Gadgetory

we've got the Galaxy a7 active in house to review and part of that coverage will involve some pretty tough treatment I'm Juan Carlos bag now for pocket now and it's as good a time as any to talk about rugged phones and to find some of the terms we use in describing how much abuse they should be able to take all mobile devices are a series of compromises we have to balance size and portability against power and daily lifestyle abuse technology is mainstream so we see a significant focus on design and aesthetics then sleek attractive may be utilizing exotic or shiny materials smartphones are very emotional purchases for a lot of people and we all can get caught up in unconsciously favoring style over some of the more practical issues facing our mobile gadgets durability is clawing its way into the general discussion however as the technology improvements from year to year are becoming finer with each phone release companies are examining other opportunities to add value most notably Samsung and Sony both making water resistance a visible feature of their flagship offerings so what can consumers expect from manufacturers touting lifeproof durability and how are these claims measured well let's start with water as that's been a really popular topic lately to describe water resistance we mostly refer to the IP scale you'll see the letters I and P followed by two numbers the IP stands for ingress protection and the first number represents protection against dust and particles entering the device while the second number describes water resistance the highest rating you can achieve is ip69k but most consumer manufacturers will stick to IP 68 this describes a phone which is very well sealed against dust and particles and the device which can stay submerged under more than three feet of water for longer periods of time for phones manufacturers often claim a device under a meter of water should survive for around 30 minutes sliding back from IP 68 means less protection the HTC 10 is rated IP 53 it's fairly well sealed against dust but is only designed to handle light splashes of water it's not designed to survive being completely submerged the IP scale is an easy way to quickly define performance but as we all know situations where your phone ends up underwater often come from drops and other accidents a bad fall could result in a dent or a crack which will probably compromise the seals on your phone reducing that water resistance to measure impact protection we have to move to a different classification system for rating durability most manufacturers now refer to a milspec rating you'll often see milspec 810g or mil-std 810g listed as a feature on rugged phones this is a military classification system designed to test the limits of equipment longevity now not all milspec 810g devices are created equal this is a very broad standard that for military equipment examines drop-in shock resistance high and low temperature survivability whether a device might ignite flammable gases and about a dozen other metrics there is no consumer standard or organization for rating phones so manufacturers are allowed to take some liberties with this classification for example a phone like the LG v10 is rated as milspec 810g specifically for drop-in shock resistance but it likely doesn't carry the protective ceilings against fungus acid or explosive atmospheric conditions when trying to predict how a device might handle specific kinds of abuse it's critical to examine exactly how the manufacturer has worded the protective features a phone might be ip68 water-resistant but only if used in freshwater saltwater might still be able to defeat the protection supplied by the manufacturer similarly a phone might have a milspec 810g label on the side of the box but not be properly protected against damage from freezing happily however these protections and safeguards are migrating into regular consumer devices not just ultra tough phones for tough guy dude bros on construction sites the idea that a mother with small kids or a frequent business traveler might buy a rugged phone is an increasingly more acceptable option and we're now all expecting a higher degree of general lifestyle durability in our non rugged devices and of course we want to hear from you how do you balance durability against style do rugged phones do it for you or do you prefer shopping a solid case for a regular fragile phone drop us a comment below to share your thoughts as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more info tainment videos like these and hit that thumbs up button for a little extra positive reinforced for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos bag now you can chat me up on Twitter and Instagram has some gadget guy and I will catch you all on the next video