However, many videos are surfacing on YouTube that seem to suggest the iPhone 7 is far more capable in water than that. Apple doesn’t encourage swimming with your iPhone and also does not cover water damage in the warranty, yet some users are finding swimming around is a perfect doable task for the new iPhone. I’ve put together a collection of videos with users testing iPhone 7’s water resistance far beyond its official limits. You’ll see users swim and film video in a pool, plunge it into the depths of the ocean and more. Despite all this mounting evidence that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are closer to waterproof than Apple wants us to believe, I still can’t recommend exposing your iPhone to any more water than the IP67 rating suggests. Do you really want to risk having to pay for yet another new phone after damaging your first iPhone 7 taking some shots in the pool? That’s especially likely since Apple’s warranty doesn’t cover water damage. That said, if these videos inspire you to take your iPhone 7 for a dip and money is no object, I certainly can’t stop you.
5 Feet of Water? Check.
EverythingApplePro on YouTube wanted to test how well the iPhone 7 fared according to its IP67 rating. He also threw a Samsung Galaxy S7 into the test. After almost 30 minutes under a meter of water, he decided to add even more water to bring the total up over five feet. He ended up taking out both the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 to find that neither had lost any functionality at all. This is particularly impressive of the iPhone 7 since the Galaxy S7 has a higher water resistance rating at IP68, but still a respectable feat for both phones.
Swimming Pools? Check.
Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal put both the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 to the water resistance test. She warns at the beginning of the video that Apple doesn’t recommend the iPhone 7 in particular ever make contact with a swimming pool, yet Stern ended up filming most of the video underwater with her iPhone. Of course, once you are underwater with the iPhone, you can’t use the display since water gets in between the screen and your fingers. You also get little to no signal from Wi-Fi or your cellular service. However, pressing the record button before you submerge yourself (or using the volume down button as a shutter) worked just fine for taking underwater video.
Showers? Check.
Ty Moss on YouTube ran the gamut of real-world tests for the iPhone 7. He took it in the shower with him and went for several dunks in his pool. Not only did the iPhone 7 survive, but it took amazing underwater video. The one caveat is that the display started to spazz out a bit directly under the shower stream, but it didn’t die or even appear to suffer damage in any of these tests.
35 Feet Below the Ocean’s Surface? Check.
EverythingApplePro wasn’t satisfied with his five-feet water test. Determined to figure out what depth of water kills the iPhone 7 for good, he took the device and a Samsung Galaxy S7 and lowered them off of a dock into the ocean. After repeated attempts at getting the phones to stop responding, he ended up getting them all the way down to 35 feet. That is the mark at which the Galaxy S7 finally gave up and crapped out. The iPhone 7, however, still survived. It didn’t quite escape without any damage though — light was starting to leak in at the bottom of the display and the taptic Home button got very oversensitive. Other than that, the iPhone 7 still managed to function. That the Galaxy S7, rated at a higher IP68, waved the white flag before the iPhone 7 could at the same depths is absolutely incredible. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
