Waterproof phones have been a long time coming, and we finally have the first models that aren't ruggedized clunkers—these new submergible phones looks and work like their water-averse counterparts. We take three of the latest for a dip.
Sony Xperia Z
The Xperia Z is the most elegant-looking of the bunch, and its functionality is nearly as good as the S4's (also reviewed here). But its sharp, angular lines make one-handed operation uncomfortable, and opening the tiny protective flaps that shield the charging and headphone ports requires some tricky fingernail maneuvering. We also find the user-interface design a touch cheesy, and the 13-megapixel camera—which takes quick and clear shots—tends to give images a blue tinge.
Kyocera Hydro Edge
The Hydro Edge offers the best solution to keeping water out of the charging port, which opens and closes with the flip of a switch, and the phone is inexpensive. Unfortunately, the positive aspects of this device stop there. Supported by the spartan Sprint network and its poor 4G LTE coverage, and powered by a dinky 1-GHz processor, the Hydro Edge is just plain slow. Though its screen is almost the same shape as the 5-inch iPhone display, it looks overcrowded, because it's a widget-supporting Android phone with awkwardly shrunken app-name text.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
Samsung comes out at the head of the Android-phone pack with the water-resistant version of its Galaxy S4 smartphone. The S4 Active doesn't have the crystal-clear OLED screen of the regular S4, but its 441 pixels per inch look plenty good—even submerged, where you can use the Aqua Mode camera setting to choose a physical button to control the shutter (since the screen is disabled underwater, like on the other phones). In addition to being the most comfortable to hold and use, the S4 Active, with a 1.9-GHz quad-core processor, is also the fastest in our test.