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What is IPX7? The water resistance rating explained
In This Article
If you’re looking to pick up a new pair of earbuds, a speaker or another device, you may have come across the term ‘IPX7’.
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about this important spec.
What is IPX7?
IPX7 is anIP (Ingress Protection) ratingthat signifies a relatively high level of protection against liquids but no stated protection against solids.
To explain what exactly IPX7 means for your device, we first need to understand what an IP rating is and how the popular rating system works.
Attaching an IP rating to a device is one way that a company can guarantee a certain level of durability and waterproofing to its consumers. This is done by measuring the effectiveness of the device’s seal at keeping solids (dust) and liquids (water) out of the chassis.
The results are measured on a scale of 0 to 6 for solids and 0 to 9 for liquids, with 0 being the lowest possible score and indicating the device offers no protection at all. Solids come first, followed by liquids.
You can read the description for each score in the table created by theIEC(International Electrotechnical Commission) below.
There’s also the possibility of an X in an IP rating, which is present in the case of IPX7. An X means that a device has not been tested for its durability against either solids or liquids and thus you should not expect any level of protection against that material.
In the instance of IPX7, the X comes first followed by the 7. This means that the device in question has not been tested for its protection against solid intrusions but has scored a 7 for its protection against liquids. A rating of 7 means the device is protected against liquids when fully immersed at depths between 15 cm and 1 metre for a period of up to 30 minutes at a time.
What devices are rated IPX7?
IPX7 is an IP rating commonly found across earbuds, including some of our favouritewireless earbudsandrunning earbuds, theBack Bay Tempoand theAvantree E171.
The IP rating is less common on smartphones these days as most flagship handsets – such as theiPhone 15and theSamsung Galaxy S24– carry a higher IP rating ofIP68.
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Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. She’s also worked and studied in the US, holding positions …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
