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Samsung Galaxy S7 Active Fails Consumer Reports Water-Resistance Test (consumerreports.org)
An anonymous reader writes: The Samsung Galaxy S7 Active is apparently not-so-active. It should be the more durable version of the Galaxy S7 family but apparently it's not. Because of this, Consumer reports is not going to mark it as "Recommended" even though it performed very well in all the other tests it ran. [Jerry Beilinson writes from Consumer Reports:] "Consumer Reports technicians placed a Galaxy S7 Active in a water tank pressurized to 2.12 pounds-per-square-inch, the equivalent of just under five feet of water, and set a timer for 30 minutes. When we removed the phone, the screen was obscured by green lines, and tiny bubbles were visible in the lenses of the front- and rear-facing cameras. The touchscreen wasn't responsive. Following our standard procedure when a sample fails an immersion test, we submitted a second Galaxy S7 Active to the same test. That phone failed as well. After we removed it from the tank, the screen cycled on and off every few seconds, and moisture could be seen in the front and back camera lenses. We also noticed water in the slot holding the SIM card. For a couple of days following the test, the screens of both phones would light up when the phones were plugged in, though the displays could not be read. The phones never returned to functionality." Samsung has said "The Samsung Galaxy S7 active device is one of the most rugged phones to date and is highly resistant to scratches and IP68 certified. There may be an off-chance that a defective device is not as watertight as it should be." Although, given the fact that Consumer Reports tested multiple devices, Samsung could have a widespread issue on their hands. They company said it is investigating the issue.
Is this the phone that they featured in a TV commercial that have people pouring champagne on it and dipping into an aquarium? I don't like the idea of a water resistant phone. I have some friends who won't turn off their phones and insist on taking every call they get while I'm talking with them. Very annoying. Tossing their phones into my 25-gallon fish tank was very effective deterrent to this behavior.
Well I'm glad I saw this article because I've recently been thinking about buying this phone. I really want a waterproof phone and was really disappointed with the experience of an iPhone in a Lifeproof case. It's weird that the S7 is actually tougher than the S7 Active. One thing that's missing from all the specs and reviews I've seen is how often it's rated for immersion. Is it 30 minutes over the life of the phone or 30 minutes per day or something else.
The S5 was advertised as being waterproof as well, and advertisements had people taking selfies underwater. Mine didn't survive a single splash of water that must've gotten it rather wet for several seconds.
I took it to the repair guy (screen needed to be replaced, if I recall). He told me he was repairing the s5 for water damage all the time.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Is that ridiculous rate worse than what they expected? Being the best choice is not the same as being a good choice - the phrase "best of a bad lot" came from somewhere, and I think you could likely apply that to an inkjet printer without being off-base.
fencepost
just a little off
The use of hygroscopic products to speed up drying is actually based on a misconception, or at least, not as effective as you might think.
The rate of evaporation is proportional to the product D*(p_vp-p_env), where D is the diffusion coefficient of the vapor molecules in air, p_vp the vapor pressure (partial pressure of saturated vapor), and p_env the partial pressure of vapor in the environment.
A desiccant will lower p_env to zero, so it will help a bit; for example, the p difference is (2.4-1.2) kPa at 20 C, 50% relative humidity, increasing to (2.4-0) with a desiccant, a factor 2 increase. However, putting it in a warm place will increase both D (a bit) and p_vp (a lot). Heating it to 50 C in the same environment will increase the p difference to (12.3-1.2), a factor 9 increase. Additionally, D will increase by a factor 1.2. A phone that is switched off should be able to handle such temperatures, so putting it on top of the cable modem is cheaper and more effective.
Even better would be to dry it in vacuum; that will increase the D parameter tremendously. But most people don't have that at home, although I suppose that some creativity with a wine preserver pump might get you somewhere.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
Consumer Reports AFAIAC is a borderline scam.
Consumer Reports used to be an unimpeachable source of reliable information, but now they are, as you said, a borderline scam.
Their car-buying info service used to be great, but car manufacturers changed the rules so that Consumer Reports couldn't provide the same level of useful "inside" info. Rather than drop the service and admit defeat, Consumer Reports contracted with a crap-ass web company that *claims* to provide the same info but in fact is just a shill for local dealers.
It's called "TrueCar", and they're just another bunch of shitballs who want all your info so they can shop you to the car dealers in your area. (Consumer Reports gets paid for this by the dealers, of course.)
What this means is that they have your number before you even get started, which puts you at a huge disadvantage. The moment you give a dealer your phone number they look in the TrueCar database for the bullshit prices you've been quoted and you lose most of your bargaining advantage right there. You're screwed before you start.
You don't need their lame service and you can do just as well on your own by following a few simple rules:
Find the MSRP and use that as a starting point. You may even be able to bargain below MSRP if you know what you're doing.
Call dealers and get quotes, don't ever waste your time going to them in person and letting them ratfuck you for hours. You have better things to do, right? Instead, make the dealers fight each other and go with the one that gives you the best quote. Get quotes, call them all back with the lowest quote, and let them try to beat that. Lather, rinse, repeat until you've hit rock bottom.
Always ask for the "out the door" price, i.e. the car plus taxes, license, etc etc. This is what you care about, the final *real* price.
Never EVER bargain for a lower payment, bargain for a lower price on the car. A lot of people fall for this one.
Be aware of holdbacks, dealer fees, dealer incentives, advertising fees, and the add-on crap dealers will always try to stick you with. For example, $545 for a "Lexus Dealer Advertising" fee? Fuck no, make them take it off. Why should YOU pay for dealer advertising, that's part of their business expense. $350 for floormats? Fuck no, take them out. Undercoating? No. Anti-chip coating? No. Pay for 2 years of oil changes up front? No no NO.
$150 for a "Document fee"? Fuck no, that's just them filling out the paperwork, WHICH IS PART OF THEIR FUCKING JOB, HELLO? They have to fill out the paperwork to sell you a car, so why in the world would YOU pay for THEM to do this?
And so on. I saved ~$3800 buying my wife's car recently just by pitting the dealers against each other and striking off these bogus charges. You can too.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I don't recommend the vacuum pump...
I dropped my phone in a 6' deep evaporative cooler tank and it took 15 minutes to fish it out. I ran up to the lab and took the rotor out of our vacuum concentrator and switched it on. Things looked fine for a couple minutes, but then the back of the phone started swelling and it was the battery bulging... I switched it off and it "deflated." The phone also worked (still using it now, in fact), but the battery life was halved.
It wasn't in there long enough to evaporate all the water, but the back was already partially popped so I took it off and stuck in an incubator at 42C for a day.
Brother color laser, under $300 now. Deep sleep draws a couple of watts. Wireless. The only issue is that we end up piling shit on it and when we go to print it jams because the paper can't come out.
Had it for more than a year now. Use it maybe once a month, if that. Every time, as long as we haven't piled shit on it, it wakes up, warms up, spits out awesome color or B&W sheets, and then goes back to sleep. It's a fucking appliance and works like one. I fully expect it to be kicking ass like this 5 years from now, if the ancient brother B&W USB laser I had is any indication. I put more than 10k sheets through that over almost a decade. Rock solid the entire time. Sure, toner is expensive. But when you only buy it every couple of years, it's way cheeper than ink. And it doesn't go bad.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor