Algae-covered iPhone 12 found in working condition after being underwater for 3 months

The iPhone 12 comes with an IP68 rating and can only last for 30 minutes in deep water.

An iPhone 12 managed to survive three months submerged underwater in an incident that has baffled everyone. The device was found by a diver who was cleaning a river in North Carolina. The phone was completely covered in algae, according to a report by Apple Insider.

The iPhone 12 comes with an IP68 rating and can only last for 30 minutes in 6-meter deep water. The device isn’t meant to survive for this long in water but proved to be surprisingly resilient.

A man named Lee reached out to Apple Insider to share his story after discovering the phone while cleaning the Stanislaus River for chinook salmon. He found it on November 10, coated in a layer of algae.

He cleaned up the phone and set it aside to dry for a few days. Six days later, he managed to switch it on after connecting to a charger. The device did not have a passcode and Lee could see all the recent pictures and videos. The last clip recorded was at the river on September 4, suggesting it had been submerged for three months.

While the man hasn’t been able to locate the owner, he has plans to reach out to some of the contacts listed in the iPhone 12.

This is not the first time that an iPhone survived underwater for long. In 2016, an iPhone 4 was found at the bottom of a lake after one year. The device managed to work properly albeit some visible damages. The iPhone 11 Pro is said to have survived 30 days inside a freezing lake.