How water-resistant is the iPhone 8?
Apple says it's ip67, but what does that even mean?
And, how is it accomplished?
And more importantly, can we even trust it?
It's time to tear the iPhone 8 completely apart and analyze all the holes and find the
weakest link.
Phones get wet – whether it's in the pool, the toilet, humidity, or body sweat.
Accidents happen all the time, and it's good to be prepared.
Huge thank you to Audible for sponsoring this video.
It's one of the most productive apps on your smartphone.
From self-help to fantasy, they've got an incredible selection of audio books.
I'll talk more about them in a second, but first, let's have a moment of silence for
this iPhone.
It's not going to survive this test.
Alright, that was good.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
I'm going to use the gold iPhone that I did my durability test on, as well as the tear
down.
It's had a good life.
Of course, I'll save all the working components and Frankenstein them into other broken phones
down the road.
Nothing gets wasted here on my channel.
The first hole we are analyzing is the biggest, where the screen fits into the frame.
There's a ton of black adhesive between the black adhesive between the plastic edge of
the screen and the metal edge of the phone.
This seems like it will do a pretty good job of keeping water out...as long as there are
no bends or dents along the frame that would compromise the seal of the screen.
Apple does say on their website that water resistance is not a permanent condition, and
water-resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear.
So just plan on your water-resistance getting less and less the longer you own your phone.
The earpiece on the screen is another ingress point for water that needs to be protected.
The earpiece speaker is held tight by 4 screws.
After it's lifted off, the speaker itself is internally protected with a tight screen.
The rubber seal combined with the 4 tight screws keep water away from the rest of the
phone.
The next set of holes to check are down at the bottom of the iPhone 8 where the headphone
jack used to be.
There are 3 giant holes; one for the microphone on the left side, which has a pretty sweet
thick screen that's built to let air and sound pass through, but not liquid.
This is basically the same set up that we saw on the previous iPhone 7.
The loud speaker on the other side of the phone is pretty much the same way.
It's got a little niblet down at the bottom, sticking itself into the rubber and the mesh
water-resistant screen, relying on the tight seal to keep water out.
Before we get to the charging port, the SIM card tray needs to come out.
This cute little guy has a rubber ring around the tip.
The little gap in the frame is almost nonexistent when the SD card is shut, so it doesn't need
a whole lot to keep water out and maintain that ip67 rating.
Here are the SIM and SD card trays for both the Galaxy S8 and the LG G6.
Both of them have the same style of rubber ring.
The camera hole is next.
Popping the camera out with it's optical image stabilization shows the inside of the camera
unit housing which is lazer welded into the frame of the phone, securely keeping all water
on the outside and circuits dry on the inside.
With an ip67 water-resistance rating, technically this phone can be under 1 meter of water for
less than 30 minutes.
Pulling the motherboard out gives us access to the charging port as well as exposes the
wireless charging.
The charging port, in my opinion, is the weakest link in this whole chain.
The only thing from keeping water from entering your phone is this little tiny, white rubber
ring around the edge.
Literally, this little white rubber band is the only thing between you and total, complete,
utter destruction of your phone by water.
There is glue along the back side of the port, but that tiny little band is probably what's
keeping this iPhone at an ip67 rating instead of an ip68, like the LG V30 or the Galaxy
S8.
Remember, Apple provides no warrantee against water damage.
If your phone gets water on the inside and stops working, that's all on you.
So it really is better to be safe than sorry and keep your phone away from water.
The last two holes on this phone are the side buttons and the back glass panel.
Taking a look at the power button, the electronic portion of the switch is internal, so that's
already protected.
And the external part that gets pressed, has a little rubber ring around each leg to seal
the phone against moisture.
If moisture does get inside the phone, it will eventually short circuit and die.
Maybe not right away.
Some corrosion take time.
The motherboard has no protection against water once liquid is inside.
There are ways of applying a hydrophobic coating to the circuit boards.
This would effectively waterproof the phone, but needs to be done while the phone is being
constructed and is very expensive.
It's easy to tell that this motherboard has no hydrophobic coating on it because of the
way the water droplet clings to the circuits.
If it was coated, the water would bead up and run off, not sticking to anything important.
The back glass of the iPhone 8 does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to keeping
water out, as long as it's not cracked – especially cracked over the top of this wireless charging
hole.
Now that we have this hole exposed, let's try to make it clear really quick just to
see what it would look like through that window.
It's pretty much the same concept as the clear Samsung phones...a lot of scraping, but no
paint stripper required on this one.
If I were to reassemble the phone at this point, the only thing visible would be the
back of the battery and and small segment of the motherboard if I left the wireless
charging out.
Not nearly as cool as some of the Android phones.
One of my least favorite parts of the iPhone 8's build is the way Apple attached the back
glass.
They could have done it in a way that was easy to waterproof, like Samsung, and easy
to replace...but, they didn't.
They made it permanent and the only way to replace a cracked back panel is to break it
out with force, and that's a lose/lose situation for everyone involved.
Any accidental cracks in the back glass will compromise your water-resistance and allow
water to enter into the phone – especially above that wireless charging hole.
Personally, I would treat this water-resistance as a bonus, but never actually try and test
it out.
As long as you don't crack the back or front glass though, or dent the sides, then you
can feel relatively safe around splashes or light rain.
One guy who would have loved a waterproof phone is Captain Ahab.
He could have used it while hunting his illusive great white whale.
I would say Moby Dick, but then I might lose my YouTube monetization.
Well, Audible has an unmatched selection of audio books in their library, including the
classic Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
You get a free month trial by visiting the link in my description audible.com/jerryrig
(all lower case).
You can listen to the harrowing oceanic tale on your water-resistant iPhone, or even on
a regular smartphone or computer for free for 30 days.
And if you decide not to continue with your trial after 30 days, you still get to keep
the book you downloaded.
You literally own the book and you can share that book with someone else.
I'll leave a link in the video description so you can find out who won, Ahab, the whale,
or the water-resistant iPhone 8.
Big thanks to Audible again for making this video possible.
I'll be listening to my book as I clean up this mess.
If the back glass were replaceable, I could have let the phone live.
Moral of the story, don't ever break your back glass, and be careful around water.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you around.