Apple is looking to make a major change on the inside of its next iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max for a better thermal management system. According to a tip from reputable leak source Majin Bu., Apple is testing a vapor chamber cooling system in these phones—a first for iPhones. The vapor chamber is quite different from Apple’s long-standing thermal management idea that is focused heavily on passive aluminum and graphite solutions, so any improvement in cooling will be a great benefit for consumers. Importantly, vapor chambers are already utilized at a much wider scale in high-end Android smartphones, so improvements could be significant for how future iPhones manage heat while taxing the conservative hardware.
Vapor chambers utilize the phase change of a liquid (normally water) to vapor and and vice versa to carry and dissipate heat more evenly across a broader area. When a vapor chamber gets too hot it evaporates liquid from the chamber and the vapor moves to a cooler section of the chamber, condenses then recycles back to the chamber via a wick structure. Repeat. The continual evolution of liquids and vapor is designed to create a more stable internal temperature to Quick Start avoiding thermal throttling (a performance blemish when something heats up too quickly).
The incorporation of this thermal technology is important because the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are also expected to have next-gen silicon that produces even more heat than before. The iPhone Pro models will have the A19 Pro chip, which is reportedly being fabricated on an even smaller process, and up to 12GB of RAM. Again, Apple simply is going to throw more silicon and memory at AI features and will enable higher performance for gaming, video rendering, and multitasking. As devices become more powerful, thermal control only becomes more critical not just for performance, but also giving a user a best-in-class experience and increasing device lifetime.
From the leaked designs, we can tell that Apple is still working on developing the vapor chamber. One variation is said to utilize a chamber wrapping around the rear camera module in order to better spread heat from the back of the phone, but it sounds like Apple is still dealing with "critical heat issues" that arose from prototype iterations, causing the company to keep tweaking the layout and materials. At the time of writing, it is not clear if the vapor chamber will even be utilized in the iPhone 17 Pro or in its current design but sources indicate Apple is serious about using vapor chambers provided the testing is successful.
Right now, the vapor chamber seems to be limited to the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, but it could come to other models in the future—this will depend on several things, including development, thermal characteristics, internal space and costs.
Apple should announce the iPhone 17 series in September 2025 as per its scheduled release. As that date draws closer, we expect to see previews of hardware and cooling details making their way through the supply chain reports and leaks. If all goes according to plan, the addition of vapor chamber cooling will be an important upgrade for iPhone users looking for peak performance and sustained efficiency in future iOS devices.