Does anyone actually take into account "IP Rating"/"Water Resistance" when they buy phones?

No.
I still treat it as if it was from 2014

Nope.

People don't, but companies do.

Company A might get a contract to do whatever thing for Company B and the contract says "all equipment brought on site by your team must be this or that or whatever IP Rating".

It's an insurance / liability thing.

Totally, I use my phone to play music while in the shower. I also do a lot of work outside, work that doesn’t stop if it starts raining.

Nope, my current phone isn't even water resistant. It loses resistance over time anyways, so IDC.

I don't really look for "this one's rated to 20 meters but this one only 10" I just want to see a water resistance rating of some kind. Which, it is my understanding the Galaxy Folds don't have.

My phone will be in my pocket during five years of sudden rain storms, sweat, washing cars, fixing sinks etc. It needs to be able to survive getting dunked in a bucket of water. I'm not taking it diving, but also my chauffeur isn't going to hold an umbrella while I climb into the limousine.

Folds have water ratings but no (or worse) dust ratings. So you can use them in the rain but be careful in a beach, wood shop, etc.
The first number in the rating is dust resistance, and the second is water resistance. So an IP 48 phone (new Samsung folds) has the same water resistance but worse dust resistance than an IP 68 phone (e.g. S25). IP X8 means there is no dust resistance but it is water resistant. IP 6X would be the other way around.
- I am a woodworker, my phone also needs to survive being completely submerged in sanding dust.

Nope. Never had a water-related incident with any cellphone in the 20ish years I've been using them. Just not relevant to my life.

I won't have money to buy a water resistant phone anyways, so no.

Eh, $300 phones now have IP67
- That's a lot of money.

Nope. I haven't bought anything other than a Pixel since they were known as Nexus. Originally because they were cheap, but decent, then because they were easy to tinker with, and now because it's the only phone that runs Graphene OS. If I need to buy a new phone, I just look for whichever Pixel is cheapest, and that's my new phone.

Yes. It has saved my bacon at least once (went down a water slide into a swimming pool forgetting it was in my pocket.) I need all the help I can get keeping my phone alive.

Do you?

No. If I add any more requirements for what I need from a phone I'll go from 1 option to zero.

What's your one option btw?

I did back in the day. Now everything is IP67 or whatever's the most common one. It's honestly a crapshoot, my Xperia Z3 died from just being in the shower room while I showered, nowhere near the water but vaguely steamy in there.

I accidentally flushed, yes - flushed my Pixel 1 XL down the toilet and it was fine (it swam up).

Right?! Electronics would straight rust, quickly. Remember having to take your watch off to wash your hands? Now I have a collection of Casios and would be shocked if any so much as got foggy. LOL, now you can pull the battery and put your motherboard in the dish washer.
- (can't edit)
  Wrong post.

I don’t care for the number and just go by what they say it will endure, but absolutely. As the owner of a toddler it’s saved the day on as number of occasions.

I want stories please
- Nothing crazy. Just a phone ending up in either the bath, the toilet, gravy, sand, whatever. Kinda surprising what an iPhone will endure tbh.

Yes. I'm not too demanding about it but I want my phone to survive being soaked in rain or a washing with clean water.

Bonus points if I can take it into the sea, but I never had a phone for which I was confident it could survive salty water.

Yes. I have three young children, I need my phone to be waterproof.

Yes. I've never had a bad liquid incident, but I don't want my phone to be one spilled drink or dropped-into-toilet-or-puddle away from being fried.

Yes, outdoor work and phones are expensive.

Absolutely, I don’t want to worry about water damage, I also often just wash the phone while washing my hands, especially during flu-season.

I also often just wash the phone while washing my hands
I did that often around covid, water got in the supposedly IP68 water resistance anyways after doing that for a few months.
I'd consider their claims to be exaggerated.
If theu say its "water submersible" treat it as just protection against light splashes, if its just "water repellant", don't trust that near water at all. Expect less than their claims.
- If you used soap, that could be why. Soap can deteriorate the rubber gaskets and adhesives that keep the ingress protection together.

Yes. I use my phone in rain/snow and boats all the time plus it's nice to be able to use it in sauna also

I feel like that defeats the purpose of sauna a bit...
But anyway, I thought heat rating was a different metric entirely?
- Sauna is a place where you either chat with other people or sit with your thoughts. It's blasphemy to bring your phone in there.
- Nah it's only an occasional thing when we also bring some bluetooth speakers there.
  I keep the phone on the lower levels so it doesn't get too hot
Sauna? Bruh you're really pushing the limits of the water resistance, its water resistant, not water + heat resistant (rubber gaskets are gonna fall apart with the steamy hot air constantly)
- Well no damage yet atleast and I've been doing it for 6 years now with this phone

I pay attention to the fact that it has one that will let it survive a drop into water.

Only that there is one. I don’t expect my phone to get wet but I do want it to survive everyday life.

Supposedly the Apple Watch is fine to go swimming with. I’m happy to see that feature, as confidence I can wash my hands without ruining my watch

I take it with me too the beach. Between the sand in the air and bringing it into the water it's nice to know it'll be fine. Also, when it gets dirty I can just wash it.

No. But I would love a replaceable battery.

Samsung Galaxy XCover series does both.
Sadly, Samsung doesn't allow bootloader unlocks... so yea its a hard pass for me 🤷‍♂️ (also, spec to price ratio is horrible)
- Same for me, locked bootloader is basically useless. Fortunately, from 2027 batteries must be replaceable in the EU. I guess it may have an impact on other regions in the world as well.
YES!!!

I look at it a bit but then throw it out at the same time since I've heard that they'll invalidate the warranty for water damage even if the IP rating says it should have handled it.

These days the only thing that's remotely worth buying is a Pixel phone that's unlocked so you can get GrapheneOS.

I'm not against graphene or pixel phones, but this is such a shortsighted take and this doesn't remotely answer the question.
or a fairphone so that disassembly, or even just taking out the battery is not a risky nightmare.
or a fairphone so that disassembly, or even just taking out the battery is not a risky nightmare.

Yes. Have exclusively used rugged phones for past ~10 years. Mostly Cat (RIP), now Doogee S96. My phone is exposed to a lot of particulate matter, metal fragments, sawdust, etc. It needs to withstand fall damage on hard surfaces. The IP rating indicates it's resistance to anything entering the case, including water.

I don't bother with the exact ratings, but it has to be water resistant. If you're researching phone options, open a tab in desktop view and go to Versus.

Thanks for the link!
- You're welcome!

Yup. Its not a deal breaker, but I try to find at least some options that have a rating and consider if its worth the other tradeoffs.

No, I grew up with phones (and electronics in general) not being water tight or resistant so I sort of still have the mindset of not taking my phone near lakes/bathtubs and putting it away when it's raining.

Haven't really had a problem with water damage in all the years of owning phones. Most of my phones were not water tight/resistant because they were older Nokias, had a replaced battery or are Fairphones.

Right?! Electronics would straight rust, quickly. Remember having to take your watch off to wash your hands? Now I have a collection of Casios and would be shocked if any so much as got foggy. LOL, now you can pull the battery and put your motherboard in the dish washer.

Yep. Non-negotiable. Not only do I live in a very rainy place, but I have uses for this stuff that require getting splashed A LOT very often for other reasons.

No, they tend to be good enough to have in a pocket while sweating in light rain which is the worst I'll put them through.

Not me. I always used the phone in the rain if i needed to. It's a nice plusy, but I woundnt trust the ip rating enough to carry the phone in wet swimming trunks after swimming.

Battery life (>5000mAh) and price (<$200) comes first - long days of work, often outside, it'be nice but.

Yes, but I also get into a rage about manufacturers being dicks about it. People by and large don't seem to understand the IP rating scale is in fact two largely-unrelated scales, and companies slapping IP ratings on their products use that in what I feel are underhanded ways.

The values IPx1-IPx6 correspond to varying levels of resistance against directed streams of water. IPx7-IPx9 are degrees of resistance to submersion. The latter does not imply the former, not even a little bit.

It is in theory entirely possible to build a device that could withstanding being put in the bottom of a swimming pool that's being slowly filled with water, but failed from the higher pressure of a small amount of water falling on it from a certain direction.

But you still see phones listed just as "IP68", which tells you nothing. The better manufacturers will explicitly write the likes of "IP65/IP68"; showing that it reaches the 5 rating of "water jets 12.5litre/minute" but not the 6 rating of "powerful water jets 100litre/minute", but also IP67 "immersion <1 metre / <30 minutes" and IP68 "immersion >1 metre / >30 minutes".

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_code#Second_digit:_Liquid_ingress_protection)

This is a bit obtuse for the sake of pedantry.
I mean, is it possible that you could build a device resistant to submersion but not splashing? Maybe?
But this isn't "a device", this is a phone. The problems with water ingress are very specific. You have a couple of speakers, a few microphones, a sim card slot and a USB port, plus the seams for the screen and backplate. If you secured those well enough for the immersion tests they're going to be splash-resistant. If you have a way in which you can somehow have a phone screen adhesive survive being underwater for several minutes but not falling rain or being placed under a tap/hose please do share, because I can't think of one. The scenario where your speaker seals are good enough for being fully submerged but get water damaged by shooting high pressure water directly into them is so niche it's probably not worth it to further confuse people by having two different IP ratings listed.
Plus... you know, don't be shooting water hoses directly up your phone's holes regardless? I don't see why you would in the first place, but... just don't? It's not gonna happen by accident, so it doesn't need to happen at all.
- Yes and no.
  Taking advantage of the very real waterproofing of the phones I have owned (past and present), I will just wash the damn thing off under the kitchen tap if it gets dirty, which I have with one of my previous phones done with a high-pressure restaurant-sink-style spray nozzle (I was making beer, and boiling the wort kicks a lot of sticky crap into the air).
  That phone was fine afterward, and continued to work for several years after.
  Also at a more basic level, it is (at least in theory) an assurance that they actually tested the damn thing, and didn't just slap a largely meaningless (and as already noted, "bigger number better") rating on the thing, as is largely the style of our times because consumer protection is dead and regulations are meaningless.
  This is exactly the kind of should be done properly, or just not at all. Test it and rate it for the people who do care, or STFU, put the unqualified but perfectly reasonable label of "water resistant" on it, and the bulk of people who indeed do not care (or will be confused) will be no worse off than they are now.
  Anything else is just annoying.

Yes and you should (good IP rating also means better hardware and assembly quality). I was using 2nd hand (refurbished) samsung, 3 months later it just failed because of summer, rain, sweat ...

Not really, I just assume it can handle being rained on.

Sorta. I live in the Ohio Valley. It can literally be sunny one moment and the next be raining cats and dogs. I've walked out of the house and where I was standing, it was sunny, but 20 feet away it was raining. It's pretty wild.

I dunno about everyone else, but definitely not me.

I don't swim and I'm not prone to dropping my phone in the toilet.

Also, if you get even one drop of water on the screen, the touchscreen doesn't even work correctly.

Electronic devices aren't meant to get wet in the first place.

Electronic devices aren’t meant to get wet in the first place.
Rain exists... 👀
- Obviously, duh.
  One rain drop on your phone screen, and already shit don't work right anymore.
  This message coming from a tech that has worked on thousands of mobile devices.

Nope

Not phone, but I definitely look at IP or Denier ratings for other things.