Sony started it last year with their flagships being waterproof. Samsung followed up with the Active and then this year the Galaxy S5. For some reason a lot of users think they need their smartphone to be waterproof. Not sure if people are planning on swimming with their phones or maybe using it in the shower or bath. Maybe those people wanting are those who you hear about who drop their phones in the toilet. When the OnePlus One’s specs were announced no waterproof/resistant rating was announced and there was a few grumbles in the OnePlus community.
Now it appears that the OnePlus may have some form of water resistance but has just not been certified. The Galaxy S5 is certified IP67 (waterproof to one metre for 30 minutes) and the HTC One M8 is IPx3 rated (protected from water spraying up to 60 degrees from vertical at 10 liters/min at a pressure of 80-100 kN/m2 for 5 min- because that happens all the time for me) but the OnePlus One does not have any water resistant certification at all. Waterproof certification costs money to have it run through the required tests and with OnePlus attempting to meet an extremely aggressive price range there seems that there wasn’t any room in the budget to have the OnePlus certified to any type of water resistant rating.
While I am unsure how waterproof a standard phone is as I for one have never been willing to test that it seems the OnePlus One is water resistant, at least. One brave owner/reviewer of a OnePlus One has run the OnePlus through a series of tests in the rain, including basic sprinkling of rain, placing in a puddle for 10 seconds and even tossed across the grass. The OnePlus One survived all these tests without missing a beat.
It is good to see that the OnePlus One can survive a bit of water but the tests were hardly performed under strict laboratory conditions so I would be hesitant to take it as gospel. Do not expect me to run these tests when mine arrives later next week.
Does this change your mind about the OnePlus One? Are you someone who needs some form of waterproof rating in your phone? Why?
