Apple's iPhone Ultra may be borrowing a cooling trick that Android flagships have used for years.
A Chinese Weibo account known as Fixed Focus Digital posted claims this week that the iPhone Ultra will include a vapor chamber - a flat sealed cavity that spreads heat by circulating a small amount of liquid, dissipating thermal load more effectively than the graphite sheets Apple currently relies on in its phones. The leaker also offered an update on release timing. Apple has not confirmed any of this.
The addition would make sense for an "Ultra" tier device. Higher-end chips running sustained workloads - extended Pro Res video recording, on-device AI inference - generate more heat than a standard iPhone chip can shed comfortably. Samsung has shipped vapor chambers in Galaxy flagships for several years, partly because its processors run hot under load; Apple adding one would suggest its own silicon is finally producing enough heat to warrant the hardware change.
One Weibo post does not a product roadmap make. Fixed Focus Digital has a mixed track record, and Apple supply chain leaks tend to sharpen in accuracy as a release approaches - which, if this same leaker's timing update is to be believed, may not be far off.