I am not questioning the coating,but wondering at the science behind the process . I know that the coating would prevent water damage such as oxidation. However, if the conduction works, we know that water conducts better than air. Perhaps this is why the devices in the few videos that show the failure have failed. Of course I can only speculate, and definitely accept the fact that I probably am missing the obvious.
The coating on the phone is hydrophobic. Water in it's purest form isn't conductive. It is the impurities in water which make it conductive (here's a small
video explanation if that's easier). In all likely hood, when you drop your phone in water you're not dropping it in distilled water but in water with impurities. This would imply that the product creates an insulating barrier large enough to resist electricity jumping from the board into the water and back.
Perhaps this is why the devices in the few videos that show the failure have failed.
With the former explanation out of the way I'll elaborate on what I said about insulating barriers to explain why the "failure failed". One of the properties of electricity is that it will take the path of least resistance. Take, for example, a resistor. It is designed to adjust the current and voltage going into a component of a circuit which is represented by
Ohm's law I=V/R. If there was no protective coating on your phone; you dropped your phone in water with impurities; and the resistance of the water was less than that of the resister on the electrical path, then the electricity would travel through the water skipping the electrical component (assuming there isn't a closer electrical path that it would jump to instead as it's not always guaranteed to end up on the same wire). This means that the component which receives the electricity will not have the proper amperage and voltage it needs because it didn't pass through the resistor. The component could become damaged. This won't necessarily damage the component physically if the amperage is lower than required but it could throw off the logic which could crash the computer (
in this case you can let your phone dry and it will still boot later). If the amperage was higher than the component expects then it could become physically damaged because high amperage is what generates heat in components and could melt it into a non-functioning state if it is highly sensitive (
in this case you would need a phone replacement). This is by all means what a short circuit is.
If you still need more technical explanation maybe google around for terms like heat convection and why do resistors conduct heat.
IN A NUTSHELL: The fact that the phone still works while being underwater proves that the coating actually works. Unless they were being sneaky using distilled water and kept changing it.
Hopefully, that clears things up for you smacula. I found it difficult to explain without getting technical but I tried to keep it as simple as I could (unless you know electrical engineering concepts then ignore my simplicities).
SAM
