According to Stephen Hall from 9To5Google, this year’s Pixel smartphones will “definitely” be waterproof. The info was apparently shared with him in October last year.
In the same month (October 2016), Kelsey McClellan from WIRED had claimed to have heard from sources inside Google that the Pixel and Pixel XL lacked waterproofing because the engineers simply did not have enough time in their hands. Google had reportedly started working on the Pixel handsets long back but decided to start from scratch in late 2015, leaving the engineers with just about 9 months of time to develop the phones. Google had initially planned to make its first in-house flagships to be waterproof, but they couldn’t do it owing to the shortage of time. Since time will not be an issue for the 2017 models, it seems more or less certain now that the new Pixel handsets launching this year will indeed come with a high IP certification.
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are only IP53 certified, so they cannot withstand being submerged under water for long periods of time. They only offer basic protection against liquid damage. Samsung’s flagship Galaxy smartphones and the iPhone 7 duo on the other hand feature higher IP rating, allowing them to withstand being submerged in fresh water up to 1.5 meters in depth for up to 30 minutes.
Source: Stephen Hall (Twitter)
