Smartphone protection: what is Gorilla Glass, oleophobic coating, IP67 / 68 and MIL-810 STD?
Most modern smartphones and tablets have some protective characteristics. What was previously seen only in unkillable CAT S60 and representatives of the Samsung Galaxy S line is gradually reaching other, more affordable categories of devices. Oleophobic coating, IP68 rating and other characteristics are often used in product descriptions. But what does this all mean? Let's figure it out. DisplayProtective glass for smartphones and tablets has been around for several years. Depending on the manufacturer, the device may have ion-strengthened glass or branded Corning Gorilla Glass. Apple uses its own glass, which, while providing some protection, still does not protect the screen from damage after being dropped from a low height onto a hard floor. The latest screen protection solution is Gorilla Glass 5 . Corning claims it will withstand 80% drops from 6 feet to hard surfaces. You can often find such a characteristic as an oleophobic coating. It does not protect against physical damage, but only provides some advantages, in particular, resistance to the appearance of greasy spots on the screen. In fact, it doesn't completely get rid of fingerprints: with an oleophobic coating, they're just easier to wipe off the display. The coating will wear out in a couple of years but can be reapplied. IP SecurityIn the description of most smartphones from the middle and high price category, you can find the value of IP67 or IP68. Unfortunately, these numbers often appear without explaining what they mean. IP stands for "ingress protection", protection that prevents dust and water from entering the inside of the case. Each number indicates protection against a specific element. The first can have a value from 1 to 6, it shows how well the device is protected from solid particles (dust and dirt). The value of the second digit ranges from 1 to 8. This is moisture protection. Dust rating less than 6 is rare. This means that every flagship smartphone can be used without any problems even in a dust storm. As for moisture protection, the difference of one point may not seem significant, but in practice there is a difference, and quite a lot. If the smartphone is protected from water penetration according to the seventh level (that is, IP67), it will withstand immersion to a depth of 3 feet and will be able to spend there, keeping working capacity, for at least 30 minutes. If the water resistance rating is 8 (IP68), the permitted immersion depth is 6 feet. At the same time, the water pressure doubles. Differences in pressure can critically affect whether water penetrates through the micro-holes inside the case or not. It should be noted that even if a smartphone has IP68 protection, this does not mean that it is completely waterproof. In fact, the rating does not reflect the fact of water penetration, but whether any damage will occur due to immersion. In practice, a smartphone with IP67 / 68 can be used in the rain and nothing will happen to it. But if dropped in the bathtub, it will likely survive - most likely, but not certain. Apple didn't care about protecting its devices from dust and water until the iPhone 7. Samsung, on the other hand, had been working on protection for many years. And by the time Apple started catching up, Samsung devices were already rated IP68. Today almost all flagship smartphones are IP67 compliant. Whether manufacturers will release truly waterproof smartphones is a moot point. The fact is that touch screens do not function well underwater due to the conductive properties of the liquid itself. There are very few smartphones that can be fully used for diving. And those that do have mediocre performance, and therefore are of interest only to some consumer groups (fishermen, hunters, athletes, rescuers, etc.). MIL-810 STDMIL and STD are shorthand for Military Standard . The specification refers to products that have been tested for use in military environments. It sounds serious, but in reality it is not at all what you can imagine. Unfortunately, out of 30 tests in class 810, more than half do not have certain standards. This means that different manufacturers can test as they please and give devices a MIL-810 STD rating as they see fit. Those tests that have stringent standards (like drop tests) are largely IP67 / 68 compliant. Therefore MIL-810 STD rating is not an advantage . At least in terms of the shock resistance of the smartphone. The Topic of Article: Smartphone protection: what is Gorilla Glass, oleophobic coating, IP67 / 68 and MIL-810 STD?. |
