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The iPhone XR and XS are not waterproof. But they are water resistant and you can take them swimming without worrying too much.
According to Apple, the iPhone XR can survive up to 1 meter for 30 minutes (IP67). The more expensive iPhone XS and XS Max can support double: 2 meters for 30 minutes (IP68).
Look at this:
Where can go iPhone XS and XR?
6:38
But apart from official evaluations, how deep can these phones really go?
We have already put the XS to the test in our earlier water testand he survived after being immersed in chlorinated swimming pool water for 30 minutes. Hot tea, wine or a shallow bath in the salt water of San Francisco Bay have also not shaken the city.
To raise the stakes, we took a new iPhone XR and the same XS that survived our initial pool test in Monterey Bay, California. We tied the two phones in front of the Trident, an OpenROV underwater drone. It can reach 100 meters deep, although the bay is not so close to this depth.
This is the custom platform attached to the Trident that OpenROV designed to contain both phones.
Lexy Savvides / CNET
To help us put our phones under water without losing sight of them, OpenROV has created a personalized support specially designed for us, with flotations to keep the phones side by side in front of the lens. Before submerging the phones, we set up the screens so that they stay on and set a timer.
Watch the video on this page for a complete overview of what happened – and watch the epic underwater pictures!
This is not a scientific test, and be aware that any contact with water or liquid can damage your phone. Apple specifies that water damage is not covered by the warranty.
The first dive: 2 meters
Seeing that we had not tested the water resistance of the iPhone XR, we decided to place both phones on the drone and dive up to 2 meters. The iPhone XS is designed to withstand this situation, but the iPhone XR is not supposed to go that far.
After about 5 minutes of immersion in the bay, we took the drone out of the water. By drying both phones with a microfiber cloth, the touch screens of the iPhone XR and the iPhone XS were still fully functional. There was no evidence of water penetration or misting on the lens. Buttons and speakers were still working.
That being said, as the iPhone XS had already been installed, its speakers are clearer and less clear than those of the iPhone XR, which sound perfectly fine.
The team plugged in an external monitor so we could see the view of the drone while traveling underwater. The pilot can control the craft using a wireless controller.
Lexy Savvides / CNET
The second dive: 3 meters
For lap 2, we put the phones back on the drone, restart the timers and let them go down to 3 meters. Once the currents went through the stream for another 5 minutes, we reassembled, cleaned and inspected them.
Again, both phones were fully functional. There was no record of water damage in the phones, but the iPhone's XS speaker still seemed cut, compared to that of the iPhone XR.
The Trident is ultra-rugged, so you can take it out of the water using its attachment cable without damaging the device.
Andy Altman / CNET
The third dive: 5 meters
For the next attempt, we increased the bet to see how much these phones could take. The depth was 5 meters and we left them about 19 minutes before taking them out of the bay.
The two phones side by side under the water.
openrov
Apart from capturing amazing underwater wildlife swimming in the background, nothing extraordinary has happened. The phones were always good once we dried them and tested them.
The last dive: 8 meters
Both phones survived much larger depths than those for which they were rated, even though we did not leave them in for 30 minutes at a time. So we took them to the bottom of Monterey Bay, about 8 meters. This time, we decided to leave them as long as possible (that is to say until the recording space on the drone was exhausted).
During the first few minutes, both phones worked well under water. But about 3 minutes later, the iPhone XR displays a warning on the screen regarding the SIM card. This was the first sign that something was wrong with the phone and indicated that water had been introduced into the SIM card tray.
This is the view we saw from the Trident's camera, from the ground monitor. The iPhone XR (left) fell into the dark around 6 minutes 50 seconds. The iPhone XS (right) was still working well.
The iPhone XR remained in place a little longer, but after 6 minutes and 50 seconds, the screen became completely black. For its part, the iPhone XS was still working well. We left it immersed until we reached the 30 minute mark.
The SIM card of the iPhone XR looked a little less resistant to wear after the dive.
Andy Altman / CNET
After putting both phones to the surface, the iPhone XR was completely down. We dried it and tried to light it, but nothing. When you remove the tray from the SIM card, a large amount of water flows out of the cavity.
It was not everything. The iPhone XR also seemed to have developed a slight bulge on the screen because it was slightly apart from the side of the phone (it was on the same side as the SIM card tray).
Remember again that the phone was submerged at about 8 times the depth for which it was designed and that it had been submerged for long periods before, while we were descending into the bay. The fact that he survived to this depth was a real surprise.
But the biggest surprise was that the iPhone XS showed no sign of water damage, except for the same muffled loudspeakers we had previously noticed. We checked inside the SIM card tray if the liquid contact indicator (LCI) had been activated, but nothing was visible.
A week after this water test, the iPhone XS was still working well. It turns out that if your iPhone XS goes to swim deeper than expected in salt water, it might well survive.
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