The Coca Cola Challenge: Bad for your Health, but Good for your Mobile?

In a previous post we mentioned that mobiles.co.uk were offering the chance for someone to win a Samsung U600 phone for the sole purpose of providing it with its untimely death. Well we at Gaj-it.com were victorious in obtaining the phone and promised a scientific experiment in order for the phone to meet its sticky end.

We posed the idea:

We've all seen the effect that Coca-Cola has on a dirty coin by making it look fresh from the mint again after it's been soaked for a few hours. What would happen if a mobile phone was soaked in a glass coke for a few weeks?

Well the results are in, and depending on whether you're a nutritionist or an electrical engineer, the outcome is quite surprising.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the phone pre-Coke bath.

Nothing wrong there. Then I found a glass with instructions for a refreshing cocktail.

And thought to myself: I'd really like a Cuba Libre right now but unfortunately there's no rum in the house. What could I possibly use instead?

Perfect.

And voila, one refreshing drink which you would only find in certain bars after 3am when the owner of the phone is lying comatose on the floor.

So my hypothesis in this very clinically controlled experiment was to see if the phone would disintegrate away (or at least form rusty patches) after being soaked in Coke, like our teeth are rumoured to do.

I left this lovely specimen on my kitchen bench next to the cornflakes, much to the dismay of my other half who continually chided me, on health and safety grounds, for setting up a laboratory in an area where we prepare food. I kept assuring him that his ham and cheese sandwiches were safe, but after looking at the results of the experiment, I had to concede that he may have had a point.

Firstly, let's take a look at the glass from the front.

Notice the thin layer of mold floating at the top of the Coke like a little ozone layer, paving the way for conditions sympathetic to life gestation.

Now let's take a look at it from a bird's-eye point of view.

All together now"¦ ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

So now for the big question, has the bottom half of the phone fragmented away into the black abyss? Well, not really.

This is the phone after I pulled it out of the Coke while holding my breath.

As you can see, it looks pretty well in tact which I think is great news for my oesophagus. If anything the phone is slightly cleaner with the exposed metal bits shining like new.

The downside to soaking your phone in Coke (apart from the obvious fact that it won’t work any longer) is that the screen will get a bit waterlogged.

And the white label will take on a brownish tint.

Apart from that though, the results are clear. Coke will clean a mobile phone as opposed to deteriorating it, meaning it may actually have a healthy side to it. However, a mobile phone is bad for Coke as it will make the drink grow bacteria colonies which will take over your kitchen and almost break-up your relationship.