I’m not an easy-going smartphone user. I seem to make a habit of breaking them one way or another, and never in a typical “whoops I dropped it on the floor” kind of way. I’m more the “huh, why did that fall off” or “where are my shorts anyway” kind of smartphone abuser. And summer time is when I’m more likely to have problems, not least of which is the perennial fear of dunking my phone in water, be it the ocean, a swimming pool, or even a large puddle (it finally stopped raining on the East Coast folks!).
Clearly, I’m not alone in the waterlogged phone syndrome. According to Asurion, which insures phones and other devices, the summer months are the most deadly time for smartphones, with a 50% spike in claims after the July 4th weekend and with many claims involving water. And this is only going to get worse. On vacation last week I witnessed phones being used in swimming pools, and even the ocean, as holiday-goers took every opportunity to snap the odd fish, child, or other sea creature that they discovered. Invariably, the odd device being held precariously above water level was fumbled and dropped, turning squeals of joy to curses against the gods.
And clearly, we don’t need to be near large expanses of water to make our phones suffer such a fate. Bathtubs are popular and I have one friend that dropped his phone while on a boat… not overboard, but rather into a cooler that had some ice, and – unfortunately for him, – some ex-ice in it too. Even more ironic is the fact that the friend in question runs a construction company and his phone survives at least 20 life-threatening experiences per work day. Duh.Or more likely, curses against manufacturers that don’t build good-looking waterproof phones, or carriers that don’t offer these devices to us mortals.
While OEMs have dabbled with waterproof phones in the past, this summer looks to be the year that realistic alternatives to the waterlogged (former) smartphone become an option. Yes, a long-time favorite in some parts of the world, the non-ugly smartphone has finally arrived on U.S. soil.
The biggest noise comes from the AT&T/Samsung team, which is marketing the heck out of the new Galaxy S4 Active, an AT&T exclusive. And it’s not too shabby to take the iconic Galaxy device and claim an exclusive version (waterproof) just in time for the summer season! But the galaxy S4 Active is not the only choice out there (although I suspect it will be the most popular of the bunch in the U.S. market). Sprint may have beaten AT&T to the punch with Kyocera’s Hydro Edge device, while Sony has been showing off the Xperia Z Ultra since the beginning of the year, but has yet to find a U.S. carrier partner for it.
All in all, it seems as though the U.S. carriers have woken up to the need for an attractive-looking smartphone that doesn’t compromise features too much in return for a waterproof experience. And while most consumers don’t initially think they need a waterproof phone, once they think through how they use the phone – as a camera or for music at the local pool, for example, then the reasoning and logic of such a move makes more sense. Of course, it still doesn’t make the phone truly durable in extreme situations (you know, like kids, a walk in the park near concrete, etc.), but for that you would need to sacrifice looks a little more. For the small sacrifice of a large brick-like device you could have a phone that bounces well. But that sounds a little too extreme, even for my use.