Two Galaxy S7 Active phones fail water dunk tests
Samsung offers an "Active" version of its Galaxy S7 flagship phone for those who often put their phones in perilous situations, and one of the advertised features is "water resistance." With the Galaxy S7 Active, Samsung says the phone is water resistant to depths as low as 5ft for up to 30 minutes at a time, which means it should be able to withstand being dropped into the swimming pool or survive in your pocket during a heavy rainstorm. Consumer Reports recently performed a water dunk test on the Galaxy S7 Active to test that water resistant feature, and their results were less than reassuring.
The test was performed by Consumer Reports, which says it had two Samsung Galaxy S7 Active smartphones fail back-to-back in water immersion tests. The first phone was tested in a water tank pressurized to simulate a phone at 5ft of depth for 30 minutes. Upon emerging, the phone was still running but the display was ruined, with the majority of it scrambled. As well, the camera lenses noticeably have water inside of them. For all intents and purposes, the phone is ruined.
Because flukes do happen, Consumer Reports tested a second Galaxy S7 Active in the tank, and while it withstood the water better, the cameras were still filled with water and the display developed a flicker. Water was also found in the second phone's SIM card slot.
Despite being left to dry out for several days (which is a crapshoot when it comes to wet phones), neither was restored to proper working fashion, with ruined displays and other issues. Samsung says it is looking into the matter; still, the odds of two phones being defective back to back seems pretty low, and so if you have an S7 Active, you may want to be cautious about what water you expose it to.