Will Google Pixel 2 Series Phones Be Water-Resistant? Reports Say Yes

Water-resistance is expected to soon become as regular a smartphone feature as a front camera, which is now found on most smartphones. Various flagship devices of 2017, including the Samsung Galaxy S8, iPhone 8 and LG G6 are all expected to be water-resistant.

In fact, it was a surprise that Google didn’t endow its 2016 flagship Pixel device with water resistance. Kelsey McClellan from Wired claimed in his We’re All Talk podcast in October that the phones weren’t waterproof simply because company had run out of time in launching the phones. But it seems that the next generation of the company’s phones will have water resistance.

Stephen Hall, senior editor at 9to5Google, tweeted on Wednesday that Google executives told him in October that waterproofing will be “definitely coming” with the next Pixel device. What’s peculiar though is that Hall claims he had forgotten about this “little tidbit” until now.

In a series of tweets, he further claimed waterproofing was earlier neglected because of an internal conflict in the company between endowing the device with a high-end camera and waterproofing in time for the device launch.

Both of the current Pixel series devices — the Pixel and Pixel XL — come with an IP53 certification which provides limited dust and water protection, a much lower standard compared to other 2016 flagships, the IP67-certified iPhone 7 and IP68-certified Samsung Galaxy S7.

No information of the next Pixel series device has been confirmed by Google but since the device has replaced Google’s Nexus series devices, Pixel 2 is expected to be launched by October 2017.

Google might once again partner with HTC to make the devices. Expected features of the device include a Snapdragon 835 processor, QHD display, dual-camera, 6GB RAM and improved VR compatibility.