If your device is charged you can prove it actually works; if it's not, you can say "Well, it works, but it happens not to be charged--that's why it isn't doing

If your device is charged you can prove it actually works; if it's not, you can say "Well, it works, but it happens not to be charged--that's why it isn't doing anything." Presumably the idea is that techniques used to convert a laptop or phone into a bomb would render the device inoperable. It certainly seems like a harder task to make a bomb that is also a phone, rather than a bomb that used to be a phone.