Ice fisher's iPhone 7 Plus survives 13-hour immersion after dunk in Russian river
An ice fishing accident has led to an unexpected demonstration of the iPhone 7's water resistance capabilities, after an iPhone 7 Plus was retrieved from the bottom of a frozen-over river, and found to be in perfect working order.
A resident of the Russian city of Yakutsk dropped the iPhone 7 Plus into one of the ice fishing holes on the river over the weekend, according to the Russian-language Ykt.Ru. Unable to retrieve it, the iPhone was left in the water overnight until a friend of the owner who was proficient in diving was able to assist.
An Instagram account by the diver, identified as Fedor, explained it took three attempts to find the iPhone in the cold water. Shortly after being pulled from the water, the iPhone turned on successfully, showing it had not been damaged from the drop and the 13 hours of submergence in 4C (39.2 F) water.
Before entering the water, it is believed the iPhone 7 Plus had 35 percent of its charge remaining. Once pulled from the river bed and back in the owner's hands, it was found to have 19 percent battery life remaining.
The iPhone 7 isn't actually a waterproof device, with its IP67 rating advising it is capable of surviving immersion at a depth of one meter (3.3 feet) for 30 minutes. This is intended more for accidental splashes or drops into water, such as a sink or at the beach, instead of being used for swimming or other underwater purposes.
Apple designed the iPhone 7 with water resistance in mind, adding adhesives and rubber seals to the chassis to try and prevent or limit water and dust ingress. The previous iPhone 6s also had partial water resistance, with seals and gaskets added to strategic positions inside the casing to help protect it, but ultimately Apple decided against advertising this as a feature.
A resident of the Russian city of Yakutsk dropped the iPhone 7 Plus into one of the ice fishing holes on the river over the weekend, according to the Russian-language Ykt.Ru. Unable to retrieve it, the iPhone was left in the water overnight until a friend of the owner who was proficient in diving was able to assist.
An Instagram account by the diver, identified as Fedor, explained it took three attempts to find the iPhone in the cold water. Shortly after being pulled from the water, the iPhone turned on successfully, showing it had not been damaged from the drop and the 13 hours of submergence in 4C (39.2 F) water.
A video posted by Fedor (@emfedor1983) on Jan 20, 2017 at 11:37pm PST
Before entering the water, it is believed the iPhone 7 Plus had 35 percent of its charge remaining. Once pulled from the river bed and back in the owner's hands, it was found to have 19 percent battery life remaining.
The iPhone 7 isn't actually a waterproof device, with its IP67 rating advising it is capable of surviving immersion at a depth of one meter (3.3 feet) for 30 minutes. This is intended more for accidental splashes or drops into water, such as a sink or at the beach, instead of being used for swimming or other underwater purposes.
Apple designed the iPhone 7 with water resistance in mind, adding adhesives and rubber seals to the chassis to try and prevent or limit water and dust ingress. The previous iPhone 6s also had partial water resistance, with seals and gaskets added to strategic positions inside the casing to help protect it, but ultimately Apple decided against advertising this as a feature.
Comments
Anyway, it's a great video. Nice how the diver was coy about finding it at first — assuming all this is for real.
Also, iit's interesting that a guy in Yakutsk is sporting a 7 Plus. And that it survived, if this is true. (Too bad I have to include these disclaimers.)
It all depends on how the the phone itself impacts a hard surface.
If you are so worried, get a good Otterbox case and you're good to go.
But we don't know how deep! (It appears that the diver is standing, so it would seem about 1.5m+ deep.)
Within the hour I had blow dried it for 10 minutes, and after getting poor results, I then buried it 8 hours in a pound of rice (best desiccant you can get).
Before the rice, I was still getting an issue with recognizing no headphones (NOTE: reason why the headphone jack is an issue is that there appears to be a electronics that detects a jack in place, and it is very water sensitive) , and it wasn't charging, and it took several tries to get it to backup to iTunes (to the point I was concerned I had toasted it). After the rice, everything seems to be good (48 hours and counting).
I'm counting down the months to my iP8, as I have a couple 'Pepsi Syndrome' events a year.
What everyone does seem to agree on is that you shouldn't try and power it up until you are certain all the moisture is gone or you have a high risk of shorting out circuits.
Bases on on how my phone died after such shallow and short exposure I would consider this a HUGE exception and likely to never be repeated. The phone is not waterproof not even close.
Apple claims the iPhone 7 is water resistant, not exactly waterproof. There is a huge difference between being water resistant and waterproof.
Afterthought: if one uses a vacuum cleaner, hold the nozzle a short distance away so as not to form a damaging suction on the speakers, etc.