It’s time to fess up — most of us have mistakenly poked the microphone hole on our devices while trying to eject the SIM card tray at some point. Does that spell doom for the phone’s waterproofing screen or microphone box? Well, Zack from JerryRigEverything has done the dirty work for you, inserting a SIM tool in the microphone holes of a couple of flagship devices from different OEMs just to find out how it actually affects the device.
The video starts with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vibration motor tear down, along with a few *coughs* suggestive jokes hidden in plain sight. However, right around 2:30 is where things start to get interesting. Beginning with the S22 Ultra with the microphone just beside the SIM tray hole, poking it with the SIM ejector causes no damage. Apparently, Samsung has anticipated that you might accidentally do this and narrowed the microphone hole as you go deeper, meaning you can’t even get to the end. Even if you do force your way through by some miracle, the company has also placed the waterproof screen and gold microphone square to the side of the hole, so they can’t sustain any damage.
The same is the case with a couple of other devices, including the Pixel 6 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 11, and the OnePlus 10 Pro, which folded in half during a previous durability test. Google and Xiaomi have taken an extra precaution by placing the microphone and SIM trays far apart from each other — the Pixel 6 Pro even has them on different sides. The iPhone 13 Pro Max is slightly different from the rest, placing the microphone to the side but keeping the waterproof mesh at the hole’s entrance. While you could lose your water resistance if you poke it, the placement makes that an unlikely fate.
For the most part, you have nothing to worry about if you have any of these phones — even on the S22 Ultra and OnePlus 10 Pro, where accidental pokes are likely. That said, older devices and even the best budget Android phones may not offer similar safety nets, so you still need to tread with caution.
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