If you were curious about just how much improvement Apple has made to its waterproofing in recent years, look no further than Reddit, where a user by the name of lorislongfellow recounted an informative (and incredibly entertaining) story about how he lost his iPhone X in the sea, only to find it eight hours later in working condition.
The story begins with paddle boarding, as all great lost iPhone stories do. The user explains that he and his soon-to-be-fiancée decided to head to the beach for kayaking and paddle boarding, after which he planned to propose to her. Unfortunately, while standing up on the board, the user fell backwards into the water, and when he got back on the board, he realized that his iPhone X had fallen out of his pocket into the ocean.
After trying to locate the phone with snorkeling gear, the two quickly realized that this was a pointless endeavor, and that they wouldn’t be able to spot the phone among the sand and debris. There was also no way to locate the phone by calling it or using Find My iPhone, since it couldn’t get a signal underwater.
Here’s what happened next, and this is where the story takes a very interesting turn:
So I went ahead with the proposal and it went really well :) had a celebratory dinner on the beach. I would occasionally look out to the ocean knowing that my iPhone was sitting on the ocean floor but I wasn’t going to let that ruin the night for me.
When we finally returned home I decided to try find my iPhone again. This was T-8 hours post fall into water. The tide had come out a bit so I was hoping that the seas would part and [my] phone would get signal again.
Lo and behold I got a signal!
At this point, the two ran down to the beach, had the phone play the sonar sound through Find My iPhone, and found it sitting between some rocks. Not only was it still in perfect working order, but the battery was still at 66%. He took the iPhone X home, put it in a bag of rice, and hasn’t had any problems since.
Of course, everyone’s experiences are unique, and this was an especially unique experience, but the fact that the iPhone X managed to survive an 8-hour dive is impressive. That said, maybe don’t try to replicate this.
