Radical test shows Apple lowballed the record iPhone 11 Pro water resistance
That's a lot tighter sealing and copious adhesive application, though something tells us that the previous iPhone models could have survived such depth, too, just without Apple's guarantee. The poor iPhone 11 still stays rated for 2m depth and shouts something about discrimination, though.
What better way to test the new (and old) certification than to actually take the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro on an underwater drone ride at much deeper dives than Apple's warranty allows. Thus, they were both tied to a Trident drone and dunked in Monterey Bay.
Needless to say, the iPhone 11 Pro survived Apple's 4m rating for 30 minutes and things worked after that. The kicker, however, is that the iPhone 11 also made it, and only the speaker sounded somewhat more muffled than the one on the more expensive sibling.
You won't believe what followed!
With this bait-y heading out of the way, we'd have to say that submerging both iPhones to double and triple the depths that Apple rates them for is not for the faint of heart, but the Trident did it. Surprise, surprise, the iPhone 11 Pro and even the iPhone 11 managed to work even after spending half an hour at 12 meters (39 feet), save for the aforementioned speaker muffling, and even that was gone in a few days when they dried out completely.
Was there rice involved? History is silent on that one, but evidently, just as with most water-resistance rated handsets, the new iPhones can survive at much larger depths than they are rated for. Long term damage, though? We'd have to get back to you on that:
The only issue I could find was the speakers on both the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro sounded less crisp and slightly softer at maximum volume compared to two brand-new iPhones that hadn’t been dunked. I confirmed this by using the Sound app on the Apple Watch which showed the submerged phones were playing back at a few decibels lower than the new phones.
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Things that are NOT allowed: