Water-resistant is not waterproof?

If you own any of the later iPhone, Galaxy, or other water-resistant smartphones such as the iPhone 8 or Galaxy S8, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Is my phone really waterproof?”

And the answer is, in a word: no.

That’s not to say that any amount of liquid will be harmful to your device – these phones are designed to take a quick dip hopefully without shorting out on you. But before you go duck taping it to your head like a GoPro while you snorkel off the coast of Fiji, there are a few things you should know.

Credit: Flickr/Kārlis Dambrāns

Water-resistant does not mean waterproof

It’s an important distinction and one that iPhone 8 Plus repair parts companies clearly set out to make: none of them overtly claim that your phone is waterproof. In fact, even tests of the device’s water resistance are conducted under very specific conditions.

This is because the technology behind smartphones didn’t magically change overnight – your phone is still a highly sensitive bundle of wires and circuits ready to fry at the introduction of the first drop of water. What changed is the phone makers’ ability to protect it.

At the end of the day, companies are actually doing that the old-fashioned way – with a bunch of seals and gaskets designed to keep water from getting inside the device. It’s sort of like how the plumber keeps the pipes under your sink from leaking.

And that’s the thing: no seal is perfect. If some water manages to squeeze through the rubber gaskets or glue seals, it’s possible for it to damage your phone.

Know your levels of resistance

If you’ve done your homework, you’ve seen that your device was assigned an IP rating or an Ingress Protection Rating. While it may sound like the least sexy part of your phone specs, it’s actually important to know that this is a standard set by the International Electrotechnical Commission or the IEC.

IP rating for solids. Credit: Cnet

The IP ratings consist of two numbers, the first ranging between 0-6, rating the phone’s protection against the entry of solid foreign objects like dust and dirt. The second number falls between 0-8, and measures the phone’s resistance against liquids.

Credit: Cnet

So, for example, the Samsung S8 is rated IP68, which means it has the highest ratings for resisting both dust and water. On the other hand, the iPhone 8 is rated IP67, which means its fully protected against dust (6) and can be submerged under 1 meter of water for 30 minutes (7). This handy guide does a good job of outlining your phones IP rating in more detail.

Of course, this should all be taken with a grain of salt. Companies testing a device’s water resistance might softly submerge it in fresh water, which is much different from what would happen if your friend pushed you into the swimming pool, or if the tide came in unexpectedly at the beach and soaked your phone with seawater.

A phone’s levels of water and dust resistance also diminish with wear over time – even just sitting on the shelf can degrade their ability to keep out the bad stuff.

LCI Sesor dot inside an iPhone. Credit: Gottabemobile

Watch your warranty

Even though companies market the phones as water-resistant, they don’t actually cover water damage in their warranties. They even have little stickers on the phones that change color upon contact with a liquid to prevent customers from fibbing.

It kind of makes sense – there’s really no way of knowing whether water damage occurred through misuse, such as submerging a device in liquid deeper and longer than the IP rating specifies.

That said, most companies will at least try to work with customers and examine the phone if they claim that the water-resistant features failed to work.

Still, under its warranty, Apple is quick to point out that liquid damage is not covered.

Staying dry

All this is to say that it’s important to keep your expectations realistic and try to be responsible for your device. If it seems counter-intuitive to throw your iPhone 8 Plus LCD screen replacement into the swimming pool to get a laugh out of your friends, trust your instincts. You really shouldn’t be throwing your phone into anything.

And though companies are making great strides in waterproofing techniques these days, the fact that their warranties don’t cover water damage should be reason enough for you not to test your device’s water resistant capabilities unnecessarily.

Besides keeping your phone dry, it’s best to always be prepared for any water situation. If you find that your phone drops in water and you need to perform some quick “CPR”, we suggest NOT putting it in rice. You can read our step-by-step guide here on how to deal with a water damaged device.

What we can see Samsung at CES 2018

Samsung is always a major focus at CES, and for good reason. The tech giant typically unveils a number of devices (not counting its updated line of smart washing machines, refrigerators and dishwashers), and sometimes shows off hardware that's a little bit out there.

Two years ago, it was a bendable TV. At CES 2018, it could be a bendable iPhone 7 parts .

Whispers are circulating that the Galaxy X, Samsung's rumored foldable smartphone, could debut at CES 2018. As Forbes notes, the timing would be a bit odd since, unlike MWC in February, CES isn't a major phone show. However, it would also be a prime opportunity to show off a completely new device to an international audience. Samsung did unveil the Galaxy A3 phone at CES 2017, so there's some precedent.

What's more, Samsung originally debuted its bendable display tech at CES 2013, so it'd be fitting to unveil the culmination of five years' development in a consumer-ready bendable phone at CES 2018.

Samsung's mobile boss has said the company is targeting a bendable phone launch in the New Year. Unveiling the Galaxy X in early January could be the first step towards a full-blown release later in 2018.

Something it will be showing off at CES though is its recently announced Samsung Galaxy A8, which appears to be a more affordable Galaxy S8.

Samsung's potential CES mobile plans don't end there. We could be in for an early look at the Samsung Galaxy S9 during the show – or not. Let us explain.

Notable leaker Evan Blass reported that the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus could make a cameo at CES 2018. That would obviously be big news ... even if the design of the new phones is iterative and not innovative.

However, on December 6, a report surfaced quoting a Samsung representative saying "it is unlikely" the company will bring the Galaxy S9 to CES. The wording is a bit vague, and perhaps intentionally so. This could mean we won't see the Galaxy S9 until a potential launch in March, or perhaps Samsung will decide to bring the next-gen phone after all.

In addition to the potential new Galaxy iPhone 7 spare parts unveilings, Samsung could also show off a gigantic 150-inch TV. This would be no ordinary TV, as TweakTownreports, because it would feature MicroLED tech.

This screen tech essentially has the LED elements engraved into the silicon substrate, according to the site. The substrate is so small that it acts as individual pixels. MicroLED is said to allow for greater pixel density, less power draw and the elimination of image burn-in. All good things for TV owners.

We also expect Samsung to announce new wearables, either on its own or in partnership with others, new Galaxy Tab tablets, new laptops, and, of course, new TVs. There's a good chance Samsung will update its QLED TV tech to the next generation (and maybe go for a new name, like QLED+).

The best LG G6 deals for Christmas 2017

When the LG G6 hit the shelves earlier this year, we were touting it as a cheap alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S8. It's a high quality, stylish handset with a pin-sharp screen and water-resistant casing. There isn't much not to like about this splendid iPhone 7 Plus LCD screen .

And now is a brilliant time to buy. The release of the iPhone 8 and the company's innovative LG V30 seem to have caused some fantastic prices to emerge on the LG G6. You can now get it for not much more than £500 for the two year term, which is frankly as cheap as chips for such a good handset. We've even seen tariffs that cost as little as £17.99 per month!

So if you've done your research, read the TechRadar's LG G6 review and decided that it's definitely the phone for you, then check out our comparison table below to make sure you're getting the best price on the market. We've picked out some of our favourite deals below that as well.

And if that LG G6 deal happens to be from Mobiles.co.uk, then make sure that you enter the discount code 10OFF to bag a tenner off the price of the handset.

LG G6 review in brief

Screen size: 5.7-inches | Resolution: 1440 x 2880 | Rear camera: 13MP | Weight: 163g | OS: Android 7 | RAM: 4GB | Storage: 32/64/128GB | External storage: microSD up to 256GB | Battery: 3300mAh

Make no mistake, the G6 is a great phone from LG. Its recent predecessors haven't really taken the fight to Samsung and Apple, but the LG G6 is a flagship iPhone 7 Plus LCD screen wholesale to be proud of. The dazzling 1440 x 2880 screen is a particular strength and you immediately feel on first use that your handling an Android device no less premium than the Samsung Galaxy S8.

2018 may mark the start of a cord-free life

You may not remember, but there was a time when you had to plug a cable into the side of your computer if you wanted to check your email.

Today, Wi-Fi's wireless connections make physical network cables a rarity. But that's just the beginning. Technological forces are converging to make a lot of other wires in our lives look like relics. 2018 might not be the year when every cord disappears from your house, but it could begin a new big phase of uncluttering.

It'll start with the device you likely spend the most time with every day: your cheap phone repair . Plenty of phones have offered wireless charging for years, but Apple's embrace of the technology this year in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X sends a strong message to leery consumers and to phone makers on the fence: Come on in, the water's fine.

Other wires that could be banished include your earbud cable, your laptop's power cord and maybe even your broadband connection to the internet. It's all part of the inexorable move to designs that are easier to install, maintain and use through untethering. That ultimate dream of a living room entertainment system with no cords is no longer so far-fetched.

"We've seen a trend over the last 10 years to remove any mechanical moving parts on the phone, to remove any compartment you can open," IHS Markit analyst Ian Fogg said. "At some point, we might see the removal of the data port, too, so there aren't any physical ports at all."

To be sure, wires aren't going away completely in our lifetimes, much less in 2018. They're just too useful for transferring data and power quickly, cheaply and reliably. For instance, you'll still need a line that connects your wireless charging pad to the outlet. But on a daily basis, the technology means you can just plop your phone or even your laptop onto a charging pad instead of fiddling with cables.

Qi is key

Wireless phone charging had been a mess because of multiple standards. Nobody would want to set a phone on a charger in an office, coffee shop, hotel or car and find out it's incompatible. The industry now has mostly settled on one standard called Qi (pronounced "chee"). For example, the day after Apple announced in September that its new iPhones would use Qi, charging station maker Powermat announced that its wireless charging spots at Starbucks coffee shops would add compatibility with Qi.

Samsung supports Qi in its Galaxy S8 and Note 8 phones. Furniture giant Ikea sells lamps with Qi wireless charging stations built in, and outside the house, the standard is in some cars from Ford, Audi, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Chrysler, Hyundai and Volkswagen.

Wireless charging exists for laptops too -- Dell's Latitude 7285, for example -- but that's a rarity at the moment. It's harder to supply enough power for a laptop, and the charging stations are more expensive: $200 in Dell's case.

Perhaps more interesting for laptop customers is a technology called WiGig that transmits data very rapidly over the air within a room. That can be handy for docking stations: When you flip open your laptop anywhere in a room, it wirelessly connects to a docking station that handles cabled connections to external hard drives, monitors, speakers and other devices.

Industry groups including the Wi-Fi Alliance and the IEEE are working on a second-generation WiGig technology, called 802.11ay, that should boost speeds and range and perhaps improve the technology for high-end virtual reality headsets that no longer are leashed to your computer. But the final version of WiGig 2.0 likely won't arrive until 2019.

Ta-ta, tangles

It's a marvel that our cracked screen repair can deliver so many songs, podcasts, video chats and TV shows. But untangling your earbud wires first can be infuriating. For good or ill, several phone makers want to move us beyond that hassle by killing off the decades-old 3.5mm audio jack and steering us toward wireless Bluetooth audio connections.

Sure, you can still plug headphones into an Apple Lightning port or a Google Pixel 2 USB-C port with the help of a dongle. But Apple would rather you buy a $159 set of wireless AirPods, and Google would steer you to its competing $159 Pixel Buds. Google doesn't even include earbuds in the Pixel 2 box.

Unfortunately, high-quality earbuds with Bluetooth can be expensive. They can be inconvenient to pair with your smartphone or laptop and can suffer from short battery life. You also have to worry about losing the charging case if you buy a premium set such as AirPods, Pixel Buds or Samsung's $200 Gear IconX wireless earbuds.

And another thing: "The quality of audio is less good than for a wired headset because audio is recompressed over the Bluetooth connection," Fogg said. The industry group working on Bluetooth has lowered power requirements and is working on better sound for music, but for now audiophiles should proceed with caution.

By 2022, however, the disappearance of 3.5mm audio jacks will help push us to buy 285 million "hearables" such as wireless earbuds, Juniper Research estimates. For many of us, that journey will begin next year.

The best Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge deals for Christmas 2017

We'll tell it to you straight, we like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge A LOT. Until the Galaxy S8 came along in fact, it held the title of our very favourite why does my phone get hot in the world. More than a year since its release, the S7 Edge remains an exceptional mobile.

And now is a brilliant time to buy one. With the release of the Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8, we're seeing some top tariffs emerge on the Edge. As you'll see from our editorially-chosen deals and customisable widget below, Three largely has the stranglehold on our favourite deals. That said, some even cheaper tariffs have begun to emerge from EE on the lower data points. So depending how much you use your phone away from Wi-Fi, they may be a better value option.

It's a bigger why is my phone hot , and while it doesn't have the same nearly-bezel-less design of the S8 and S8 Plus, it's still got a beautiful screen, the same decent battery life and excellent camera..

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review and specs

Weight: 157g | Dimensions: 150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7mm | OS: Android 7 Nougat | Screen size: 5.5-inch | Resolution: 1440 x 2560 resolution | CPU: Snapdragon 820 / Exynos 8890 | RAM: 4GB | Storage: 32GB (64GB with micro SD) | Battery: 3600mAh | Rear camera: 12MP | Front camera: 5MP

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge went straight to the top of the class when it was released in 2016 - we gave it 5 stars out of 5! It somehow managed to better the accomplished Galaxy S6 Edge, by adding a brilliant camera and gorgeous design tweaks.