P2i Nano-coating: Built-in water protection for smartphones and tablets

With 61 per cent of us using our phones in the bathroom, it is just as well that P2i has developed Dunkable™ - a hydrophobic barrier technology which protects smartphones and tablets from accidental prolonged water exposure.

The technology has come just in time as a new survey* from P2i, world leader in liquid repellent nano-coating technology, shows that more people are taking their smartphones out and about into potentially water hazardous environments. 

Over 70 per cent admitted to taking their phone in the rain, while the number of people with their phones out in pubs or cafés increased 19 percentage points; from 67 per cent in 2012 to 86 per cent in 2013. Not surprisingly, 43 per cent had accidently water damaged their phone. 

P2i is already protecting tens of millions of devices with its splash-proof nano-coating for brands including Motorola and Alcatel One Touch, and is working with pioneering partners to commercialise the Dunkable™ process.

* The research for P2i was carried out by Opinion Matters between: 24 / 04 / 2013 and 03 / 05 / 2013, from a sample of 3786 mobile phone users 18+ across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the US.

MWC 2013: A look at the Dunkable™ and splash-proof technologies

Author Bio: Matt Powell is the editor for the UK broadband, smartphone and tablet information site Broadband Genie. 

Mobile World Congress is the largest mobile technology trade show in the world and traditionally it’s been the place where phone companies show off new releases.

However this year HTC and Sony revealed their latest smartphones a few weeks in advance of MWC, while Samsung kept the Galaxy S4 for a separate event in New York. What’s the point, critics said, of spending all this time and money on a huge event if the block-busting hardware has already been unveiled?

But MWC is about more than a few headline superphones. There were hundreds of exhibitors demonstrating all kinds of interesting new mobile technology, and focusing solely on the big players could mean missing out on some really important advancements, like P2i and its water-repelling nanotechnology.

Plenty of mobile phones offer water-proofing, but in most cases this involves wrapping the phone in a thick layer of rubber and sealing up all the ports. This is effective but it’s not usually attractive.

The P2i solution is far more elegant. The firm can take any mobile phone (or indeed almost any solid object) and coat it with a water-repelling coating.

No doubt, this was one of the most impressive demonstrations at Mobile World Congress.

It helped that the P2i stand had an attention grabbing setup: immersed in a tray of water was a Samsung Galaxy S3, powered on and running normally. Even more surprising, the rear cover of the S3 had been removed so the battery was fully exposed.   You can see the full demonstration by P2i on the Broadband Genie blog.

The S3 had been treated with Dunkable™, the latest form of P2i’s technology. This protects handsets to IPx7 standards, which requires devices to survive a metre of water for 30 minutes, though the timer on the S3 suggested it had been underwater for a lot longer than that.

As the phone was lifted out, the water droplets just slid off, and once the screen had been dried, it functioned as normal.

Unfortunately, as it’s a new development Dunkable™ is not yet available on any hardware. So what could P2i do for us smartphone users right now?

The answer is its first commercial splash-proof product. This offers protection against splashes and spills, and like Dunkable™, water simply slides off treated surfaces. While you can’t leave a handset immersed for a long period, it can survive everyday incidents that would kill unprotected devices.

The splash-proof coating is already used on recent Motorola RAZR smartphones. Like the RAZR i which I’d been carrying around for the last few months; turns out I was already a splash-proof user and hadn’t even realised.

P2i can make a real difference to both manufacturers and end-users. We get water-resistant phones without the ugly bulk of typical ruggedised handsets, while manufacturers are free to design phones without having to worry about needing to adapt the design to “build in” liquid protection.

The challenge at the moment is getting the technology onto handsets, and in this, P2i could learn from the likes of Corning.  

Gorilla Glass is now the standard for toughened phone displays, and it’s become a selling point. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware that a smartphone with Corning Gorilla Glass means it’s well protected against scratches and falls.

If P2i is able to build its brand awareness to the point where consumers base their buying decisions on its inclusion, they’ll be able to attract more manufacturers and we’ll get to a point where technologies like the splash-proof coating and Dunkable™ are used as a matter of course. Then we won’t need to worry as much when our smartphones take a swim in the toilet bowl.

The Gadget Show Future Special

There’s a look of genuine concern on Jason Bradbury’s face as he says, “…are you ready for this? 500 quid in the drink”, and places the Samsung Galaxy SIII into a flask of water. Now we all know electronics and water don’t mix, but Jason is showing off Dunkable™, the latest nano-coating technology from P2i, so we are confident everything will go well.

You see Dunkable™ is a hydrophobic barrier coating which means that not only does it combat forces like capillary action (which would draw the water throughout the internals of the device) but it also acts as a barrier to stop the water and the electronics interacting at the molecular level.  

The result is that Polly and Jason can maintain a Skype video call underwater. See The Gadget Show website to watch the clip for yourself:

After the show we received a number of emails, tweets and Facebook comments, all asking where people could get their phones treated, and how much it would cost. And this is where the title of the show comes into play… “Future Special”.

What the show was, well, showing, is that P2i has developed the technology to protect devices from water damage. But now comes the futuristic part, as we look to major manufacturers to incorporate the technology into the manufacturing process. So you won’t need to pay extra to add this feature to your device, it will come as standard!

In fact, our splash-proof nano-coating technology already comes as standard on Motorola smartphones and tablets. So you can rest assured it’s protected from everyday accidental splashes and spills. In January we also announced a partnership with Alcatel who are rolling out the splash-proof technology onto their latest range of smartphones.

So although you can’t buy a phone with Dunkable™ on it yet, the future may not be that far away…

P2i at Mobile World Congress

In some ways, Mobile World Congress (MWC) is like a storm, descending on Barcelona each year, bringing thousands of the world’s leading mobile technology experts and brands, to the four day event. 

From dawn we begin to congregate at the exhibition center, like ants scurrying to be in the nest before the rain hits - only to return to the outside world again at dusk, looking like a wave of zombies, exhausted from the days exciting events.

Inside the halls the bright lights show off extravagant displays with the latest model phones and tablets for all to see. There is one booth that stands out as being a little different this year. The feature on this booth is not a phone per say but … a toilet. 

At MWC P2i is previewing its very latest technology. Named Dunkable™, this tech provides protection against accidental submergence, offering what is known in the industry as an IPx7 rating. This means the phone can survive being under one meter of water for half an hour. 

See for yourself in this video as P2i's Chief Technical Officer (the guy who invented the technology) dunks a phone in the loo: