Dived into the sea with your phone, filmed a story from the pool, dropped it in soup — it happens. The case is sealed, after all, and the ad promised immersion down to six metres. But engineers and marketers once again have different ideas about reality: the standard describes how a new device behaves in a lab, not the fate of a phone after a year in your pocket.
What breaks first. Water resistance doesn't rest on magic but on the adhesive gasket around the perimeter of the screen. Over time the glue loses its elasticity, and every drop, every bake in the sun or simple battery replacement adds a breach in the defences. Water doesn't come storming in — it seeps through where things are weak. And it almost always does so quietly, with no splashes on the outside.
That is why opening a "drowned" iPhone always looks the same: pink moisture indicators, whitish streaks on the board and pockets of corrosion at the connectors. The phone may keep working for another day or a week after its swim, then cut out without saying goodbye — a drop simply reached the right contact. Restoring water resistance by eye is impossible: if the board surface looks clean, that doesn't mean corrosion isn't eating away at the track next to it.
Why water isn't covered by warranty. Apple states separately that liquid damage is not covered by service. The special indicators inside the case turn red, and the argument about "accidental exposure" is over before it begins. Let us warn you honestly: a liquid-damaged phone is always a lottery, and the longer it stays wet inside, the lower the chances of an outcome in your favour.
A short note to keep on the shore. Dropped it in water — take it out, switch it off and don't shake it. Don't dry it with a hairdryer, don't charge it straight away and don't put it in rice: the grains will only add to the work. And after a swim in salt water, a rinse in fresh water won't save it — salt is more harmful than moisture and eats away at the contacts. It's best to treat a "sealed" phone like expensive furniture: water isn't poison to it, but the finish doesn't always come out looking good.