AirPods, Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds: How water-resistant are these wireless headphones?

Apple's  standard  AirPods  don't claim to be waterproof (though the more recently released -- and more expensive -- AirPods Pro are sweat and water resistant), and neither do the Powerbeats Pro or Samsung's  latest Galaxy Buds. But if you're looking for an affordable set of earbuds with some degree of protection against splashes, the Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds do offer an official water-resistance rating. That's just the rating though -- to find out exactly how much water exposure each one of these buds can handle, we put them through the wringer (so to speak) with a series of splash, dunk and laundry tests. 

Apple's Powerbeats are technically the most durable of the three with an official rating of IPX4, which makes them sweat and water resistant, but the charging case can't make such claims. 

The Samsung Galaxy Buds have an IPX2 rating, which means they can handle a few splashes, a little sweat and even the occasional spill, according to Samsung, but again, this doesn't cover the case and is a step behind the durability offered by the Powerbeats.

The AirPods are the underdogs in this scenario because they are not rated for anything water related -- at least not officially -- however, (spoiler alert) our tests tell a different story. 

What they can actually handle?

The sweat challenge

When you're working out, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your earbuds will survive an intense gym session or a sweaty run, which is exactly what both the Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds are designed to withstand. To test the claims, Lexy and I simulated a sweaty workout at the gym. We wore each pair of earphones and sprayed each other in the face with water until droplets trickled down the sides of our heads. For the record, the AirPods weren't meant to be tested this way. 

Since we were wearing the earphones, only the exterior came into contact with water. After about five sprays each, we took the buds out of our ears, dried them off (and the wingtips, if applicable) which is what Apple and Samsung recommend doing immediately after any water exposure. 

Right after drying them we tested out the Bluetooth connection, audio quality and microphones on each by pairing them to their respective phones , then playing music and recording audio from the microphone. 

Given the IP ratings, we expected the Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds to survive this first test, which they did. But the AirPods, our wild card, surprisingly lived to fight another day, with all three passing our test with flying colors. 

The dunk challenge

Once they had proven they could hold up to this claim, we decided to push all three beyond their limits with a dunk test. Accidents happen, whether it's dropping your buds in the sink while doing the dishes, or watching them fall out of your back pocket into the toilet (gasp) -- we just knew we had to submerge these little guys.

We dunked each pair into a clear fish bowl containing a foot of water for five seconds. Full disclosure: the AirPods went about two seconds over because of bad time-keeping on our part. We just love pushing the AirPods beyond what they are designed to do.

After fishing each pair out, we dried all of them off again and used the same three parameters we used in the first challenge to assess any damage. 

Surprisingly all three pairs of 'buds survived the dunk test with minimal or no damage. Additional damage may materialize over time, but at least initially, they all seemed fine.

Both Apple and Samsung have clear warnings on their websites stating you should never intentionally submerge their Bluetooth earphones in water, so definitely don't try this at home. But if you accidentally do give them a bath, there's a good chance they might survive based on our results.

The washing machine test

After two rounds of testing and no clear winner, we had no choice but to raise the stakes and put them through the wringer (see what I did there?). We took them all to the laundromat to reenact another common earbud accident: a trip through the wash.

We took each set of buds out of its case and zipped them up in a jacket pocket before throwing them into separate washing machines with a few more items that needed washing. All three machines were set on a normal 30-minute cycle with cold water and laundry detergent.  

Once the 30 minutes were up and the spin cycle had wound down, we took them out and again dried them off. At this point, they had all been compromised after going through multiple water encounters. But they still managed to surprise us. 

All three paired seamlessly to their respective phones right off the bat. The Powerbeats had the best sound quality of the three, with little to no difference in the music playback test. The microphone, however, sounded more subdued in our audio recording, at least at the beginning of the clip.

The Galaxy Buds, on the other hand, fared the best in terms of their microphone, but they were the worst in terms of playback quality. The left side was nearly inaudible and the right side sounded faint, even with the volume cranked to the max. 

The AirPods landed somewhere in between. One of them had lost a lot of volume, and the other one sounded a bit compromised as well, but they still played music and sounded louder than the Galaxy Buds. The microphone was a bit muffled, but nothing too serious. 

To give all of the earbuds a fighting chance, we let them dry out for 48 hours before testing them again to make sure as much moisture evaporated as possible. After checking that all the earbuds were dry, we recharged each pair in its case.

The most water-resistant Bluetooth earbuds are…  

After 48 hours we ran all the tests again. The microphone issue we'd had previously experienced with the Powerbeats was at this point nearly imperceptible. They were back to sounding almost as good as new (at least to our ears; an audio expert may disagree). 

The Galaxy Buds sounded a bit louder than before, but there was still barely any sound coming from the left side. The AirPods had a better recovery: both buds had decent volume, although the music didn't sound as crisp as before all of our water challenges. Further, the audio clip recorded via the microphone still sounded muffled. 

With the highest IP rating among the three wireless headphones we tested, it's no surprise that the Powerbeats Pro performed the best overall. The Galaxy Buds seemed to have the least amount of damage occur to its microphones, but the buds themselves only played sound on one side. Even then, we had to crank the volume to its maximum level to hear much at all.

The AirPods were the outliers of the bunch, given they aren't rated for sweat or water and turned out to be the biggest surprise in our test. After all of our testing, they didn't sound as good as when we first took them out of the box, but they are certainly still usable, even after going through the wash. 

All this said though, we may have gotten extremely lucky in our results, so best not to try any of this at home. 

Watch this: Powerbeats Pro vs. AirPods 2: which one to choose?

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Originally published earlier this year.