Most wireless earbuds aren’t intended for swimming, however, a couple of sprinkles or a sweaty workout may be reasonable game in some cases. Apple’s AirPods and Powerbeats and Samsung’s Galaxy Buds offer different levels of water resistance (or none at all on account of the AirPods), but instead than take Apple and Samsung’s word for it, we chose to put them through some real-world water tests to discover how much water, sweat and clothing cleanser (hint hint) they can handle.
Apple’s Powerbeats are in fact the most strong with an official rating of IPX4 which makes them sweat and water resistant, however the charging case offers no such protection.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds have an IPX2 rating which means they can deal with a couple of splashes, a little sweat, and even the periodic spill as indicated by Samsung, however once more, this doesn’t cover the case and is a step behind the solidness offered by the Powerbeats
AirPods are the underdogs in this situation since they are not appraised for anything water related, in any event not formally, on the grounds that (spoiler alert) our tests tell a different story.
What they can actually handle?
The sweat challenge
When you’re working out, the exact opposite thing you need to stress over is if your earbuds will endure an exceptional gym session or a sweaty run, which is actually what both the Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds are intended to withstand. To test the claims, Lexy and I took simulating a sweaty exercise at the gym. We wore each pair of earphones and splashed each other in the face with water until droplets streamed down the sides of our heads. For the record, the AirPods weren’t intended to be tested this way.
After about five sprays every, we took the buds out of our ears, got them dry off which is what Apple and Samsung prescribe doing immediately after any water exposure.
Right after drying them we tried out the Bluetooth association, audio quality, and microphones on each by pairing them to their respective phones, playing music and recording audio from the microphone.
Given the IP ratings, we anticipated the Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds to survive this first test, which they did. Be that as it may, the AirPods, our wild card, shockingly lived to fight another day after passing all three tests with flying colors.
The dunk challenge
Once they had demonstrated they could hold up to the claim, we chose to push all 3 beyond their limits with a dunk test. Mishaps occur, regardless of whether it’s dropping your buds in the sink while doing the dishes, or watching them drop out of your back pocket into the toilet (gasp)we knew we just had to submerge these little guys under water.
We dunked each pair into an unmistakable fish bowl with a foot of water for five seconds. It’s important that the AirPods went around two seconds over as a result of terrible time-keeping on our part. We simply love pushing the AirPods past what they are intended to do.
After fishing each pair out, we got every one of them dry again and used the same three parameters we used in the first challenge to assess the damage.
Shockingly each of the three sets of buds endure the dunk test, with negligible or no harm. Extra harm may appear after some time, however in any event at first they all appeared to be fine.
Both Apple and Samsung have clear warnings on their websites stating you should never deliberately submerge their Bluetooth earphones in water, so certainly don’t try this at home. In any case, if you accidentally do, there’s a good chance they might survive dependent on our outcomes.
The washing machine test
After two rounds of testing and no reasonable victor, we had no real option except to up the ante and put them through hell and back (truly). We took them all to the laundromat to reenact another normal earbud mishap: an outing through the wash.
We removed each arrangement of buds from their cases and zipped them up in a coat pocket before tossing them into isolated clothes washers with a couple of more things that required washing. Each of the three machines were determined to a typical 30-minute cycle with virus water and clothing cleanser.
Once the thirty minutes were up and the spinning had winded down, we took them out and got them dry. Now,they had all been compromised after going through various water encounters. Be that as it may, despite everything they still managed to surprise us.
All three paired consistently to their respective phones off the bat. The Powerbeats had the best solid nature of the three, with practically no distinction in the music playback test. The microphone, be that as it may, sounded progressively curbed in our audio recording at least at the beginning of the clip.
The Galaxy Buds, then again, fared the best as far as the receiver, yet they were the most noticeably awful as far as playback quality. The left side was about indiscernible and the correct side sounded black out even with the volume wrenched to the maximum.
The AirPods landed somewhere in the middle. One of them had lost a great deal of volume, and the other one sounded a bit compromised too, yet they still played music and sounded more intense than the Galaxy Buds. The microphone was a bit muffled, yet nothing excessively genuine.
To give the majority of the earbuds a battling shot, we let them dry out for 48 hours before testing them again to ensure however much dampness vanished as could reasonably be expected. In the wake of watching that all the earbuds were dry, we revived each pair for their situation.