iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro: How Water Resistant Are They?

The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro are not completely waterproof, but their water resistance capability is enough to help them survive a dunking in the pool or a coffee splash. But how much water exactly can they take?

Apple says that the iPhone 11 offers an IP68 rating, meaning it can survive 2 meters deep within 30 minutes. The 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max also come with an IP68 rating, but they can go as deep as 3.9 meters for half an hour.

But that’s on the paper, let’s see how these phones do in real life through the following test, which was conducted by CNET.

This year, the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro were mounted on an underwater drone called Trident. The drone can go down to 100 meters, controlled from a phone.

Round 1: 3.9 meters

The first dive was meant to test the claim that the iPhone 11 Pro can go down as far as 3.9 meters for half an hour. The standard version registered just half this depth, so let’s see what happened to it.

The phones were down in 30 minutes then brought back up with both the 11 and 11 Pro still attached to the drone. After getting dried off, their screens still worked and didn’t show any sign of fogging on their camera lenses on both the back and front.

Their speakers and buttons worked too. When the tester had the iPhone 11 play an audio clip, it sounded a bit waterlogged, while the 11 Pro sounded louder though it had distortion.

Round 2: 8 meters

In the second dive, the smartphones were taken to 8 meters deep for half an hour. Through the camera on the drone, the tester could see the displays live in case something happened.

When time’s up, however, both the screens worked, and the phones’ cameras didn’t show any sign of water ingress or fogging on their lenses either. Plus, the speakers were able to play audio clips too. And the iPhone 11’s sound was softer than that on the 11 Pro too.

Round 3: 12 meters

This time, the phones went all the way down to the seafloor. When the handsets were underwater, the iPhone 11 Pro’s screen switched from the stopwatch to the Clock app’s screen.

After 30 minutes, the phones both seemed fine at the first look. They worked well too, but their speakers were muffled during audio playback.

The phones were then washed in clean water and dried with a cloth, then the tester switched them off, letting them dry for three days.

Verdict

After leaving the phones to dry, the tester checked for additional damages. Both the phones underwent the same tests one more time, and the tester checked the speakers, microphones, cameras, and checked if they could charge.

Surprisingly, they looked as new as out of the box and there weren’t any external water damages to be seen. Everything worked.

The only damage found was with the speakers on the two phones, their sound was less crisp and they sounded a bit softer at the maximum volume than before the dunk.

All in all, though we can guarantee the phone will survive if you drop them into deep water, they surely exceed their IP ratings for water resistance, which is great.