New Delhi, Jan. 9 -- Nobody thinks about water-resistance until the exact second a phone slips out of a hand and taps the surface of a sink or lands in a shallow puddle. That half-second drop is usually followed by an Olympic-level reflex grab and the frantic wiping of water on whatever fabric is closest. Only then does the memory of "IP67" or "IP68" show up - usually with a hopeful question mark attached.

The funny thing is, people tend to treat those ratings like armour, when they're closer to seatbelts - great during accidents, terrible if you start relying on them too much. The lab tests that give phones those numbers are incredibly specific and include still water with controlled pressure or fresh water with no movement. These don't...