Takes a Licking…
Just on a whim today I put the battery back in my old phone – the one that went through the washing machine – and to my surprise it started up and proceeded to start looking for a signal. Apparently it just needed a couple days to dry out.
It never found a signal, though I think that had more to do with it not being registered on the network anymore than any washing-machine related damage. The “End Call/Power Off” button seems to be broken, but everything else seems to work okay, and I was able to grab all my phone numbers off of it.
So, if you’re ever travelling back in time to circa 2002 for the purposes of buying a cell phone that’ll take some abuse, I can heartily recommend the Samsung A540.