Not the OP, but personally, my phone is my map, music player, camera, and emergency contact. I often take it biking, hiking, swimming, kayaking, etc. It frequently gets wet, whether on accident (flipping the kayak, water bottle leaks) or on purpose (riding through rain, taking underwater photos) etc.

Back in the day they had special ruggedized phones for that use case (they still do) but it's nice just having a regular mass market phone with a good camera and not have to worry about it getting wet.

I have regretfully killed multiple phones by getting into a pool without realizing I still had my (non-waterproof) phone in my pocket.

But outside my own forgetfulness, many people work outside in climates where heavy rain or snow is common.

Given that we normally carry these devices with us 24/7, it makes sense to build them to survive real-world 24/7 conditions.

Why watertight is a benefit, I suppose there are other benefits of phone with none-replaceable battery:

1) Require fewer parts, so less expensive to make and more environment friendly

2) Last longer, so replacements come less often, thus more environment friendly

3) Higher recyclable battery rate, since Apple has incentive to recycle the used batteries, consumers less so.

The only benefit battery replaceable phone has is consumers having more control over their purchase and less likely to be screwed over by phone makers or sellers.

> The only benefit battery replaceable phone has is consumers having more control over their purchase and less likely to be screwed over by phone makers or sellers.

User replacable batteries are also user accessible controls to definitely power off the device. Usually devices without a replacable battery often have a secret handshake to power off, but it doesn't always work.

I use it as a snorkeling camera. It’s in a ziplock bag, which is enough to keep the capacitive screen usable underwater, but not nearly enough to trust with a $1000 device with all my most important data and capabilities on. If it ruptured I’m fairly confident the phone will be fine, and it definitely gets quite wet in the dive boat.

LOL, HN is really California-centric :) Ever heard of rain? I want to be able to use my phone in a rain, to call a taxi for example. Also, I don't want to worry about accidentally spilling a coffee on it.

FWIW, I live in Palm Springs, California, and in the early years lost phones not from jumping in pools, but from much of the year being 100+ degrees and even a couple minutes holding a phone to my ear and normal sweating would trigger the excessive moisture sensor and kill the device.

Are you serious? I’m never going back to not watertight. Being able to use my phone in rain or snow, don’t having to worry about something spilling on my pocket, being able to wash dirt off, use it for underwater pictures, don’t get cardiac arrest after jumping into a pool with my phone still in my pocket… it’s just a life with less worry.

There are lots of situations where it’s nice to be able to have a phone with you, like going to the beach but still having transit maps to catch the bus back.

Also swimming pools, rivers, rain, snow… you can go lots of places where a phone would most likely or definitely get soaked or submerged, and it’s useful to have a phone with you for payment, maps, messages, everything you normally use it for. Water is the only thing that has killed/broken phones for me in years.