Can an iPhone 12 survive a trip to the bottom of Lake Tahoe?

What you need to know

• CNET has tested the iPhone 12's waterproofing by sending it to the bottom of a lake.
• Initially, results looked promising, a few days later... not so much.

CNET has put the iPhone 12 through its waterproofing paces by sending it to the bottom of lake Tahoe strapped to a robot for science.

From the report:

First CNET sent the iPhone to 19.6 feet and left it there for 30 minutes. On retrieval, the phone seems to have emerged unscathed apart from some speaker muffling, which is to be expected. As the test notes, with some drying out this likely would have subsided.

They then sent the iPhone all the way to bottom of Lake Tahoe, about 65 feet (20 meters). This is more than three times the iPhone's waterproof rating. After forty minutes, the iPhone emerged and everything again worked as expected, again save some muffling in the speakers. However, the team left the phone for 72 hours then returned to find a significant amount of fogging, and a Diagnostics prompt on the iPhone 12's screen upon booting. The report says its unclear whether the actual water damage, or the change in temperature from cold water to the warm indoors finally killed off the iPhone.