We have had water resistant phones for quite a while now. Companies like Samsung have been using this feature as a major bullet point for years now. Of course, we saw a shift after Apple introduced the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which were the company's first effort in the water resistant market. Despite the fact that Android smartphones were no strangers to the feature, it suddenly became a Big Deal.
The Android market didn't need to shift all that much. Basically just keep doing what it's doing. Not every smartphone is water resistant, though. And now, in 2018, I can't help but wonder if that's a dealbreaker for the majority of potential smartphone owners out there.
Because not everyone is looking for the same thing in a phone. But maybe this might be as close as it gets.
It was OnePlus that got me wondering about water resistant smartphones today. The company is in full gear when it comes to teasing its next smartphone, what's being called the OnePlus 6, and a tease today made it pretty clear that the upcoming flagship device is going to be water resistant. OnePlus said in its tease that it hates when you can't use your phone while it's raining, and included a winking emoji to really seal the deal.
The hint made me laugh, because it made me think back to the iPhone 7 Plus. Up until that moment I had never really given any thought to a water resistant smartphone. I haven't had a negative run-in with moisture and a smartphone since before the original iPhone launched, so it has just become something I haven't thought about. And then after the iPhone 7 Plus launched I took it up to Colorado on a trip and I used the phone in the rain.
That's when I knew that water resistance was something I wouldn't be able to give up.
That's what I'm mostly curious about. Of all the software features and positive hardware elements, is water resistance something you specifically look for when you're considering buying a new smartphone? I remember the original Google Pixel and Pixel XL getting panned for not having the feature, for instance.
And, just for a little bit of fun, for the folks out there who had a situation like mine, where you had a lightbulb go off where you knew you needed/couldn't live without water resistance, what happened with you? Was it something as easy as using your phone in the rain? Or something else? Let me know!
