[Xperia Z3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DarkRaven52:
Hello, ladies and gentlemen (and those inbetween, too)!

I will try to keep this as short as possible. If you want less details, tl;dr section at the end. EDIT: i.... didn't quite think this through

My girlfriend has an Xperia Z3 which she bought from a random seller from Germany (am UK residents). Everything about the phone was great, it was brand-new albeit it has been, apparently, been the display device; but other than that it worked perfectly. We even tested out the waterproofness right after setting up the device and charging it up to see if it works. Back then, it did.

Now, this friday (frikkin' Friday the 13th) she had some sort of an art project going on, which she wanted to do underwater. She does have a GoPro for it, but for some sample shots before finishing out, she decided she could just as well use her Xperia. Now, I was sleeping at the moment so I did not get to witness how she did it, but she assures me she closed the flaps extra carefully. However, after she tried submersing it into water, the screen started blinking randomly, as if there is some problem with LCD matrix of some sorts.

We put the Xperia into a bowl of rice and left it that way overnight. After turning the phone back on, the screen showed first "Sony Xperia" logo, then completely went blank. Just a random look-around on the Internet showed me that for extra help it would be best if you take your water-exposed phone and leave it upside-down while it is drying out. I was hopeless, but I didn't want to disappoint her so I said it would work. I was sure it would work since at times, when turning the phone on, some images did work out (like the charging icon when it's turned off and charging) so most probably the phone is not damaged yet, its just still exposed to water.

Next day, after leaving it just standing there upside down, the screen worked as normal, and normal touch functionality returned as well. Not for long however.

My final hurdle is this: When you turn on the phone (after being in vertical upside-down position) and hold it properly (as in, again, vertically, but upright-down) , the touch functions work very well. For a couple of minutes. After that the touch functionality artifacts (faulty touch detection, ultrahigh sensitivity etc) return. It appears that the water is still there somewhere, and as you hold the phone correctly, it goes down back a bit and impairs functionality.

Now, the question is: What can I do to completely remove the water from the device, seeing as keeping it in rice for 2 days did not remove the impairments from internal water exposure entirely?

So far I've tried only rice. Was bad call, but I did not think of anything better and used a bit of hairdryer at the very beginning of the issue, and yes, I now know that it was a stupid idea.

I think I will leave it in one-two more days upside-down in rice and see how it goes from there. Before turning on, I also thought about using the vacuum cleaner method of attempting to suck the water out of it through available holes.

Any other suggestions, tips and ideas? Would seriously want for things to go back to normal, considering now I do not have a phone (gave mine to girlfriend in place of her ill Xperia).

Thanks for your attention and I hope your devices stay healthy and safe!

tl;dr exposed Xperia Z3 to water with problems, turns out the damage was reversible and everything works well so far but touch functionality is faulty, still water stuck inside the phone that impairs touch screen, tried drying it by leaving in rice, gonna leave in rice for a day or two more and use vacuum cleaner on the holes right after, anything else that I could do?