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Improved Water Resistance of iPhone 6s Attributed to New Gaskets and Seals

Popeye206 said:
No... it wasn't pushed as a feature... I think they left it as a surprise feature so it would get after release attention. A brilliant marketing move and kudos' to Apple for doing this! Awesome!
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Great point, keep the new phones in tech news articles for a bit.
 
The fact that simple things like the headphone jack isn't sealed, and allows water from gushing in during an accident is just a huge apple mistake. I think my iphone and my wife's 4 or 5 failed because of this...

Apple prides themselves in paying attention to details - this particular one seems to be easy, yet it's still "open" years later...
 
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kds1 said:
The work and craftsmanship in design, of these devices, and people destroy them just so they can look at "tear down porn". Such a waste of perfectly good iPhones.
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and without them we wouldn't even know about this... sooo... yeah...
 
kds1 said:
The work and craftsmanship in design, of these devices, and people destroy them just so they can look at "tear down porn". Such a waste of perfectly good iPhones.
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Why, these people buy warranties or pay for the out of warranty replacement fee. Hell, many credit cards give you 90 days of protection against any damage.
These people do it either to get views = money in their pocket OR like iFixit to offer replacement parts and tutorials for people to buy their OEM replacements. No one really does it just to 'look at it' and lose their money on their device.
 
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kds1 said:
The work and craftsmanship in design, of these devices, and people destroy them just so they can look at "tear down porn". Such a waste of perfectly good iPhones.
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What a hilariously ignorant and uneducated comment. Yes, screw learning how something works, I want to control how everyone else uses a device that I think looks good. But it looks good NO ONE should investigate and figure out how it works on the inside. Who cares about that? It works! That's all I need (and want) to know! Why would ANYONE want to learn about how something is designed? Because I don't want to, NO ONE SHOULD.
 
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I don't see the iPhone becoming marketably water resistant before the watch. Perhaps both will make the plunge at the same time.
 
The gasket is there to ensure 3D Touch remains consistent and that the screen remains seated, not to keep water out, but it's a nice bonus.

That said, in store repairs are going to be a giant pain, but not impossible.
 
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scott911 said:
The fact that simple things like the headphone jack isn't sealed, and allows water from gushing in during an accident is just a huge apple mistake. I think my iphone and my wife's 4 or 5 failed because of this...

Apple prides themselves in paying attention to details - this particular one seems to be easy, yet it's still "open" years later...
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can you even seal a headphone jack? You can put a cover like the life proof cases, but I think you need to have the contacts free to get a connection and they can't be waterproof I would think.

Anyways, the iPhone 6S seems to handle an hour inside a bowl of water even the headphone jack so unless you guys are going to the pool with them then IDK... Besides the iPhone 4 had many other areas like the old connector where water is more easily accesible to get inside the device.
 
Asuriyan said:
The gasket is there to ensure 3D Touch remains consistent and that the screen remains seated, not to keep water out, but it's a nice bonus.

That said, in store repairs are going to be a giant pain, but not impossible.
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Umm that is an interesting idea, but the gasket existed in older iPhones as well, just this time is bigger no? The gasket touches the display?

I guess store repairs won't really be a pain since water resistant is not a feature, they can just replace whatever and leave it less water resistant keeping the old gasket. Kinda like when you go change watch batteries anywhere but the company.
 
kds1 said:
The work and craftsmanship in design, of these devices, and people destroy them just so they can look at "tear down porn". Such a waste of perfectly good iPhones.
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A handful of phones get taken to bits professionally or destroyed in the name of science so thousands of people can see how they look inside, what they're made of, how they're built, how strong or fragile they are and how water-resistant they are.

The teardowns are especially important. They are essentially instructions on how you can fix a phone, so many more devices will be saved by repair because of that one device.

This is valuable information for many and is well worth the collateral damage.
 
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macduke said:
It's great that Apple finally decided to do this, but strange that they didn't advertise it. Perhaps this is a test for the iPhone 7. If the sealing goes well, Apple can improve upon it even more next year and advertise it as a feature without hearing from tons of users about how they fried their phone. The iPhone 7 is likely to be an even more simplified design, so waterproofing it should be even easier. At the very least I think they'll advertise the next iPhone as water resistant—kinda similar to the Apple Watch. Could you dunk it? Yeah, but they don't come out and recommend it in case something happens.
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I'm pleased they didn't advertise it, otherwise there'll be ... well ... I guess it'd be Watergate 😀

It just means that this quiet change should reduce out-of-warranty issues without them actively saying it's water-resistant. Say less, deliver more. I like it.
 
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scott911 said:
The fact that simple things like the headphone jack isn't sealed, and allows water from gushing in during an accident is just a huge apple mistake. I think my iphone and my wife's 4 or 5 failed because of this...

Apple prides themselves in paying attention to details - this particular one seems to be easy, yet it's still "open" years later...
Click to expand...
I believe it's time they push wireless headphones as a standard. They are doing it with USB-C and the MacBook.
 
PhillyAnt said:
#WatergateScandal
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I made the joke to my friends days ago and I thought it was hilarious.
You know someone needs to put Cooks face on this pic for a laugh!
la-me-ln-nixon-watergate-resignation-hashtag-20140808
 
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sunking101 said:
Hmm, as someone who has never water damaged a phone yet I would prefer an easier battery replacement than sealing everywhere. Each to their own.
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Easily removable battery criticisms are so 2007. 😉

Besides, now that batteries are covered by AppleCare even when outside the 1 year consumable item warranty (great move by Apple, the only company who are now doing this), I don't see an issue. I'd much rather great build quality and carry the risk of possibly having to pay £60 down the line to replace the battery than a flimsy phone.
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Easily removable battery criticisms are so 2007. 😉

Besides, now that batteries are covered by AppleCare even when outside the 1 year consumable item warranty (great move by Apple, the only company who are now doing this), I don't see an issue. I'd much rather great build quality and carry the risk of possibly having to pay £60 down the line to replace the battery than a flimsy phone.
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I like to replace my batteries yearly as performance drops off. Apple will only replace them if they're almost kaput. Still, it is what it is but one of the reasons I don't buy Android phones it that you have to practically destroy them in order to replace the battery. They are disposable items and although iPhones are supposedly a sealed unit, popping the cover off to get to the battery is a relatively simple task.
 
macduke said:
It's great that Apple finally decided to do this, but strange that they didn't advertise it. Perhaps this is a test for the iPhone 7. If the sealing goes well, Apple can improve upon it even more next year and advertise it as a feature without hearing from tons of users about how they fried their phone. The iPhone 7 is likely to be an even more simplified design, so waterproofing it should be even easier. At the very least I think they'll advertise the next iPhone as water resistant—kinda similar to the Apple Watch. Could you dunk it? Yeah, but they don't come out and recommend it in case something happens.
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Think you're absolutely right. Over the next year they'll be able to collect a lot of in the field real-use data from owners which will be useful for developing future generations of phones. They can't advertise it yet, but perhaps in the 7s it'll be ready and they will.
 
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AtheistP3ace said:
Slowly moving towards a water proof iPhone! Not that I ever want to bring my phone into the pool but hey, something nice to have if you drop it in a puddle I suppose!
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I foresee two realities if Apple advertises a phone as waterproof. 1. Kids like to test waterproof-ness of their cases (which I think is a new form of "risky behavior"), and will do the same with their phones. 2. For laughs, people are still wired to push a fully dressed person in the pool. This happened to a friend when he got his launch-day iPhone 4. This many years into the smartphone era, I still occasionally see excited people threaten to push people in pools.
 
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This is all about Apple's new iPhone upgrade program. Apple knows millions of people will choose this option which includes Applecare and device replacement if the phone is water damaged. With these new water resistant features there will be less (Full Phone Replacements) which will in turn save apple money.

They didn't advertise this because they don't want people trying this at home and damaging applecare protected phones with a feature that isn't 100%
 
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