Samsung's next foldables could be totally fine with a dunk in the pool

Samsung‘s forthcoming foldables could be among the most resilient and hardy yet. According to Max Weinbach, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 will be the company’s first foldables to sport a water resistance rating.

While answering a tweet, Weinbach suggests that both phones will feature an IPX8 rating, bringing the niche devices more in line with Samsung’s traditional flagships than ever before. This also corroborates a previous rumor from April.

So what does this rating mean? Well, the 8 suggests that both foldables can withstand continuous immersion in water under pressure. Usually, this means a depth of 1.5 meters for a maximum of 30 minutes, but there are no clear-cut guidelines for depth and duration. Notably, the foldables will still have a chink in their armor. The X suggests they haven’t been tested against solid particles and dust, the previous bane of the original Galaxy Fold‘s existence.

The first water-resistant foldables?

No mass-produced foldable has packed an ingress protection rating so far. While many traditional flagship phones now feature IP67 ratings or above, the design of foldables makes them susceptible to dust and water damage. It’s more challenging to seal moving parts than a solid chunk of glass.

An IP rating doesn’t promise that the phones will be water-tight in all scenarios. OnePlus’ Pete Lau seems a staunch advocate of this and suggests that IP rating test conditions differ massively from real-world scenarios. And that’s largely true. Even if they launch phones with IP ratings, most companies caution users against deliberately dunking their phones.

But how important is an IP rating on a foldable to you? Would it make or break your buying decision? Let us know by voting in the poll above. Be sure to drop a comment down below, too.

Samsung is set to launch its new foldables, alongside a slew of other devices, on August 11.