Summary
- The logo for Apple’s September 9 event seems to lend credence to a rumor that the iPhone 17 Pro will get a vapor-cooled A19/A19 Pro processor.
- That in turn may hint at a significant jump in performance, since until now Apple has been content to use less conspicuous cooling methods, even on the iPhone 16 Pro. Other products may benefit too.
- I’m not expecting any revolutionary new processor technology, and Apple’s short-term goal may really be to widen the gap between Pro and non-Pro iPhone models.
Apple continues to play up the mystery around its special press events, no matter how many details have leaked ahead of time. And diehard fans often indulge the company’s marketing team, speculating on all the possible interpretations of its images and slogans. For its iPhone 17 event on September 9, one of the most common interpretations of the infrared animated logo is that it references a vapor chamber. That seems very plausible to me — earlier rumors have already suggested that a chamber is being added to the iPhone 17 Pro. It’s also hard to fathom what else it could be pointing to, since it doesn’t match anything else we know (or think we know) about Apple’s plans.
Assuming the vapor chamber hypothesis is right, it could have broader implications than some pundits have talked about so far. Even if it doesn’t spell anything special for the iPhone 17, it could potentially signal that Apple is entering a new era when it comes to its processor tech. Putting an emphasis on “potentially” — I’m not going to overstep my fortune-telling abilities here.
Apple and the vapor chamber of secrets
Definitions and predictions
What is a vapor chamber? The quick explanation is that it’s a mechanically simpler version of what’s happening in your fridge, only adapted to the processors on phones, computers, and other electronics. The chamber itself may take many forms, but tends to consist of flat pipes filled with a liquid. As a processor heats up, that liquid shifts into a vapor, ultimately condensing and releasing heat in a different section of the chamber. This cycle repeats over and over until some degree of equilibrium is reached. Chambers can be made of multiple material layers, and the wider the surface area, the more efficient a chamber becomes.
A leak from Majin Bu suggests that Apple’s chamber will consist primarily of copper, and cover most or all of the iPhone 17 Pro’s logic board, not just the processor. Despite this, it should take up relatively little extra space. When I say flat pipes, I mean it — this isn’t like the bulging air or liquid coolers you might see inside a desktop PC.
The obvious implication is that Apple is expecting a big enough jump in the A19’s performance that better cooling is warranted.
So how is Apple’s adoption of the tech significant? While companies like ASUS, Samsung, OnePlus, and Xiaomi have used vapor chambers in some of their phones — the Galaxy S25 Ultra being a recent example — Apple has until now relied on subtler cooling methods, like an aluminum substructure found in the A18 and A18 Pro chips for the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro. This hasn’t been a problem so far. While an iPhone can certainly overheat in the wrong conditions, you often have to push one to its limits to begin to feel any warmth in your hand. I’ve driven with a windshield-mounted iPhone in Texas summer sun.
The obvious implication is that Apple is expecting a big enough jump in the A19’s performance that better cooling is warranted. This could stem from some fundamental architectural change, such as a dramatically faster GPU, or just exploiting vapor to sustain higher clock speeds. Ignoring the threat of overheating, processors always operate more efficiently when they’re cooler. This is why desktop PC gamers tend to be obsessed with AIO (all-in-one) cooling systems — if they’re efficient enough, you can overclock a CPU or graphics card without any issues, squeezing out a few more frames per second.
Even if Apple doesn’t take a huge leap forward with the A19, it could be laying the groundwork for dramatic improvements in future iPhones, or in other devices. Remember that the company is allegedly working on a cheaper A-series MacBook, for instance, and that the iPad and iPad mini are still based on the A16 and A17 Pro, respectively. Down the road, Apple’s going to need some sort of mobile chip for its AR glasses, and efficient cooling will be crucial to achieving such a small form factor. No one wants to wear something on their head that makes them noticeably sweaty navigating with Apple Maps.
I suspect Apple is at least considering vapor chambers for two products due next year: the iPhone 18 Air and the iPhone Fold. We’re talking about devices with extremely slim bodies, leaving less room for heat to naturally dissipate. A vapor chamber might technically fill up even more of that space, but it could be worth the tradeoff, all the more so if it contributes to better battery life. The iPhone 17 Air, reportedly coming this fall, is expected to have subpar runtimes, such that many owners won’t be able to get through a day without a top-up. Apple should be adopting silicon-carbon batteries, but I digress.
No revolution yet
Some final thoughts
Is Apple planning some sort of unheard-of revolution in processor technology? I doubt it. It’s a trillion-dollar megacorporation with nearly infinite development resources, but the advancement of processor technology has slowed in general, owing to the physics of working at the nanometer scale. Moreover, the company is seeing diminishing returns — most iPhone owners aren’t doing anything more intensive than browsing Instagram or shooting 4K video, for which an A18 Pro is overkill. The M-series chips in Macs and iPads are so powerful that the M1 Max is considered more than enough for professional video editing.
Another question worth asking is whether vapor chambers will really be limited to the Pro iPhones this year, given the benefits they’d have elsewhere. That seems reasonably likely to me for a few years now, Apple has tried to stagger the performance of iPhone processors, giving shoppers more incentive to splurge. An iPhone 17 Pro equipped with a vapor-cooled A19 Pro could be dramatically faster than a base iPhone 17 if the latter is handicapped by a vanilla A19 chip with no special treatment. It might not matter much in practice, but it could make for a great marketing bulletpoint.
The situation is liable to shift in 2026, since Apple likes to gradually slide Pro improvements down to cheaper devices. I can’t say for sure, though. The September 9 event may give us some clue — if a vapor chamber is touted as enabling specific “pro” features, Apple might try to limit the tech to Pro iPhones for as long as it can get away with.
