The newly unveiled Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have been confirmed to only be dust and water resistant with an IP53 rating, and that means future owners better think twice before dunking it in a bowl full of water.
This comes hot on the heels of when a rumor that said the two won't be waterproof circulated the internet, a few weeks ahead of the official reveal. In light of this development, it appears that it turned out to be true after all.
What Does An IP53 Rating Mean?
To go into detail of what an IP53 certification entails, devices with that rating are "protected from limited dust ingress" and "protected from water spray less than 60 degrees from vertical," according to the chart of U.S. manufacturer DSM&T.
Put simply, the Pixel and Pixel XL can survive a spray of water or the rain, but they won't come out alive when they're submerged in water. Also, dust isn't completely prevented.
Spelling out the bad news, the Google-branded smartphones aren't exactly in the same playing field as the other handsets in the same price range, particularly the Samsung Galaxy S7 with its IP68 rating and the iPhone 7 with its IP67 certification.
The Source Of The Confirmation
The news comes from none other than Droid Life. The Android-dedicated website says that Google recently confirmed the IP53 rating of the Pixel and Pixel XL to it.
Pixel And Pixel XL Aren't Out Of The Competition
While the duo may be lagging behind in the protection department, they are staying the pace in terms of performance, not to mention that they're going to run on a special version of Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box.
Under the hood, they're going to have a Snapdragon 821 and 4 GB of RAM. To last throughout the day, Google crammed a 2,770 mAh battery in the Pixel and a 3,450 mAh cell in the Pixel XL.
Capacity-wise, they're going to be available in 32 GB and 128 GB variants. As for the color options, there's three flavors to choose from: Really Blue, Quite Black and Very Silver.
To make things even better, DxOMark gave the Pixel's camera a score of 89, beating the likes of the Galaxy S7, the HTC 10, the Sony Xperia X and even the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, a $6,000 DSLR.
Are you going to grab Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones? If so, hit us up in the comments section below and let us know.
