iPhones are not waterproof

[petshark]

I have an XS Max on a Tackform holder and after reading up on possible issues with vibrations I first contacted tackform and asked how much support tickets they had about vibration issues. I was on a parallel twin (versys 650) at the time which is intermediate in the vibrations department.

They reported that the image stabilizer issues were all on iPhone 11's so I just decided to go for it in the last months of warranty. After 8000 km this year, no issue whatsoever.

Yesterday I get caught out in the rain and after going in a shop (to get the Rev'it Sand 3 gloves @Cruizin 😉 ) all was still fine but I decided to keep my phone in my pocket just in case. On my next stop I found that the phone was caught in reboot loop.

The phone seemed unrecoverable so I put in in a closed container of couscous (like rice) for 12 hours to try and absorb all moisture. The next morning the container had created a nice vacuum and against all hope the phone works again but... Face ID is dead. The dot projector is next to impossible to fix so I'll just live with it. Turns out that this is a known issue and there is no warranty on the waterproofing of the iphone.

I was so concerned with all the camera stabilization reports that I completely missed that these things are not waterproof at all. I actually thought you could swim with these.

Quote

The iPhone XS is the first member of the lineup to sport an IP68 water resistance rating. This means that the iPhone XS is protected against "harmful dust," as well as submersion in more than one meter of water for up to 30 minutes.

The only way I see how drops of rain could penetrate a device that should resist water submersion for 30 minutes is perhaps the vibrations (again) that shake the drops deeper and deeper.

[fddriver2]

I have a Samsung S-10+ a $1,000 phone at the time. There is no way I'm putting it on the handlebar. If I need directions I use Google maps and listen to the verbal directions on a set of earbuds while it is in a safer spot like an inside pocket of my riding jacket. YMMV. 

For years now I have been using cheap used automobile GPS. Ram mount makes a mount for almost every GPS made. With a little silicone caulk they last a very long time.

Motorcycle GPS: Why your phone isn't good enough

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[petshark]

This phone cost 1400 euro in 2018 = 1700 $. I have full confidence in the Tackform holder and it’s very low profile so I’m quite happy with my setup, just very surprised that rain can hurt a phone that is supposed to be waterproof.  

I live in such a dense country with so much traffic that I need Waze to get somewhere on time. I have many more reasons to want just one device to do it all so I will just continue to use it as before but put it in my pocket when it rains and listen to instructions on my Cardo in my helmet. But that will cause some rerouting as many junctions are too complex without a visual guide.

[chitown]

Have used phones, cheap auto units, and zumos. Phones are great up to a point but I've killed a few and they weren't inexpensive. The weak point of the automotive GPS' is often the charging interface. The Zumos were pricey when new, but are rocks. They've been tossed down in gravel, dirt, and on concrete. Gloved operation easy. The first one from 2006 is still working, screen digitizer had to be replaced with a cheap part from ebay at some point. The second one was bought inexpensively on closeout and is six years old. The '05 model won't take map updates but they aren't very necessary unless in areas of new development. Given how hard I am on things and the cost per year of life, I like the Zumos. YMMV. 

[betoney]

2 hours ago, chitown said:

The weak point of the automotive GPS' is often the charging interface.

I currently have Garmin "Nuvi", "Drive", and "DriveSmart" models as do a few of my riding buddies, what we all have found is they are very inconsistent when using the supplied 12v charger cord in the cigarette type outlets. 

Once they are hardwired I have not encountered a problem since.  Splice it into the switched 12v aux wiring behind the screen and it turns on and off with the ignition key.

https://www.gpscity.com/garmin-usb-power-cable

[fddriver2]

I understand the need for a visual reference sometimes. 

That's why I was using the cheap garmin nuvi's. You could buy them used for $25 on facebook marketplace. I almost never bothered to take them off the bike, and no one ever messed with them. 

I got a garmin Zumo 595LM for Christmas and now I have theft anxiety. 🥺

 

[knyte]

I tried a Galaxy S8 on the handlebars for a while - waterproof phone.

And yet, if there's a bit of rain, a raindrop can mess up the map / app on screen.  Eventually (because of rain, I think) the charge port messed up (still charges though) but the cellular radio failed - turns out they're integrated.

That, plus the cost of replacing the phone, led me to a dedicated GPS.  The Zumo isn't perfect (no Waze), but the absence of alerts, popups, fiddling with gloves/touchscreen issues - ahh bliss.  Peace and quiet.  Just riding with no distractions or system analysis.

[daboo]

When I bought my first smartphone several years ago, I had visions of it doing double-duty.  It could be my GPS and also all the smart phone things.

But then reality hit in.  On the first trip that I took it, it rained.  Hard.  For hours and hours.  Since this was a new Note 4, it was about $700...and I wasn't going to take a chance with it.  Plus, I was using one of those X-Grip RAM mounts.  Nice, but to tether it was really time-consuming.  It would probably take five minutes to put the tether around the phone and get it positioned so the X-Grip feet weren't pressing any buttons.  And this would need to happen each time I stopped for a picture or a toilet break at a gas station.  

I wanted a reliable GPS for my post-retirement ride, and eventually coughed up the $550 for the Garmin 595LM.  To me, the potential for spending valuable time on the side of the road trying to figure out where I was and where I was going made the investment worthwhile.

I kept the 595LM for years till last summer when it fell off the bike.  I didn't fasten it well in the mount.  I ended up replacing it with a Zumo XT, and not regretting it a bit.  And I added a tether to the GPS.  Just an old camera strap, but it'll keep it with the bike in case it doesn't lock in the mount.

 

One of the places where I think any smartphone will fail at, is in extreme heat.  You're in the sun and the screen brightness is up on high.  The phone is in the direct sunlight soaking up all the heat from the sun.  The GPS is doing its thing.  And the processor is running at max to keep up.  I've read posts where even the Kyocera Duraforce will shut down, if it is hot enough.

You'll immediately think to yourself, but I don't live where it gets really hot.  Neither do I.  I live north of Seattle.  75F is perfect.  When it hits 80F, I'm looking for shade.  But each year, I end up riding out of state to some fabulous roads in triple digit temperatures.

Last summer, I was headed to John Day, OR for a get together with about 30 Kawasaki riders.  We're going through Eastern Oregon and the temps started climbing.  We hit @112F for a couple hours.  It would suck being out in the middle of nowhere in temps that'll give you heat stroke if you stop to cool down your phone so you know where you're going...especially if the gas level is in the lower portion of the gauge.

Chris

[chitown]

18 hours ago, daboo said:

It would suck being out in the middle of nowhere in temps that'll give you heat stroke if you stop to cool down your phone so you know where you're going...especially if the gas level is in the lower portion of the gauge.

The first time I saw the iPhone's overheat thermometer image was riding in central CA. Was using it for nav and waiting for a text to intercept a couple riders coming from another direction. Doah!

[petshark]

I have yet to see the the overheat thermometer on this phone even though we had a heat wave last summer. Perhaps because it's big it also cools well in the wind. As with the rain I will just put it in my pocket under these extreme circumstances but use it on the handlebar most of the time.

I really appreciate the advice and the great ideas concerning the dedicated car and bike gps systems. I have looked at all these before but I'll explain why I don't want to go that route.

When I started doing planned routes any trip I did was plagued with closed roads, changed intersections, etc. My country is so densely populated that the roads are always in need of repair and there is a constant cat-and-mouse game between the GPS' shortest routes and the cities who in turn close streets, make them one-way, change the speed limit to ridiculous low speeds and so on.

I used to have a Tomtom in my car and would go for that but the 550 gets some of the worst review scores I have ever seen for a popular device on Germany's biggest online motorcycle store (louis.eu). Most complaints are about the online connectivity and that is what I need the most. Just using year old maps is a nightmare in this part of the world. I have tried it.

I follow one of my favourite vloggers Andymancam travelling through Europe and he absolutely hates his Garmin, it's messing up his routes constantly and you can see it happening in the video's.

This is a West-European problem but I can't find any device that gives me the functionality that I need. Constant real-time crowd-sourced recalculations of the best route available to navigate through the endless traffic jams, changed and closed roads.

When I go touring, I have found a procedure using several online services to come up with a gpx file that I can load into the Scenic app on my phone. So I have no realtime info but I have manually edited my tour (last-minute) to use only curvy scenic roads and circumvent any closed roads. This works well for me. If I need to get somewhere on time Waze is the only thing that works for me, anything else cannot calculate the delays accurately.

I have given this a lot of thought and experimented with a lot of apps to get what I need I would gladly spend money on a dedicated GPS but there are none at this time that come close to the functionality I have now. I would ditch Waze in a minute if I could because I don't like Google recording what I'm doing all the time, but it just is the only thing that works. So hopefully TT and Garmin will catch up but from what I read their devices seem to get worse not better. YMMV.

[mingo]

Some motorcycles' vibrations are known to kill the image stabilization of some mobile phones from Apple to Android. What works for me is the Quad Lock vibrations damper, with a Quad Lock case and rain cover. No issues at all in the rain, as I also prefer using navigation apps such as Waze with real time traffic updates than using my Garmin GPS. 

[Waldo Jeffers]

29 minutes ago, mingo said:

Some motorcycles' vibrations are known to kill the image stabilization of some mobile phones from Apple to Android. What works for me is the Quad Lock vibrations damper, with a Quad Lock case and rain cover. No issues at all in the rain, as I also prefer using navigation apps such as Waze with real time traffic updates than using my Garmin GPS. 

This! Had to get a new iPhone 11 after the camera went berserkers after a ride. Thankfully I had insurance. I will now be using a TomTom. 

[PhotoAl]

On my old bike my iPhone Xs developed an image stabilization issue.  It has pretty much resolved since but on occasion i have an issue and its been a year and a half.  The Tracer 900 GT does not have as much vibration but before the last trip I got a Zumo XT which I generally like but have had a couple of misses on directions - construction zones are tricky anyway.  I've used an old car Garmin or TomTom but certainly understand @petshark's issue.  My new car has Apple CarPlay which has worked well for navigation the couple of times I've used it.  Would be nice if something like that could be adapted to a motorcycle navigation.  

[petshark]

8 hours ago, PhotoAl said:

On my old bike my iPhone Xs developed an image stabilization issue.  It has pretty much resolved since but on occasion i have an issue and its been a year and a half.  The Tracer 900 GT does not have as much vibration but before the last trip I got a Zumo XT which I generally like but have had a couple of misses on directions - construction zones are tricky anyway.  I've used an old car Garmin or TomTom but certainly understand @petshark's issue.  My new car has Apple CarPlay which has worked well for navigation the couple of times I've used it.  Would be nice if something like that could be adapted to a motorcycle navigation.  

It’s on the new goldwing as a top tier option.

Just heard about it yesterday on the highside/lowside podcast as an example of taking things too far. 😀

I agree with them that I don’t want all that connectivity on my dashboard when riding a motorcycle but having those navigation options integrated would be awesome. Using car mode in iOS solves that issue.

Edited February 4, 2021 by petshark

[keithu]

On 1/30/2021 at 12:33 PM, daboo said:

I've read posts where even the Kyocera Duraforce will shut down, if it is hot enough.

 

You read correctly. I've had two Kyoceras, the original Duraforce and later a Duraforce Pro. While they are very much waterproof they really aren't up to the task of long-distance navigation. Even in mild temps Google Maps used so much processing power on my Kyocera phones that the battery would discharge even with the phone plugged in to a charger.

I love having a ruggedized waterproof phone, but the Kyoceras are so buggy I actively recommend against them now. Their phones are bombproof but their implementation of the Android OS is a terrible mess. 

I now have a Blackview BV5500 Pro, another ruggedized waterproof phone. It doesn't have the greatest performance either, and it's virtually useless for navigation. But it's waaaayyyy less buggy than the Kyocera phones and only cost $140 unlocked. This phone, my Garmin 396, and my Fujifilm X30 camera all together still cost less than my wife's Galaxy S10, which after 2.5 years is close to EOL.