This past weekend, I ran the muddiest Spartan Race I’ve ever been on. We’re talking knee-deep mud in several places on the course, and no shortage of slippery conditions no matter where you go, which made me wonder: what if I dropped my foldable phone into this kind of nastiness?
Since the Honor Magic V6 sports the highest durability among any phone today (not just foldables), I figured it would be a perfect candidate for such a test. The IP68 and IP69K ratings mean it can withstand all sorts of nonsense, from being submerged for long periods of time to taking a nasty mud bath and being tossed into a hot dishwasher afterward.
The test sounded good on paper, and I was certainly a bit hesitant to put such a wonderful phone through such torture, but the two of us came out all the better for it. Here’s how the journey went.
That time I dropped my phone in mud
For this test, I went out in my backyard and filled an aluminum cooking pan with dirt, then got it nice and wet with rain barrel water to make a lovely, thick mud. After some hesitation, I dropped the Honor Magic V6 into the mix and got to scrubbing in the worst way possible: with mud. I made sure to get all the ports full of mud, and I even opened the phone to get the inside and the hinge covered, as well.
Afterward, I took it over to the grass to wipe it off a bit and see how well it worked when it was this dirty. After a series of spine-tingling crunches from the hinge as it opened and closed, I took it back over to my rain barrel for a wash-off. I’d rather not have this gunk in my dishwasher, after all, so I might as well clear a bit off before I go inside.
Despite all the abuse, the phone worked perfectly. I even took a few pictures with it before going in. The hinge was still a bit crunchy-sounding by this point, but I figured that would work itself out in the dishwasher. This IP69 rating protects it against water jets and hot water, and it’s fully dustproof, so things should be fine, right?
I purposefully left plenty of room for the phone on the top, so I left it unfolded, loaded the dishwashing soap into the machine, and hit start. I never use heated dry or the extra hot setting for my dishes, so I also kept those off for this test. The dishwasher gets plenty hot without those settings, so we’re still getting a great test here.
After the cycle was about half over, I wanted to make sure the phone was still alive, so I popped it open and gave it a quick test. Everything looked great! Since there was room for another phone in there, I stuck my Honor Magic 8 Pro (no, this article is not sponsored by Honor) in the rack and hit record.
That phone features the IP69K rating, after all. Here’s the brief footage it captured before the water clicked the stop button. Make sure to turn your sound DOWN:
Another hour later, and the dishwasher was finally done. A quick pop of the hatch, a waft of steam later, and a brand new phone emerged from the rack. Unsurprisingly, the phone had an alert message about potential overheating, which makes a lot of sense since dishwashers run at 120-140F (48-60C) while running, depending on the cycle.
Despite the warning, the phone never turned off and doesn’t seem worse for wear because of it. The glass surfaces all had a bit of soap spots left on them, but a brief wipe from the kitchen towel took care of that.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Unfortunately, rubbing mud on the inner display caused the screen protector to gain a few minor scratches. Thankfully, they only appear when held at a certain angle, so I don’t think they’ll annoy me too much while using the phone.
The hinge also makes almost no noise when I open and close it now, a bit of an improvement from when it was slathered in mud. I’m going to assume this will continue to work its way out as I use it. Just to make sure everything functioned correctly, I also took a few pictures of my cat using each of the three cameras on the back.
(Image credit: Android Central)
I don’t see any debris or water damage on any of the lenses, and the pictures look as flawless as always from this phone. I’d say the Honor Magic V6 passed this rather extreme test with flying colors! I guess Honor wasn’t joking when they talked about this one’s durability.
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