A phone box carries a code — IP68, IP67 — and the buyer reads it as a promise about swimming. The standard behind the code says nothing of the kind.
The International Electrotechnical Commission owns these codes. The first digit rates protection against solids and dust, from 0 to 6. The second rates protection against liquids, from 0 to 9. The Commission’s own stated purpose is to replace vague marketing words such as “waterproof” with something testable. The full description, including test conditions, sits in IEC 60529.
One code, four depths
Apple publishes the numbers itself. iPhone 17, iPhone Air, 16, 15, 14, 13 and 12 are IP68 to a maximum depth of 6 metres for up to 30 minutes. iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max carry the same code at 4 metres. iPhone 11, XS and XS Max carry it at 2 metres. IP67 — on iPhone SE, XR, X, 8 and 7 — is 1 metre for up to 30 minutes.
Four depths under two codes. The digit does not encode depth. It records that the device passed an immersion test whose terms the manufacturer declared. The depth is read off the maker’s page, never off the code.
Three limits the sticker leaves out
The test uses still fresh water in a laboratory. Chlorinated pool water and Gulf salt water are outside it.
Apple states plainly that splash, water and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and may decrease with normal wear. A phone that has been dropped twice is not the phone that left the factory.
Liquid damage is not covered by the warranty.
The digit that matters here
The 6 in both IP68 and IP67 means no dust gets in at all. In a country with dust in the air for half the year, that first digit earns its keep more often than the second.
Photograph: a smartphone covered in water droplets. Photo by RuinDig/Yuki Uchida, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: the International Electrotechnical Commission’s Ingress Protection ratings page, and Apple’s page on splash, water and dust resistance.
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