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Comment by crabbone | Hacker News Reader

What a bunch of crock.

I have this new Nokia phone with a replaceable battery. It came with the pin you can use to open it (probably costs a few cents to manufacture, but if I had plenty of time to spare, I could've made one with a sturdy piece of plastic and sandpaper). The "mechanism" that keeps the back panel is just a piece of rubber, probably the same kind you find on hermetically sealing food containers.

Also, very few people want their phones water-proof (what for?). And even if you really, really wanted that, you could like spend 5-10 Euro on a water-proof case.

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> Also, very few people want their phones water-proof (what for?).

This is insane. So that rain doesn’t destroy it? So that spilling a drink doesn’t destroy it? So that dropping it in the toilet doesn’t destroy it?

Back when phones still had removable batteries, I had them rained on, spilled on, and even dropped one in the toilet. I then submerged that one in a bowl of rubbing alcohol for several minutes. In all those instances, I popped the battery out and let it dry. I've never had a phone destroyed by water. Worst case was buy a new battery! Back then non-waterproof phones without removable batteries also existed. I'm sure they succumbed to water much more easily.

I'd take a removeable battery over almost every modern feature on phones today.

> This is insane. So that rain doesn’t destroy it? So that spilling a drink doesn’t destroy it? So that dropping it in the toilet doesn’t destroy it?

If rain destroys your phone that is just plain incompetence from the design department. Or rather, they were not incompetent, but other forces made sure they were not paying much attention to water resistance.

My wettest experience with a smartphone was when I got surprised by heavy rain when walking to the hair dresser. I arrived soaking wet. Got the phone (a HTC Desire Z) out of my pocket, water was running out of it. I opened the battery lid, the hairdresser blew with the hairdryer for a couple of minutes and all was fine.

There's rain and there's rain.

Once my Google Nexus 4 died because of rain. Normal rain was no problem ever with it, even to make calls in a rain. But one day it rained very heavily with a wind so strong it was hard to walk against it. It felt like being in a carwash for ~ 10 minutes.

I was waterlogged up to my underwear. Nexus 4 was in my pocket and died. I put it to a bunch of rice and let it airdry. After it dried, the phone acted weirdly.

Lesson learnt: if the product doesn't specifically indicate a high level of water protection level, consider it not having ANY protection. "Resistant against spills" and other handwavy marketing mumbo jumbo has zero substance.

Before cell phones were common, wrist watches were. Very few of them were water-proof, and very few people wanted them to be.

Yes, if you were stupid and went swimming with your wrist-watch you would've killed it... and every now and then I'd hear a story about how something like that happened.

Water-proof watches were seen as a luxury, however small, that nobody really needed outside of like scuba divers.

I don't even know if my phone is water proof or not, and I had it since 2016. I never tried swimming with it or leaving it outside in the rain or doing any of the other stupid things you listed... why would any sane person do something like that?

It’s literally the most commonly used tool, hell, I have my phone on me more times than even my shoes! Of course I want it to be waterproof, people get their phones wet from any number of things, sudden rain, kid hosing you, phone falling into the sink, etc.

> people get their phones wet

No, they don't. And those who do have to expose their phones to extreme conditions might buy a protective case. Very few people expose their phones to conditions they know to endanger electronics... it's common sense not to use electronics underwater, unless it's the special kind that's designed to do that.

Si few people want their phone to be protected from water?

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