A Warning to ALL GALAXY S4 ACTIVE USERS!!!!

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nerdfacenyan

Guest
Radio Shack employee here and I use my personal Active as a water demo daily and ive yet to have an issue. Seems to be a YMMV sort of deal. Ive received no formal training either.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using xda app-developers app
 

pyro254750

Senior Member
May 17, 2009
390
129
There's a lot of misinformation flying around about this device. People keep saying is not designed to be water proof which is absurd. It is most definitely designed to be water proof. It is also marketed to be water proof. Anyone who says otherwise needs to take a close look at the ip67 standard.

Think about when waterproof watches first came out. Half of them leaked. Now they are everywhere and never leak. Things will get better with time. Part of being on the cutting edge of technology is more inconsistency. I can't say I'm happy with Samsung choice to only replace the device once for failing to do what is designed to do, but I can't say I'm surprised either. This is exactly why I purchased the device where I could get insurance that covers water damage.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 

wamsille

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2009
229
33
Standards aside, all AT&T and Samsung are going to tell you is that it is resistant to water intrusion up to a specific depth for a finite period of time. The good folks at AT&T reminded me that there are cases available which can emulate this same "feature" if I decided to get them to continue using the Active in the very conditions it is rated to handle sans a case.

There is always some technicality companies can use to wiggle their way out of a warranty, but the proof is in the fogged camera lenses and moisture triggered indicators on the batteries and phones of Active owners. We may never get an actual percentage of failures in the field from AT&T or Samsung, but the mere fact AT&T made a PR move of granting a water damage replacement (one-time) because of issues means that there is an issue and reason enough to make an exception to their general warranty / exchange policy. Companies don't do that just out of the goodness of their own heart.
 
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pinsb

Senior Member
Sep 9, 2011
607
96
London, UK
In the UK these will just get bounced back to the seller under the "fit for purpose" legislation.

A judge would pee him/her self laughing if Sammie claimed it wasn't waterproofed while claiming IP67 and having marketing ads showing it taking underwater photo's.....ohhh the fun we have in court some days!
 

Mitsuoka123

Senior Member
Apr 23, 2011
51
7
31
Split
Hello,

here are my two cents...

I'm Samsung Mobiler so I have this device for some time and because I got it by DHL I haven't had any proper Samsung training for this device. I was on guard and I was securing USB and battery cover two times before going into water.

It was in sea water, river, under waterhose.... It was even 2m underwater, I was swimming for more than hour and even played picigin with friends. It went through that really well.

Because of this thread I was aware of issues and I would check it after every water experience and USB cover was working really really well (not even a sprinkle) and battery cover was thight while keeping water away. Water was there but not even close to rubber protection.

While filming I'm not using Aqua mode. No AF is a minus for that mode and I somehow managed to keep away from water drop zooming. :victory:

Here is some video footage, there are even some cool fishes around :highfive:

 
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wamsille

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2009
229
33
OK, taxes vary by geographical region. Death is certain, as is water damage on the S4 Active when used underwater regardless of the precautions taken.
 

sci0ent

New member
Nov 10, 2013
4
0
This phone is not truly waterproof/resistant!!!!!

First off I want to start this off buy saying a few things. I work for AT&T so before anyone says its from improper usage remember I had to watch training videos on how to properly use it. Also, before anyone says well, you aren't really supposed to be using it in the water, you are wrong. The first thing we are trained on is how to properly close the back cover and how to show the customers Aqua mode to take pictures underwater. We actively use this as a main selling point, this is per Samsung.

Here is my story. I bought the Active on Thursday. The first thing I did with it was ensure the back was closed and made a video in my fish tank so I could show customers how it works underwater, and how good aqua mode is. That worked out perfectly except the video was a little dark, so I figured I would retake it.

In this time I had a customer swap out the phone they bought because it were defective, the bottom buttons stopped working on it. She was very vague when the water question came up but I thought nothing of it.

Now cue today. It was sunny outside so I thought it was the perfect time to reshoot the fish tank video. I ensured the back was secure, yes, including pressing down on the back where the AT&T logo is. I then submerged the phone in the tank while taking the video. Almost instantly the phone screen went black and said dock mode was enabled so I took the phone out of the water and everything went back to normal. I double checked the USB rubber to be sure. I just chalked it up to the phone doing crazy things in the water. I have read almost everywhere that the phone will say headphones are plugged in, etc. So I thought this was normal. I then put it back in and took a minute long video. Everything was fine. I even played back the video and it was fully working.

This is where everything went wrong. About 2 minutes later the phone started tweaking out, Google now opened on its own and the buttons were really sensitive. Then the buttons completely stopped working other than the power button and that's when I freaked out. I opened the battery cover and there it was, everything was soaked. but luckily none of the water damage indicators were colored. I then opened the USB door and it was like a fountain, so that's where the breach happened. The flimsy, rubber USB door. I did not tell a soul what happened and went back to work and swapped it for a regular Galaxy S4.

So please listen to my warning. There are way too many people getting this phone damaged, including me, a fully trained AT&T employee who took the proper precautions before doing anything.

Samsung should not be able to get away with calling this phone water resistant or water proof, and they should especially not include an Aqua Camera mode.

Also the warranty DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT COVER WATER!!!!

Hi. Just got AT&T to do a warranty on my s3 would not recognize sd card. They gave me the S4 active and your right I would not trust the flimsy rubber seals either. I got an Otter Box Defender case just to make sure I don't mess it up. It has a plug to cover the head phone jack which the phone should of been built with but nothing for the micro usb port.
At least the gave me the phone and I also was allowed to keep the S3. I m debating on playing with designing new applications that will make the phone easier to use with less drain on the battery and won't slow the phone down.

---------- Post added at 01:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 AM ----------

Hi. Just got AT&T to do a warranty on my s3 would not recognize sd card. They gave me the S4 active and your right I would not trust the flimsy rubber seals either. I got an Otter Box Defender case just to make sure I don't mess it up. It has a plug to cover the head phone jack which the phone should of been built with but nothing for the micro usb port.
At least the gave me the phone and I also was allowed to keep the S3. I m debating on playing with designing new applications that will make the phone easier to use with less drain on the battery and won't slow the phone down.
 

ohwarumbloss

Senior Member
Oct 9, 2010
1,169
805
Kalletal
First when I read OP I got nervous but after reading 10 pages, I am happy with my active, again.
It's been sold to me as a 100% waterproof mobile, but hey, it takes two sites, one who is pretending and one who wants to believe.
Now, I hope to make it trough the next 23 months of my contract without trouble...

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes.

'nuff said.

Sent from my GT-I9295 using xda app-developers app
 

Miami_Son

Senior Member
Feb 4, 2009
2,877
354
Hurricane Country
Like anything you buy today, some will have a good experience with the product, some bad. For me, I'm a believer. Not only should I have lost my phone forever considering the circumstances, but after being in the ocean for over 40 minutes and beyond 3 feet of depth it should not be working. Thankfully, it still is. Read about it here.
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2510961
 

amortar

Member
Sep 8, 2010
7
0
not rugged

Active should be water resistant, at least until the seals wear off or the cover breaks. Mine was washed several times in tap water with soap and did some uderwater pool pictures as well - no damage.

Impact resistance is another story however. This phone is not rugged at all and cannot take any harsh handling. After few drops from pocket on the ground it started to experience reboots and no call audio. Warranty was denied beacuse of excessive mechanical strain and service quoted 460€ for repair - almost same as new one. The thin "metal" frame with screws of Active started to sheathe very soon and looks it's some soft material. Expected it to withstand much more.

Well, this is my 2nd similar experience with their service. I'll never buy Samsung again.



.
 

dibeachdude

Senior Member
Jan 30, 2009
183
66
Dauphin Island, AL
Samsung never said anything about resistance to anything other than water. Sorry to hear about the large repair bill, but chances are that the same thing might have happened with most newer phones. Consumers want small phones with large displays and an ever increasing number of features. If you open up the cases, you will see that every bit of space is used. So when a phone is dropped, there is no space to absorb the impact. The shock is transferred to the next component (LCD, pcb, etc.). That is why a case it's so important.

I used to use OtterBox cases, but since the Active is water resistant, I could use a smaller case that doesn't get stuck in my pocket. I still would not consider using any phone without a case. Everyone I know that does that had a phone with crushed corners and/or a broken display.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
 

phel21

Senior Member
Jul 30, 2009
55
1
OP mentions that the USB-socket is leaking. If so that's a serious design flaw. With a proper construction the socket itself should be waterproof. The flimsy cover should only be to keep conductive fluids from shortening the interface. Actually, the internals of any phone should have been vacuum-sealed at the factory. That would not only make the guts waterproof, but also resistant to moisture. Its a sad fact that most phones, including the so-called waterproof ones, contain components which are not recommended for use in environments with more than 80% humidity. That makes these gadgets not really fit for our world at all.
 

nasnasnasnas

New member
Jan 11, 2014
1
0
s4 active

Just purchased the s4 active the other day, waiting for it to arrive in the mail. After reading the post on this site, I m feeling a bit stupid that i didn't look into this before buying the phone. Sounds like it will require some maintenance, regarding the rubber seals - to stop them from drying up.
I'm interested to play with the usb flap, sounds a bit dodgy.
As for the warranty not covering water damage, i think it would be a disaster for Samsung if it did cover water damage because they would be handing out endless amounts of replacement phones, you could practically scam a new phone a year.

cheers for the info

---------- Post added at 02:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------

anyone ever seen this product before(H2OFF spray made by Nanoprotech)??? might be useful in safe guarding the usb port.
 

thatbigmoose

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2012
480
178
Took it in the pool today, seemed fine.
Got out, when trying to turn on the screen, the backlight would just come on but no LCD. This lasts for literally approximately 10 seconds before the LCD decides to work again. Weird, but weirder crap has happened. Chalked it up to the GPE ROM just being wonky.

See little water intrusion marks indicating water got between the LCD and digitizer(apparently this happens, even with normal use, based on posts I've read). Has happened to me and others with no problems previously. There WAS a thread on this where somebody did some nice, intelligent sounding research. Can't find it at the moment. Not concerned, continue using device.

Get home from work today, notice there's a lot more water marks on the LCD than before(these are like the actual stains you get from water damage -- the big blotches just all over the screen).

Open back cover. Water. Everywhere. Battery LDI literally like brick red. LDI on the actual device is miraculously totally fine.

This is the second Active I'm going to have to replace. On the first one the mic stopped working because, you guessed it, it became water damaged! Just the mic, nothing else. This one literally came to me, back from AT&T(I guess refurbished?) with a mic that doesn't work on speakerphone. Regular calls work but not speakerphone. I lived with it because I didn't want to return yet another device(for nearly the same exact reason) and have to restore all my settings again.

I originally advocated for this phone and chalked the fairly common failures up to user error. But now that I've gone through two of these things I can see that Samsung/AT&T intended this as more of a "test" device and weren't serious about the claims that they've made about it. I'm gonna have to go cry to the corporate overlords tomorrow in hopes of maybe just getting a regular S4 or something.

Edit: Should add that even though water got in, the device wasn't flooded in itself, but instead the indentation in the back that the battery goes into. The device still works like it did before it decided to not be water-resistant.
 
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The.Screemer

Member
Jan 19, 2011
14
0
This phone is not truly waterproof/resistant!!!!!
Samsung should not be able to get away with calling this phone water resistant or water proof, and they should especially not include an Aqua Camera mode.

Also the warranty DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT COVER WATER!!!!
They also shouldn't sell the regular S4 as a phone at all. I got mine, new out of the box.. Used it in everyday life for less than a month. Then one day I put it on a table, no I didn't throw it or hammer on it or anything. I just put it down on the table and the screen cracked from the inside. Guess what, when I called the retailer I was informed that Samsung don't warrant the screen??? I had to pay $420 to get it replaced. Then when I got it back after about 2 weeks I used it in everyday life for about a month and one time when I picked it up from my pocket it was cracked again. This time to it was cracked from the inside. And I have copter screen protection and hard case on it. I couldn't afford another $420 so I got my self a S4 active instead. At least the screen copes with everyday life on this one. :) No I haven't gone swimming with it or anything but at least it doesn't get damaged by rain and regular washing off.
Samsung really need to start addressing these kind of issues and refund/repair what was wrongly sold or they will start losing allot of customers i think. It's so sad since I loved my standard S4, but now I have grown to really like my S4 active.:)
 
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mymilkexpired

Member
Nov 30, 2010
6
0
Just a heads up to everyone. I've had to call in for warranty repair of the little rubber door. It detached over the weekend... The material is ridiculously thin, maybe .5mm thickness.

AT&T says its an unwarrantable problem. Manager got involved and stated the same. So I've now been passed off to Samsung for resolution. Their systems are down at the moment but I'll come back and update after I speak with them. Phone has about 6 months of usage with 2-3 charges per day at the extreme.
 

kfreels

Senior Member
Aug 10, 2009
102
1
All I gotta say is the best way to get away with saying it is water resistance/proof would be making it like the Nexus 4 and no removable back. Make it wireless charging. Come with a wireless charger. Sd card slot and sim slot on the top or sides. Make it completely blocked off with no ports but a headphone hack the way they did making it water proof. That's the only way they can be certain its water resistant. Otherwise you have these issues.

Sent from my SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

whoops. reply went on the wrong thread......

---------- Post added at 06:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:34 AM ----------

The bottom line is that Samsung doesn't warranty the phone against water damage and therefor should Never sell it as such. If they can not stand behind an advertised function of their own product, they should not sell it. It doesn't matter if people abuse the phone in water or exceed the recommended specs (depth and length of time in water) because there is no way they can differentiate between people that stay within the specs and those that don't.

That's like saying a car should be warranty repaired for all road hazards.
 

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    This phone is not truly waterproof/resistant!!!!!

    First off I want to start this off buy saying a few things. I work for AT&T so before anyone says its from improper usage remember I had to watch training videos on how to properly use it. Also, before anyone says well, you aren't really supposed to be using it in the water, you are wrong. The first thing we are trained on is how to properly close the back cover and how to show the customers Aqua mode to take pictures underwater. We actively use this as a main selling point, this is per Samsung.

    Here is my story. I bought the Active on Thursday. The first thing I did with it was ensure the back was closed and made a video in my fish tank so I could show customers how it works underwater, and how good aqua mode is. That worked out perfectly except the video was a little dark, so I figured I would retake it.

    In this time I had a customer swap out the phone they bought because it were defective, the bottom buttons stopped working on it. She was very vague when the water question came up but I thought nothing of it.

    Now cue today. It was sunny outside so I thought it was the perfect time to reshoot the fish tank video. I ensured the back was secure, yes, including pressing down on the back where the AT&T logo is. I then submerged the phone in the tank while taking the video. Almost instantly the phone screen went black and said dock mode was enabled so I took the phone out of the water and everything went back to normal. I double checked the USB rubber to be sure. I just chalked it up to the phone doing crazy things in the water. I have read almost everywhere that the phone will say headphones are plugged in, etc. So I thought this was normal. I then put it back in and took a minute long video. Everything was fine. I even played back the video and it was fully working.

    This is where everything went wrong. About 2 minutes later the phone started tweaking out, Google now opened on its own and the buttons were really sensitive. Then the buttons completely stopped working other than the power button and that's when I freaked out. I opened the battery cover and there it was, everything was soaked. but luckily none of the water damage indicators were colored. I then opened the USB door and it was like a fountain, so that's where the breach happened. The flimsy, rubber USB door. I did not tell a soul what happened and went back to work and swapped it for a regular Galaxy S4.

    So please listen to my warning. There are way too many people getting this phone damaged, including me, a fully trained AT&T employee who took the proper precautions before doing anything.

    Samsung should not be able to get away with calling this phone water resistant or water proof, and they should especially not include an Aqua Camera mode.

    Also the warranty DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT COVER WATER!!!!
    6
    The bottom line is that Samsung doesn't warranty the phone against water damage and therefor should Never sell it as such. If they can not stand behind an advertised function of their own product, they should not sell it. It doesn't matter if people abuse the phone in water or exceed the recommended specs (depth and length of time in water) because there is no way they can differentiate between people that stay within the specs and those that don't.
    4
    now i fell terribly sorry for who went with those ugly buttons instead of S4 :)

    Eh... I like the buttons...
    2
    In the UK these will just get bounced back to the seller under the "fit for purpose" legislation.

    A judge would pee him/her self laughing if Sammie claimed it wasn't waterproofed while claiming IP67 and having marketing ads showing it taking underwater photo's.....ohhh the fun we have in court some days!
    2
    This phone is not truly waterproof/resistant!!!!!

    First off I want to start this off buy saying a few things. I work for AT&T so before anyone says its from improper usage remember I had to watch training videos on how to properly use it. Also, before anyone says well, you aren't really supposed to be using it in the water, you are wrong. The first thing we are trained on is how to properly close the back cover and how to show the customers Aqua mode to take pictures underwater. We actively use this as a main selling point, this is per Samsung.

    Here is my story. I bought the Active on Thursday. The first thing I did with it was ensure the back was closed and made a video in my fish tank so I could show customers how it works underwater, and how good aqua mode is. That worked out perfectly except the video was a little dark, so I figured I would retake it.

    In this time I had a customer swap out the phone they bought because it were defective, the bottom buttons stopped working on it. She was very vague when the water question came up but I thought nothing of it.

    Now cue today. It was sunny outside so I thought it was the perfect time to reshoot the fish tank video. I ensured the back was secure, yes, including pressing down on the back where the AT&T logo is. I then submerged the phone in the tank while taking the video. Almost instantly the phone screen went black and said dock mode was enabled so I took the phone out of the water and everything went back to normal. I double checked the USB rubber to be sure. I just chalked it up to the phone doing crazy things in the water. I have read almost everywhere that the phone will say headphones are plugged in, etc. So I thought this was normal. I then put it back in and took a minute long video. Everything was fine. I even played back the video and it was fully working.

    This is where everything went wrong. About 2 minutes later the phone started tweaking out, Google now opened on its own and the buttons were really sensitive. Then the buttons completely stopped working other than the power button and that's when I freaked out. I opened the battery cover and there it was, everything was soaked. but luckily none of the water damage indicators were colored. I then opened the USB door and it was like a fountain, so that's where the breach happened. The flimsy, rubber USB door. I did not tell a soul what happened and went back to work and swapped it for a regular Galaxy S4.

    So please listen to my warning. There are way too many people getting this phone damaged, including me, a fully trained AT&T employee who took the proper precautions before doing anything.

    Samsung should not be able to get away with calling this phone water resistant or water proof, and they should especially not include an Aqua Camera mode.

    Also the warranty DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT COVER WATER!!!!


    A simple solution to find out if your phone is waterproof... Turn the phone off and remove the battery, then close everything and put it in water for a few minutes. Take the phone out of the water and check to see if water got in the charging port and/or past the seal on the back. If it did get water in the device put your phone in rice for a day and return it for a working unit. If you didn't you should be fine.


    If no power is going to your device it cannot short circuit. After the water is gone you can turn it on with no issues


    Yeah, I have a feeling all of these water-related failures are going to kill the S4A early. Eventually, the threat of a class action lawsuit will cause them to trigger an EOL.

    I suspect this will happen sooner rather than later, since showing it dunked in water in all the commercials, but not covering water damage is just screaming "class action."

    My crystal ball says that within a year, you'll see AT&T (at least) offering to waive ETF for owners of S4A units damaged by water. This may be under the terms of a Class Action, or to avoid one... but in the end, that will probably be the end of the S4A story.

    Or maybe a recall?