Imagine losing a smartphone, only to have it resurface seven months later, fully intact and functional. This is what happened to a South Korean man who inadvertently lost his Galaxy S5 while working in a persimmon orchard last year, only to stumble across the phone more than half a year later.

After drying the phone out and recharging it (even Ultra Power Saving Mode isn’t that good), the IP67-rated device booted up and worked just as it did before it spent a winter in the great outdoors. Apparently the phone had been on silent when it was accidentally lost in the orchard, and subsequent searches were unable to locate it, until the man came across the wayward phone this week while plowing soil in the orchard.



In a perfect win for Samsung’s marketing department, the man, 70-year-old Bae Gyu-ryong, said “I was surprised to see the smartphone, which went through rain and snow, being fully functional. The Galaxy S5 boasts excellent waterproof features.” No doubt: seven months of exposure to wind, rain, snow and mud would have most phones staying right where we found them, but not so the Galaxy S5.

Samsung must be thanking its lucky stars that it decided to bring back water-resistancy to the Galaxy S7 range, otherwise this story wouldn’t have quite the silver lining for the company it does. I wonder how long it will be before we start seeing a new breed of YouTube durability test: “Can the Galaxy S7 survive 12 months outside?”

Have you ever found a long-lost phone? Did it manage to survive?