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Powerbeats Pro Water Resistance Test: Find Out What Happens if You Drop Apple's Newest Earbuds in the Toilet

lol...Jesus.. now that's what i call toilet humor.

I don't mind dunk tests, but it only because a requirement AFTER something is made that way.

We get allot more dunking.
 
I know some may accidentally drop stuff into the toilet but to actually show the picture is not necessary :rolleyes:.
 
Here's a test I want to see - by how much is noise pollution from earphones reduced , when you push a head , wearing them on public transport, into a toilet bowl ?

And will it alter the result if the toilet is flushed or unflushed, assuming the test subjects can tell the difference ?
 
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itsmilo said:
I am interested but these kind of things never hold on my ears. I had similar ones from sennheiser and they were uncomfortable and always fall out. I am waiting on a truly second gen of AirPods
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That’s kind of weird. AirPods have no features to keep them in your ears. I can’t even chew or turn my head without airpods falling out.

The Powerbeats pro have ear hooks, and replaceable tips (you can even buy Comply tips that fit them), so they should hold firm in pretty much any ears.
 
Khedron said:
Then it was a manufacturing defect and Apple should have replaced the phone. Except they never will. So they're falsely advertising a feature that they will never honour.
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Not if the seals became damaged due to a drop...
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Darth Tulhu said:
Thanks for the info.

For me, just being wireless is not enough to justify the cost, regardless of how cool they are. I guess I'm old-school: Tuck wires inside shirt, plug in, & work out, same as I've done for decades. No drop-outs, no charging, better sound, no pairing problems, no worries, and I get to pocket $130- $230.
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Others have already addressed how the wireless aspect is worth the premium for many of us. I’d also say, based on my experience with $10 wired headphones and with AirPods that just because something is wired doesn’t instantly mean it will sound better than wireless. I’ll take the sound even from AirPods over a $10 wired headset any day. Additionally, as long as you’re using them with an Apple product, pairing is rarely an issue. Can’t speak to pairing with non-Apple devices.
 
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While we are still waiting for our turn of pre-ordering, you flushed it down the toilet .
 
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Khedron said:
Then it was a manufacturing defect and Apple should have replaced the phone. Except they never will. So they're falsely advertising a feature that they will never honour.
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Or, the phone could have been damaged due to user. Either way Apple is very clear (and Samsung has the same warrantyon some of its phones). Water damage is not covered. Which is why it is said on the forums to treat your water resistant phone as if it weren't.

Since they are upfront about not covering water damage and the phones were tested in a laboratory condition, it is not false advertising. Water resistance benefits the consumer not the manufacturer.
 
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MacRumors said:
Powerbeats Pro were able to withstand splashing water for at least 10 minutes, which is pretty decent because most people don't sweat buckets of water for an extended period of time.
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How about you come to my gym next time I spend 60 minutes on the Stairmill Machine? btw- my BeatsX headphones stand up to this just fine...
 
Grey Area said:
It does highlight a problem with advertising IP-ratings on consumer products, though: They give the customer some initial sense of security, but in practice the manufacturer can almost always avoid being held accountable for water damage.

And there are good reasons for not guaranteeing this - if a customer takes the 1.5m-phone down to a depth of 2m and it breaks, the manufacturer cannot tell, so instead they generally do not cover any water damage at all. And IP tests are done according to very specific conditions, and real-life situations can easily exceed some of those, even when the user may not expect this. E.g. a phone is advertised as resistant to submerging at 1.5m for 30 minutes, but that is while holding still, and moving the phone at 20cm depth for a few seconds might actually subject it to more pressure than it can handle. And then there is aging, deteriorating the seals.

In practice no phone should be brought into contact with water, ever. The fact that it survived snorkeling for three weeks does not mean it will do it again tomorrow, nor that it will survive cleaning under the tap, and if it breaks, the users are on their own. An IP-rating is rather something like an airbag, it can increase the chances in a situation one really really needs to avoid. That does not make for sexy ads, though, so instead we get pictures of phones covered in droplets, "X minutes submerged at Y meters", and fine print freeing the manufacturer from responsibility. It may not be false advertising, but I think many people misunderstand it.
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Remember the Samsung Champagne commercial? At that point Samsung was not covering water damage in the Galaxy phones. They subsequently pulled the commercial. Having water resistance benefits the consumer more than the manufacturer, but as you said, you can't get a false sense of security.
 
MacRumors said:



Apple's new Powerbeats Pro earbuds feature a "reinforced design" for improved "sweat and water resistance" along with an official IPX4 water resistance rating, which means they should be able to hold up to a good amount of moisture.

Still, there were a lot of reports of the Powerbeats 3 failing due to sweat exposure, so we thought we'd test the liquid tolerance of the Powerbeats Pro with a series of water resistance tests.


An IPX4 water resistance rating means that the Powerbeats Pro were able to withstand splashing water for at least 10 minutes, which is pretty decent because most people don't sweat buckets of water for an extended period of time.

powerbeatsprowet.jpg

We tested splashing water, jets of water, and even an extended dunk in water, and the Powerbeats Pro held up and worked well after every single test. Here's what we did:

- Test 1 - Simulated a drop in a kitchen sink with heavy splashes of water.
- Test 2 - Set the Powerbeats Pro in the shower for several minutes to simulate heavy rain.
- Test 3 - Dropped the Powerbeats Pro in the toilet, submerging them briefly.
- Test 4 - Dunked the Powerbeats Pro in a bowl of water for one minute.
- Test 5 - Dunked the PowerBeats Pro in a bowl of water for five minutes.
- Test 6 - Dunked the Powerbeats Pro in a bowl of water for 20 minutes.

After each water test, the sound coming from the Powerbeats Pro was muffled when we tested them, but once we got the water out, the earbuds were back to sounding normal.

powerbeatsprosink.jpg

The Powerbeats Pro survived all of our water tests. Nothing changed with the sound profile, the buttons continued to work, and charging was also fine. This suggests that the Powerbeats Pro do indeed have superior water resistance to the Powerbeats 3 and should hold up well to sweat.

powerbeatsprotoilet.jpg

We do not recommend showering with the Powerbeats Pro, using them in the rain, swimming with them, or otherwise exposing them to excessive moisture. Even when things are decently water resistant, the water resistance can wear down over time so it's going to be best to keep the Powerbeats Pro as dry as possible.

powerbeatsprowaterdunk.jpg

While the Powerbeats Pro did well in our tests, we've only continually exposed them to water and moisture for a couple of hours. We still don't know how they'll hold up to sweat over time, but right now, things are looking positive.

Article Link: Powerbeats Pro Water Resistance Test: Find Out What Happens if You Drop Apple's Newest Earbuds in the Toilet
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Excellent review!! Dan is an excellent reviewer. Thank you. I feel so good about having the Powerbeats Pro waterproof resistant tested successfully.
 
curtvaughan said:
My thoughts:

Most of the folks who don't care about missing headphone jacks indeed value wireless as a prime motivation for buying these things. Water proofing and decent d-to-a converters add to the price. You don't need DACs or batteries aboard wired headphones/earbuds, as the DAC and power source is internal to the phone to which the headphone jack is connected. Except for having onboard DAC(s) and batteries, headphones and earbuds can be judged in similar fashion to wired headphones for qualities like noise cancellation, comfort, and water resistance. Tit for tat, a $250 wired headphone/earbud will likely be superior to a similarly priced bluetooth device, as the price is solely based upon speaker quality sans DACs and battery costs. The main limitation for nice wired headphones is the quality of the original digital signal and the DAC to which the headphones are connected, in this case the sound engineering designed into the phone with the jack.
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Its unfortunate, the headphone jack is gone from the iPhone. Consumers who want the headphone jack and it’s a sticking point with them, have to make their own purchase decisions.
 
I wore my powerbeats3 during the Pittsburgh marathon a few weeks ago. They held up during the rain just fine. I think if those were good, then these should be just fine.
 
I7guy said:
Its unfortunate, the headphone jack is gone from the iPhone. Consumers who want the headphone jack and it’s a sticking point with them, have to make their own purchase decisions.
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People who still claim to want a headphone jack & make a big deal are either stubborn, disingenuous, or just plain crotchety!
I personally own many thousands of dollars worth of headphones... literally NONE of them are wireless. Were there ever anyone to be adversely affected by headphone jack removal, starting with the iPhone 7... it’s me, lol.
However- about a month later I realized that for a very low one-time cost, I could buy a small handful of adapters & leave them on my most often used cans.
That was 3 years ago. Still working fine.
I never even think/notice/care what the plug-in “style” of the boring end of my headphones is. Why would I?? The audio experience is the endpoint, and it hasn’t suffered at all from the minor inconvenience of taking 3 seconds to snap on an adapter one time, & leave it there.
 
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I despise adolescent testers who find a poop water test original and funny. It is never a relevant everyday case.
 
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