The IP Rating Reality Index
"IP68" is not one number — IEC 60529 only requires the '8' digit to mean deeper than 1 meter, with the exact depth and duration declared by the manufacturer. This dataset aggregates those actual declared figures, per product, into one comparable table: depth, duration, test medium, salt-water coverage, and whether liquid damage is covered under warranty even when the rating is genuine.
The one thing to know: Two products can both say "IP68" while one is tested to 1.5 meters and the other to 6 meters — a 4x difference hidden behind the identical two characters on the box.
The Reality Index table
| Product | Brand | Category | Marketed rating | Declared depth | Declared duration | Test medium | Salt water covered? | Liquid damage under warranty? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 15 | Apple | Smartphone | IP68 | 6 m | 30 min | Fresh water only | No | No | Apple support (111831, 109350) |
| Galaxy S24 Ultra | Samsung | Smartphone | IP68 | 1.5 m | 30 min | Fresh water only | No | No | Samsung support |
| Pixel 8 Pro | Smartphone | IP68 | 1.5 m | 30 min | Fresh water only | No | Not disclosed | Google Store spec sheet | |
| Charge 5 | JBL | Bluetooth speaker | IP67 | 1 m | 30 min | Fresh water only | No | Not disclosed | JBL support (IP67 info page) |
| BOOM 3 | Ultimate Ears | Bluetooth speaker | IP67 | 1 m | 30 min | Fresh water only | No | Not disclosed | Ultimate Ears spec sheet |
| WF-1000XM5 | Sony | Earbuds | IPX4 | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Fresh water (splash only) | No | Not disclosed | Sony help guide |
| AirPods Pro 2 | Apple | Earbuds | IP54 | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Fresh water (splash only) | No | No | Apple support (111834, 105046) |
| FRE Case (iPhone) | LifeProof | Rugged case | IP68 | 2 m | 60 min | Fresh water only | No | N/A — 3rd-party case warranty | LifeProof product listing |
| HERO12 Black | GoPro | Action camera | Not IP-coded (proprietary claim) | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Fresh water (per marketing) | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | GoPro product page |
| Apple Watch Series 9 | Apple | Smartwatch | IP6X (dust) + WR50 (water, ISO 22810) | Not applicable — depth-equivalent rating | Not applicable | Fresh + shallow salt water | Partial (shallow swimming only) | No | Apple support (109522) |
| fenix 7 | Garmin | Smartwatch | Not IP-coded (10 ATM, ISO 22810) | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Garmin owner's manual |
| Charge 6 | Fitbit (Google) | Fitness tracker | Not IP-coded (50 m claim) | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Fitbit product page |
License: CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution
The IP Rating Reality Index is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. You may reuse, redistribute, and build on this dataset for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you credit IP68 Decoded.
How to cite
IP68 Decoded. "IP Rating Reality Index," version 1.0, published July 30, 2026. Available at https://ip68-decoded.pages.dev/ip-rating-reality-index/. CC BY 4.0.
Methodology & versioning
Version 1.0 — published July 30, 2026. Every figure traces to a manufacturer support page or product spec sheet named in the Source column; we do not test any device ourselves and do not publish figures we could not verify against a named source. Where a manufacturer does not publish a depth, duration, or warranty detail, we record it as "Not disclosed" (or "Not applicable" when the product uses a different standard, like ISO 22810's ATM/meter rating for wearables, instead of an IEC 60529 IP code) rather than guessing. Corrections: if a manufacturer updates a spec or we find an error, this page and both CSVs are updated in place and the version/date bumped — see How We Evaluate.
Machine-readable download: current table at /ip-rating-reality-index.csv, version-pinned copy at /ip-rating-reality-index-v1.0.csv, condensed digest in /llms-full.txt.
Caveats — read before citing a number
- Ratings are lab tests on new devices. Seals degrade with age, drops, temperature cycling, and charging-port wear — a rating is not a durable, lifelong promise. See our degradation explainer.
- Almost every rating here is fresh water only. Salt water and chlorinated pool water are both harsher on seals and electronics than the fresh water used in the standard IP68 test.
- "Not IP-coded" does not mean unprotected — some wearables use ISO 22810's ATM/meter system instead of an IEC 60529 IP code; the two systems are not directly interchangeable.
- Liquid damage is usually excluded from warranty even on genuinely IP68-rated devices, per the manufacturers we could confirm directly.
- This dataset is a reference of published specifications, not a safety, injury, or durability guarantee for any specific unit.
Frequently Asked Questions
A versioned dataset that aggregates the manufacturer-declared depth, duration, test medium, salt-water coverage, and warranty status behind the IP rating badge for popular waterproof consumer electronics. Manufacturers publish these facts individually; nobody had put them in one comparable table before this dataset.
Because that IS the finding. IPX4 has no depth or duration figure in IEC 60529 — it only tests splashing, not immersion, so there is nothing to disclose. For some wearables, brands publish an ATM or meter figure under ISO 22810 rather than an IEC 60529 IP code at all, so there's no IP depth/duration to report. We use a uniform 'Not disclosed' or 'Not applicable' token rather than guessing or leaving a blank cell.
Because IEC 60529 does not assign a fixed depth or time to the '8' digit — it only requires 'deeper than 1 meter,' with the exact depth and duration set by agreement between the manufacturer and the testing body. Apple tests the iPhone 15 to 6 meters for 30 minutes; Samsung tests the Galaxy S24 to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. Both are legitimately 'IP68.'
Almost every row is fresh-water-only, which we list explicitly. Salt water and chlorinated pool water are both harsher on seals and electronics than the fresh water used in standard IP68 lab tests, and most consumer electronics warranties exclude damage from either.
For the two manufacturers we could confirm directly (Apple and Samsung), no — both explicitly state that liquid damage is excluded from the standard warranty even on IP68-rated devices, because water/dust resistance is not considered a permanent condition. For rows marked 'Not disclosed' we have not independently confirmed the warranty text and do not want to imply coverage that may not exist.