As we all know, technology and water don't get along particularly well, therefore it is not recommended to take your mobile phone to the beach or pool.
And is that phones are getting more and more powerful, with better technical specifications, better cameras and better battery life, but however few are water resistant.
Now did you know that the first waterproof cell phone was born ten years ago? Do you remember what it was?
Ten years of the first waterproof Android phone: the Motorola Defy
The Motorola Defy was the first waterproof smartphone
That a mobile phone is waterproof is something quite useful even if it is not something quite common. While it is true that in some countries such as Japan - which also shower with smartphones - these devices are commonplace, in most European countries this is not the case.
However, ten years ago we first saw a waterproof Android phone. This is the Motorola Defy, a rather peculiar device, with a rather rough design and this device was focused on selling endurance and not so much on technical specifications.
The Motorola Defy featured a 3,7-inch TFT touchscreen (854 x 40 pixels) with a 107 mm long and 13 mm thick body. Like any good tough cell phone, the screen was scratch-resistant thanks to Gorilla Glass technology.
As for its interior, 512MB of RAM, OMAP3 processor, 2GB of storage and Android 2.2, something that obviously seems insufficient today.
In this sense, the grace of this Motorola Defy was really its degree of protection IP67 which not only made it waterproof but also submersible for 30 minutes up to a depth of one meter, all without the smartphone being affected.
And how did Motorola achieve this 10 years ago? For this, the American company used a plastic body sealing the USB port and headphone jack with rather sturdy rubber plugs. The problem is that the Motorola Defy can only be submerged in water if these plugs have been positioned correctly and is that otherwise the liquid would have entered the device.
Also the slots for SIM, microSD and battery have been hermetically sealed to repel dust and moisture.
Waterproof phones today are much more complete and you no longer need to have plugs to protect the charging ports or the headphone jack, which although it was a pretty smart method for the time, the truth is, it was by no means infallible, as any mistake in its placement and the phone could be rendered useless if submerged in water.
Despite all this, the Motorola Defy was a step forward for the era and it served as the inspiration for the rest of the models that would later hit the market. It might not be the best device of the moment but there is no doubt that if it weren't for this, there might not be any waterproof phones.
