Someone submerged three iPhones in three buckets of water and two were still ticking as the game clock wound down. The participants in the water test were the iPhone 5s, SE and 6s.
One of the things that were as clear as crystal was that the iPhone SE's lack of adhesive, compared to the 6s, had little or zero to do with how well it could not hold water. An iFixit teardown of the SE revealed that the adhesive used in the 6s wasn't present in the SE, as was the case with the much older 5s.
"We had speculated that the display gasketing in the 6s and 6s Plus was added for water resistance or structural reinforcement supporting 3D Touch," says iFixit. "Its absence from this model and some preliminary tests suggests it's the latter."
About 5 minutes into the water test, the iPhone 5s tapped out. The iPhone SE and 6s soldiered through the test until an hour had passed and YouTuber Zach Straley called an end to his test.
Both the SE and 6s were fine, eventually. The 6s flashed a few warnings about the state of its charging port. But after being pulled out of the water and with a towel on its back, the 6s was back to itself and its charging port appeared to be fine.
So the iPhone SE and 6s have proven that they could handle submersion into a few inches of water, though neither handset is IP certified as being water-resistant or waterproof like Samsunug's Galaxy S7. So while it may be reassuring to see the iPhones weather the water, Apple is claiming no responsibility for phones that, for any reason, drown in 59 minutes or 59 seconds.
Also important to remember is that the iPhones in Straley's test were only submerged in a few inches. When the inches turn into feet, the pressure goes up and the water resistance goes down.
To watch an on-demand replay of one the iPhone SE's water trial, click on the video below:
And for a review of iFixit's teardown of the iPhone SE, check out this video:
