The iPhone Ultra may feature a vapor chamber cooling
Apple may add vapor chamber cooling to its first foldable iPhone despite the rumored thin chassis. The information was shared (source in Chinese) by Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital, who said that the device will have “quite impressive” thermal performance.The company is claimed to be “really going all out” with the thermal engineering of the upcoming foldable. This is a notable addition, considering that Apple may sacrifice several key features, such as Face ID, telephoto camera, and MagSafe support, because of the thin design of the iPhone Ultra.
Making it in September
The iPhone Ultra could still launch on time. | Image by fpt.
One of the few unanswered questions about Apple’s foldable is whether it will launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro in September, or if it’ll come to the market a bit later. Fixed Focus Digital claims that the pre-assembly manufacturing processes are under pressure, and the production ramp-up is meeting difficulties.Regardless of those, the original launch schedule is still holding, which means we’re likely to get the device on time. The leaker also teased they have more positive news to share tomorrow.
A surprising addition
We’ve heard about the possibility that the iPhone Ultra features a vapor chamber only once before. At the time, it was said that Apple would use the same cooling system it utilized for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max to help boost the foldable’s performance.
Apple won’t be the first brand to use a vapor chamber on a foldable, but that’s a feature other companies have stopped using. Samsung added a vapor chamber to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 but then decided against it for the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
That didn’t really affect the performance, though. In our review of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Rad found that Samsung delivered on its promise to offer a great gaming phone with its foldable. However, a year later, in the review of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, he discovered the performance was not really that different from what the Galaxy S25 offered, despite the considerable throttling.
Good news for the iPhone Air 2
If Apple manages to pack a vapor chamber inside the iPhone Ultra, I’d bet that the iPhone Air 2 will also get one. That could solve one of the less important drawbacks of both models. I’d still prefer a third camera or a larger battery, but I’m not a mobile gamer.
