This iPhone 15 Pro survived 22 hours underwater

iPhone 15 Pro on a tree stump
(Image credit: Gerald Lynch / Future / Apple)

One lucky iPhone owner has revealed their device survived nearly an entire day underwater and emerged completely unscathed. 

Apple’s best iPhone, the iPhone 15 Pro, might only have a waterproof rating of IP68, but Redditor Gerodot01 says their model survived for 22 hours on the bed of a freshwater river. 

According to Apple’s official rating, the iPhone 15 Pro can withstand water ingress at a maximum depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes. Broadly speaking, your iPhone is splash and waterproof, so you shouldn’t have any trouble if you drop it in the bath or the sink, or even a swimming pool on holiday. Clearly, however, Apple might well be understating the water-repellant powers of the model, as this user found out recently. 

Under the sea

Taking to Reddit Tuesday, the owner of the phone in question stated that “the phone lay at a depth of 2.5 meters for 22 hours in fresh water in the river. After that I took it out, it was discharged, but after drying it turned on.” 

Naturally, the speakers “did not work well at first,” but after they dried out “the phone returned to the state it was in before being submerged in water.” 

We wouldn’t recommend trying this at home, but it’s nice to know that your iPhone 15 Pro might well be a lot hardier than Apple gives it credit for. 

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such stories, either. Late last year, someone found an iPhone 12 at the bottom of a river in California that still worked after an astonishing three months underwater

Apple continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible with iPhone durability, recently opening a stress testing facility in China that will see its new devices subjected to extreme temperatures and physical testing in order to improve and hone their longevity. Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro at an event in early September. 

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Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9