While the best phones on the market are now choc-full of tech, they're not totally infallible. In fact, one of the biggest hurdles they face comes straight from Mother Nature – rain.
If you've ever tried to use your phone in wet conditions, you'll know how tough it is. The screens become janky and unresponsive, triggering inaccurately and just generally being a pain.
Fortunately, OnePlus may have a solution. In a post on their Weibo page, the brand showcased the Rainwater Touch feature, which is set to debut on the upcoming OnePlus Ace 2 Pro.
In the video, the device is put toe-to-toe with an iPhone 14 Pro in simulated rainfall conditions. The iPhone showcases all of the issues and bugbears we've all had in these circumstances. The OnePlus, though, works perfectly. Touch input tracks well and is seemingly unaffected by the water on the display.
That's a big deal. It should make it possible to use the upcoming Android phone in almost any conditions you can imagine. The test uses a light rainfall, a misty setting and a really heavy rainfall simulation, and none were able to disrupt the actions taken.
While it's set to debut on the Ace 2 Pro, it's fair to assume the feature could make its way onto other OnePlus handsets in the future. That would be massive for the brand. Currently, the Android phone market is littered with devices. A suite of manufacturers old and new offer lots of different models.
That can make it hard to stand out. But with a unique – and genuinely useful – feature like this one, the brand may give potential users a reason to try one once more.
It will also be interesting to see how other manufacturers respond. If, in real world testing, the feature is as useful as it is in these demos, it could make other brands take notice. Future variants of big hitters like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 will need to be competitive if they want to remain popular.
