Your next iPhone might have a vapor chamber inside to keep everything cool

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Famed Apple soothsayer, Ming-Chi Kuo is back with another insight into a future iPhone model. This time it’s to do with the cooling system, with Apple said to be “aggressively” testing vapor chamber thermal solutions.

That testing suggests that the iPhone may get vapor chambers to cool down the A-series ARM chips that power them, which will keep your fingers happier. He’s not sure if the tech will be ready for the 2021 iPhone range, so maybe expect it to come in the 2022 models.

Vapor chamber systems use a sealed system with a liquid inside, usually water, that evaporates under heat, making it able to quickly transfer heat away from the component it’s cooling. That liquid vapor then cools down in another part of the system, and returns back to the hot component as liquid, starting the cycle again.

Apple has apparently been working on such a system for some time now, with its early efforts not meeting the company’s high standards for reliability. With 5G becoming more widespread and CPU power increasing, it’s clear that Apple needs to find a new thermal solution for the iPhone range, and vapor chambers are one possibility.

Improving the thermal solution in the iPhone would let Apple squeeze more power out of their CPU as well, further increasing their lead over Android in pure power. We’ve seen vapor chamber cooling work effectively, like on the RedMagic 5S we recently looked at, so are excited to see Apple working on this tech.

Have any thoughts on this? Would you like to see vapor chambers in the next iPhone? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.