Working iPhone 11 returned to owner nearly 6 months after it fell in a lake

The iPhone 11 has a water resistance rating that says it can survive in up to two metres for up to 30 minutes, but here's what happened when a user dropped it in a lake six months ago.

Apple iPhone 11 (Unsplash)

Apple's recent iPhones, like many other expensive devices, come with an IP (ingress protection) rating that certify the device to be safe under water for a specific amount of time. The iPhone 11 has a rating of IP68 (meaning it can survive a maximum depth of two meters up to 30 minutes) but a recent news report claims the device was able to survive for much longer - nearly six months underwater.

According to a report from AppleInsider, freediver couple from Chilliwack managed to retrieve two phones from the bottom of Harrison Lake in British Columbia. The couple regularly clear rubbish from the bottom of the lake and found the phones - one flip phone and the other an iPhone 11. While the former was inoperable, the latter started working when they took it home, the report states.

The couple then contacted the original owner of the device, a resident of Vancouver who reportedly dropped her phone into the lake in September 2020. The owner, Fatemeh Ghodsi, lost her balance when the device fell into the lake after which she was told that there was no way to retrieve it from the water, according to the report.

She told CBC Canada that she was in “complete shock” and that she first thought it was her friends pranking her as the message had arrived from her old number, but she ended up visiting the couple in Chilliwack to get her smartphone back. "It was kind of like a zombie phone coming back to me, because I'd totally make (sic) peace with it being gone,” she stated.

Last month, we reported about another iPhone user who plunged into the freezing water at Victoria Harbour to pick up his iPhone that had fallen in the night before on Valentine's Day, only to find it was working fine and photos that a bystander had clicked of him delivered immediately once he turned it on in his pocket. It certainly looks like Apple's devices are more durable than the company advertises, but don't go dropping them in large water bodies - your warranty will be void if there's any water damage.