PSA: The Galaxy S7 can detect a damp USB port and protect itself from frying

Among the features people came to love about the Galaxy S5 that were removed in the big design overhaul brought by last year’s S6, water resistance was possibly the most noticeable. The plastic ruggedness of the S5 was replaced in favor of a sleeker, more elegant design. But with the Galaxy S7, Samsung managed to bring back the best of both worlds, delivering a gorgeous-looking device with all the functional utility provided by IP68 certification.

In order to protect the phone, it looks like Samsung has built an internal safeguard which is triggered any time remains of water are spotted in the proximity of the microUSB hole. The phone shows a message “moisture detected in the charging port,” which could potentially prevent both the handset and the cable to malfunction or fry altogether. It sounds like a handy feature to have…

But in a curious – and possibly unfortunate – episode, an XDA user reported that his experience with the phone after having used it a few hours for an underwater photoshoot made the device initially unable to charge, showing the above warning message, even though the phone was reportedly dry. When the phone eventually did start topping up its battery again, there was no sign of ‘fast charging’, which normally happens by default.

Samsung naturally offers (fast) wireless charging, too, which could work as a temporary workaround, but if the phone is truly water resistant its USB port should not be rendered useless. Fortunately, other users reported that their phones would charge normally after an hour or so, which sounds reasonable; and in case you were unable to wait for that long, a good old manual cleaning/drying should do the job.

All things considered, while the Galaxy S7 is indeed capable of surviving drops in water (as has been clearly proven — especially thanks to Des from T-Mobile), we wouldn’t necessarily recommend using it for extensive periods of time while submerged. But in case you do, it’s probably a good idea to make sure to have your phone dry before plugging anything in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw0OZ7wZm6U