iPhone 17 Rumored to Feature Major Thermal Design Upgrade

The iPhone 17 lineup will feature a vapor chamber heatsink to improve thermal performance, according to a new report.

iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Horizontal Single Feature
The news comes from Chinese tech news site MyDrivers, which claims that the entire ‌iPhone 17‌ lineup, consisting of the ‌iPhone 17‌, ‌iPhone 17‌ Air, ‌iPhone 17‌ Pro, and ‌iPhone 17‌ Pro Max, will adopt the improved thermal heat spreader.

Vapor chamber technology is already used in many high-end Android devices. Vapor chambers work by spreading heat evenly across a larger surface area, preventing thermal throttling and maintaining consistent performance, which is particularly beneficial in slim devices.

While the notorious thermal issues of the iPhone 15 Pro were seemingly resolved thanks to the iPhone 16 Pro's new aluminum thermal substructure, graphene sheet, and back glass, the report claims that the device still struggles under intense thermal load. A vapor chamber heatsink would apparently resolve this and allow for better sustained performance.

Last year, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the ‌‌iPhone 17‌‌ Pro Max will also have an exclusive cooling system that combines vapor chamber technology with graphene sheets. Contrary to the latest report, Kuo said that the other new iPhone models launching in 2025 will continue to rely solely on graphene sheets.

Related Roundup: iPhone 17

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Top Rated Comments

Brian_v11 Avatar
5 hours ago at 06:34 am
Found on MSN.com

Attachment Image
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ricketysquire Avatar
7 hours ago at 04:44 am
iPhone 20, now water cooled with a gigantic argb AIO coolersticking out of it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Andres Cantu Avatar
6 hours ago at 05:19 am
They’ve been saying this for years. I’ll believe until I see it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ATmahe Avatar
6 hours ago at 04:51 am

iPhone 20, now water cooled with a gigantic argb AIO coolersticking out of it.
Of course on the diagonal opposite corner of the camera bump, to keep the wobble :D
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DMG35 Avatar
6 hours ago at 05:09 am
That's what they said with the 16 and mine still gets hot.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JapanApple Avatar
5 hours ago at 06:02 am

Vapor chamber cooling has apparently been a thing for a while on the higher-end Android phones, where I imagine heat has been a bigger issue for a longer time than on the iPhone.

Since the iPhone 15 or so, they seem to have had heat issues. Whatever they do, the fact that they are trying to do something about it is encouraging.
I own a pro max 14 series. I have a cooling problem nowadays also, but as I said I wanna see the improvements. I want to see it to believe it. Because every year they say that the cooling Improves.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)