Something that seems to be increasing is the demand for waterproof phones. There are some impressive phones around that offer a good choice in this respect, so we thought we’d look at some of the best waterproof phones, with a Samsung vs. Sony perspective. We’ll give you some details of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active and the Galaxy Xcover 2, as well as the Sony Xperia Z, Xperia ZR, and Xperia Z Ultra, to give you an idea of what’s available.

We’ll highlight some of the major specs and features for each of these, and then we’d be interested to from readers regarding preference. Starting with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, it’s powered by a 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, has a 5-inch TFT display with resolution of 1920 x 1080, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD to 64GB. It also has an 8-megapixel rear camera with Aqua Mode and 1080p video capture, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, LTE, and 2600 mAh battery, and it runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The S4 Active is dust and water resistant to IP67 certification standard.

Moving on to the Galaxy Xcover 2, it has a 1GHz dual-core processor, a 4-inch display with resolution of 800 x 400, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD to 32GB. It also carries a 5-megapixel rear camera with 720p video capture, a front-facing VGA camera, 1700 mAh battery, and it runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. This phone is dust tight and water proof to IPS67 certification standard.

The Sony Xperia Z has been a big success and is powered by a 1.5GHZ Qualcomm quad-core processor, with a 5-inch display with resolution of 1920 x 1080, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD to 64GB. It sports a 13.1-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, a 2.2-megapixel front-facing shooter, LTE, a 2330 mAh battery, and it runs the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system, upgradable to 4.2.2. The Xperia Z is dust and water resistant to IP57 standard.

Now we have the just-released Sony Xperia ZR, packing a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor, with a 4.55-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD to 32GB. It has a 13.1-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capture, a VGA front-facing camera, LTE, a 2300 mAh battery, and it runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The ZR is dust and water resistant to IP58 certification standard.

The final phone in our waterproof lineup is the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, and this one hasn’t released yet but is expected in Q3. This is a whopper of a phone as it has a 6.4-inch display with resolution of 1920 x 1080, a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal memory, expandable via microSD to 64GB. It also has an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, 2-megapixel front-facing shooter, LTE, and a 3050 mAh battery, and it runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. This handset is dust and water proof to IP58 standard.

This gives you an overview of what each phone has to offer and represents a spectrum of choice, with the Samsung Xcover 2 being the most affordable option, right through to the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, which looks likely to be the most costly when it is released. Some of these obviously offer top-end specs, while others are more mid-range, but all are waterproof to different degrees.

You can see much more about each of them, including their waterproof qualities, at the product pages for each one that we’ve linked to. We’d like to know which of these waterproof phones you feel is best? Also, if you already use one of these phones it would be good to know what you think of it? Your comments are always welcome.