The Galaxy S23 Ultra is noticeably more resistant to water immersion than its IP68 certification suggests. A device fished out of a fairly deep river after 5 hours survived as if nothing had happened. We'll tell you all about it.
Is the water resistance of Samsung smartphones certified by an IP rating seriously below reality? This is, in any case, what a news story suggests – picked up by Samsung itself. The story takes place in Sweden: Mikael Krekula, a nature guide passionate about nature, was testing a sonar near a hole drilled in the ice that then covered the Kalix River.
But while he was handling his mobile, a Galaxy S23 Ultra, with gloves on, the device ended up slipping from his hands and falling into the depths of the icy waters of the river. He then did what he could to try to fish it out. Which turned out to be far from easy. Indeed, where he is, the riverbed is three meters lower.
His Galaxy S23 Ultra contains his entire digital life
And there's a slight current, which makes groping for the device all the more difficult. But as he explains, it was impossible for him to let go: “At that moment, I felt like I had donated my entire digital life to the river – photos, identity, payment cards, and all my apps, lost, in an instant,” says Mikael Krekula.
So he continues to try all possible options for hours in the freezing cold. To access a larger area, he sweatily drills eight more holes in the fairly thick ice. He improvises a series of more or less effective tools. As the hours pass, the hope of finding the device seems to fade. And yet... thanks to his iron motivation, he finally fishes out the Galaxy S23 Ultra – after five hours of searching!
As the device surfaces, he remembers that the Galaxy S23 Ultra is IP68 certified, which means that Samsung guarantees resistance to submersion in (fresh) water up to 1.5 m deep for a period of 30 minutes. Beyond that, damage is possible. After 5 hours spent at 3 meters deep, Mikael Krekula therefore expects to recover a completely unusable device.
Why the Galaxy S23 Ultra withstands conditions well beyond IP68 certification
But as he presses the lock button, the screen lights up, undamaged. With three missed call notifications. Even though, from the outside, no water damage was visible and everything seemed to be working as if nothing had happened, he turned it off to let it dry overnight. The next day, the device still showed no signs of damage. It was as if it had never sunk to the bottom of an icy river.
History shows, in any case, that Samsung, like other manufacturers, remains rather conservative when it comes to IP certification. At least in the premium segment. It must be said that this certification seems above all to seek a balance between providing useful information to customers about the durability of their product, without exaggerating it to encourage users to take care of their device anyway.
A strategy that also allows Samsung to relieve itself of potentially costly obligations. The brand, like many of its competitors, does not agree to repair excessively damaged devices. Especially when the extent of the damage revealed reveals that the device has been exposed to abnormal conditions.
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