How waterproof is the Fairphone 3+?

I want to buy the Fairphone 3+ and I’ve seen reviews saying that Fairphones aren’t waterproof. Does that mean that it will be damaged if I’m just holding it and it starts raining and then I put it away? How waterproof is it exactly? I use my phone for Google Maps a lot, sometimes while it is raining. Is it impossible to do this with the Fairphone 3+? Is there a way I can make it waterproof, with a special phone case or something? Thanks!

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My daughter has just told me she dropped her FP3+ with a case, in the toilet, only for a second and it’s ok. She did do some damage control. Still a prolonged wetting will allow dampness to get inside and if it isn’t dried well it will evaporate inside the phone and produce future problems, with a week or so maybe.

As for a special case. If you want to go swimming you can get sealed bags for phones but there is no fool proof casual case.

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It is not waterproof. It is designed so you can open and repair it yourself, so there are ways for water or moisture to get inside and do damage.

Some occasional droplets of water on the display or on the case should have no effect as long as they don’t get to an opening, but some users reported their phone to be negatively affected by just having it out in moist or damp conditions over some time, so it seems it’s better to shield it from too much moisture.

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Oh ok that seems impractical though if it’s going to get damaged by a little rain! Since it’s very hard to make sure rain never goes on your screen :0

Ahhh ok, glad her phone was fine!

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Well it’s early days! If there’s any moisture inside still it can evaporate and cause delayed problems :crossed_fingers:

It should be fine with a little rain, but what is a little?

Well, the phone is around for more than one and a half year now, and judging by this forum it doesn’t seem to be a problem many users have.

I had some rain drops on my display more than once, and everything works just fine. But if you are planning to really expose the phone to rain for a while, this just doesn’t seem to be a sensible thing to do without protective measures, and I personally wouldn’t do this with any other non-waterproof phone either.

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Ahh ok, it’s just that I’ve had my £100 Samsung J3 for 2.5 years now and I’d always get rain on it because I’d use Google Maps while it’s raining and only now is my phone slowing down and needing replacement.

A phone slowing down usually is a sign of an OS installation becoming cluttered over time with lots of Apps or phone storage simply filling up.

Freeing up storage and, if necessary, backing up your important data and doing a factory reset might get you back a snappy phone without having to replace it :wink: .

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There was a test in the German consumer test journal “test - Stiftung Warentest”, where the FP3 was bad rated because of a failure in the rain test (short rain). I wondered if there would be some postings here, obviously there were not.
Strange: in the next test, six months later, the FP3+ got a better rating: only one of three devices got broken in the rain test. But I’m sure, the FP3+ is not so different to give a reason for that behaviour.

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Would be ‘interesting’ to see the ref to the test you later refer to.

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Ahh thank you! The problem is I barely have any apps left, even after deleting important ones like banking apps, and most of the photos are on my SD card or in Google Photos rather than in the phone’s storage. So I think now it’s time for me to just invest in a better phone. :slight_smile:

The test is not available for free, so I did’t give a link. Nevertheless there is no further explanation about the test conditions, so I think it’s more or less by chance that a phone failed in this test.

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