Gadgetory

so what makes the new Galaxy Note seven waterproof I have a fully stripped down no seven in front of me so let's see how its sealed the note seven has an IP rating of 68 which means that it is totally protected against dust and continuous immersion in water samsung says as long as it is less than five feet deep and in the water for less than thirty minutes you should be golden remember that Samsung has never said that the phone is waterproof just water resistant the terminology and distinction between the two terms is very important if your phone gets wet and breaks the standard warranty will not get you a new phone in the itty-bitty print of your warranty booklet included with your phone that no one ever reads is this little tidbit your warranty does not extend to defects or damages to your device this includes exposure to liquid crack screens or physically broken charging ports so if your phone gets wet dropped or plugged in wrong you are out of luck unless you purchased additional insurance on top of your standard warranty so now that we know the basics let's see how this phone is water-resistant and how Samsung will be able to tell that your phone has ever been wet or not let's start at the bottom of the phone there are a few entry points for water down here including the headphone jack the charging port and the loudspeaker and a new one the s-pen slot the charging port and headphone jack sit down here at the bottom of the phone held tightly in place against the frame by three little screws if these little screws are removed and we looked at the headphone jack itself we can see that the opening is surrounded by a little rubber lip the pressure from the screw holding it in place will keep water out as long as the phone is in less than five feet deep of water any deeper and the water pressure will be too great and liquid might seep inside of the phone the back of the headphone jack is sealed as well water will be able to get inside of the jack but it won't be able to transfer inside of the rest of the phone the USB C charging port is the same way it has two little screws holding it tightly in place and then a thick rubber ring around the port itself so as long as you aren't in water over five feet deep water shouldn't be able to push itself inside but the deeper you are in water the more pressure there is and the more risk the microphone is off to the side of the charging port and rests up against a little rubber seal and a little water resistant screen this has plenty of adhesive holding it against the microphone hole in the frame let's take a look at the bigger screen next to it that is used to keep water out of the loudspeaker as we know speakers need air to function but there can't be an airtight watertight compartment for the speaker or else you wouldn't be able to hear it so this screen allows for air to pass through but will not let water through the water would rather stick to itself through cohesion than to be cheese graded through the screen and into your speaker but you guessed it this only works at a low water pressure if there is a jet of water or you're in deeper than five feet of water the liquid can still get inside of your phone looking at the loudspeaker itself here is the little hole that rests up against the screen and the metal compartment here is where the speaker itself sits now how in the world would Samsung be able to tell if your phone has ever been wet you would be surprised at the amount of people who try to dry off their dead water damage phone and say that it died of natural causes but this little sticker doesn't allow lies the stickers are placed at the weakest points on the phone I'll show you where the second sticker is in a second but this one sits right between the charging port and the speaker mesh so if this sticker gets wet the little red X is bleed out notifying anyone who opens up the phone that you sit on a throne of wet lies so what about the s-pen compartment this has a huge hole at the bottom of the phone that water can enter it looks like samsung took that compartment and sealed it up entirely so water can surround your s-pen but will not actually get inside of the important part of your phone the same adhesive holding the screen into place holds the plastic lid on the s-pen compartment so what about the other side of the phone if we follow this extremely thick and sturdy aluminum frame up the side we can find the volume buttons another access point for water that needs protection if we pop out the guts of the button mechanism we can see that it comes in three basic parts the first of which is the actual button itself that comes in from the outside of the phone the second component is the rubber bit that the button presses into and the curved little hook at the end of the metal keeps the rubber pressed up against the frame for the watertight seal then the third and last part of the button contraption is the electronic part that plugs into the motherboard this is the part that needs to stay dry so the exterior button presses into the rubber seal which presses into the electronic switch maintaining the water resistance thumbs up for this clever piece of Samsung ingenuity now let's check out the top of the phone the two biggest holes we immediately see are the SIM card tray and the microphone the top microphone is using the same type of screen that we saw at the bottom microphone to protect against the water now the SIM card tray has a thick rubber seal surrounding the top edge to keep water out even the SIM card extraction pin has the same rubber ring now remember how I said the Samsung put those water damage indicators at the weakest ingress points on the frame here's another one right below the SIM card tray and this one is actually visible from the outside of the phone so the representative who looks at your phone won't even need to take it apart to see that the indicator is tripped this one does the exact same thing as the bottom indicator if it gets wet the x's will bleed out and go red indicating that it is touched liquid sweats team soda bodily fluids showers toilets oceans legs bowls of cereal or anywhere else that the phone tends to end up now if we look at the screen itself we can see two holes the earpiece and the home button let's start with the earpiece the little metal grille offers little to no protection for the speaker itself just the fact that it has little holes so the water isn't super inclined to penetrate but if we look at the earpiece speaker we can see that there is a whole lot of adhesive holding it in place and it also has the same type of water-resistant mesh that covers the front and the back of the speaker so as long as the water pressure isn't greater than 5 feet it should keep liquids on the exterior instead of the interior which is where we want them the home button is pretty simple the plastic under and around it is pretty sealed so just a little bit of extra adhesive around the button and around the edge of the glass is sufficient to keep the water out the front glass and the back glass have a ton of adhesive around the edges which also helps keep the water out if you watch my note seven tear down video you know how hard it is get inside of this thing it is very well sealed by the screen and the back panel now that we've checked all the ingress points on the frame let's check out the most important part of the phone the main board the brain of your device now if you want a truly waterproof electronics you can coat the PCB or circuit board with a hydrophobic spray the problem with this hydrophobic spray is that it is very time consuming to apply and it is pretty expensive and would be very difficult for Samsung to do on a large scale with the massive volume of phones they produce as we can see from this water droplet on the motherboard it is clinging to the circuits which means that it is not coated with any kind of hydrophobic spray so if water somehow gets inside of the phone there is a very real chance of electronic failure electronics don't like water and there is no internal protections if any one of the entry points along the edge of the frame is compromised or fails due to a drop or a crack in the glass or a dent in the frame water will be able to enter and potentially destroy your phone I reviewed some waterproof headphones a few days ago and this is what a hydrophobic PCB looks like the water droplets literally roll off and don't cause any damage because they can't cling and corrode or short anything out in summary I definitely approve of water resistant devices the added layer of protection like water resistance helped make the phone more durable and last longer water accidents do happen and are fairly common but you should only think of it as a layer of protection and not an invincible failsafe so swim and shower with your phone at your own risk the normal warranty will not protect you I review the inside of every major cell phone so if you have not yet subscribed it is completely free and you can stay updated on all the latest devices what do you think about the no7 does the water-resistant features validate the price behind the scenes and extra tidbits of information can always be found on my Instagram and Twitter thanks ton for watching hope to see you around