score is proscribed to Chinese language manufacturers, with BBK-owned entities main the cost as soon as once more. It is unlikely Samsung, Apple, or Google will swap to the usual on their units. This time although, I do not assume it makes a sufficiently big distinction — IP68 safety continues to be greater than sufficient.
