Many modern smartphones are similar to each other in almost everything, including in specifications. But there is one parameter by which there is still no unity and, surprisingly, not many buyers even think about it. And it’s dust-water-proof. However, far from all manufacturers, a smartphone with water protection has become the standard.
When writing this article, I set such criteria for the selection of smartphones: firstly, we are only interested in IP68 certification. All IP54 there, and even IP67 we do not consider – not sports. Either you (the manufacturer) make a normally protected smartphone, or you don’t soar people's brains.
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Secondly, I selected the last two generations from each manufacturer. It’s just that the “last two years” would not be fair: for example, Samsung’s flagships for 2020 have already been released, but Apple hasn’t. Therefore, I counted iPhones since 2018, and Galaxy – since 2019. Adherents of some brand often consider not only the current generation, but the previous one as still worthy models, but cheaper.
Thirdly, I considered models like “Pro”, “Max”, “XL” and others as separate. Here the difference is not only in price, but also in size – that is, there is a choice for different categories of customers and you can’t name them clones. Each of these models must still be designed separately, but it happens that the hardware (at least the set of cameras) is different. But I did not count versions with different amounts of memory – the project is the same there, and the difference is only in price.
So what do we get?
Outsiders
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First of all, I did not find a single smartphone with IP68 among the products of Oppo, Realme, Vivo, Xiaomi, Honor. This should be borne in mind when comparing (in any situation, not only within the framework of this article) the prices of models of these brands with others, which will be mentioned below. Considering that Oppo and Xiaomi are no longer embarrassed to ask for the flagship for 70 thousand rubles, but they did not deliver the “flagship” protection.
Even in Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, we will not see IP68. Although even the basic Mi 10 already costs 70 thousand rubles in Russia …
Next (in fourth place) we have OnePlus with the only such smartphone so far – OnePlus 8 Pro. For a long time, the brand’s smartphones were even criticized for the lack of such protection, but now the company has rehabilitated itself. Unless, you can still not buy OnePlus in Russia “normally”, only from “gray carriers”, but the flagship price of 65 thousand rubles is (approximately) justified.
Third place
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In third place were several brands at once: the popular Huawei, fading Sony, who left Russia LG, and the “elusive Joe” Google (like OnePlus their smartphones in Russia cannot be officially bought, but it seems that nobody needs this except for tech bloggers). They have 4 smartphones with IP68 for the last two generations of flagships.
For Google, these are the Pixel 3 / Pixel 3 XL and Pixel 4 / Pixel 4 XL models, the price range is from 33 to 60 thousand rubles. Unfortunately, the more "popular" Pixel 3a did without protection at all – it clearly saved on "surplus".
Smartphones that only geeks and tech-bloggers are interested in in Russia
Sony, which, by the way, has introduced a fashion for water protection, today offers IP68 not only in the flagships: Xperia 1 II and last year's Xperia 1 and Xperia 5, but also in the updated Xperia 10 ||. Let me remind you that last year's Xperia 10 did not yet have protection. The spread in prices here also turns out 33-50 thousand rubles, except that, on the Xperia 1 II, the price is still unknown, but the smartphone is about to appear on the market.
True, there is one caveat. In the official specifications, IP65 / IP68 is indicated and this is a bit confusing, because at the same time both cannot be. The second digit in IPXX means exactly the class of water protection, and if 5 is protection against not strong jets of water regardless of their direction, then 8 is already an immersion of 1 meter lasting up to 30 minutes. Perhaps the company means that if you do not close all the stubs, it will be IP65, and if you close it, then IP68. Or that in the first year – IP68, and after the warranty – IP65. Or that "we are writing IP68, but in fact IP65, but we kind of warned you, so the fault is on the user." In any case, other manufacturers do not indulge with this and deliver IP68 smartphones without any stupid plugs that interfere, fly off themselves over time and generally become furious. So, Sony is present in this list only conditionally.
Now the Sony Xperia 10 II also has an IP68. Or IP65. Sony has not yet decided, and all the ambiguity is interpreted in favor of the buyer
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Huawei has secured the presence of IP68 in flagships marked “Pro”, this applies to the Mate 20 Pro / Mate 30 Pro and P30 Pro / P40 Pro. Prices – from 35 (for Mate 20 Pro) to 70 (P40 Pro) thousand rubles. Just in case, I’ll clarify that smartphones without the “Pro” prefix are already delivered without protection, so I did not count them.
Well, if you are suddenly interested in LG, then there are models G7, G8, Velvet and V60 with IP68. Honestly, from the understandable names of the flagships (the V-series at the top and comes out in the fall, the G-series is a little cheaper and comes out in the spring) the names of smartphones have turned into some kind of mess, but this is not important – LG smartphones have already been sold in Russia, although globally they are still ~~ not dead ~~ alive.
Okay, this smartphone is definitely not interesting to anyone in Russia (LG G8)
Second place
In second place is Apple. They are one model ahead of second place, offering 5 smartphones with IP68, taking into account the last two generations: iPhone XS and XS Max, as well as the entire line of iPhone 11, including the younger “regular” iPhone 11. Prices – from 47 thousand (younger configuration XS , which is 5 thousand cheaper than the iPhone 11) up to 132 thousand rubles – how much is the iPhone 11 Pro Max with 512 GB of memory.
The cheapest (of current) iPhone with IP68. iPhone XS
In general, if you count also the iPhone SE 2020 and the iPhone XR, which had only IP67 protection, then … Apple would still remain in second place.
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And they "brought" protection not so long ago: Apple appeared IP67 only in the iPhone 7, and IP68 – already in the XS.
First place
Well, Samsung came in first place – simply because it successfully “propagated” its flagships. All major models are S10 (S10, S10 + and even S10e) and S20 (S20, S20 +, S20 Ultra), plus models Note9, Note10, Note10 +. Total – 9 models at a price of 35 thousand rubles (Galaxy S10e) to 100 thousand for the top version of the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
I just want to remind that in terms of price / quality, the Samsung Galaxy S10e is still one of the best.
And for a long time, Samsung Galaxy smartphones were almost the only ones where IP68 is available, and there are no plugs, like Sony, and a 3.5 mm jack in place. The last such model was the S10e, but the rest (even S10 and S10 +) are already supplied without a 3.5 mm. Sorry, the era is gone.
Chief editor of the blog – Erika J. Wells .
