The M5-powered iPad Pro line was unveiled by Apple last week and with approximately 18 months between releases, you can expect the M6-powered iPad Pro tablets to hit the market in Spring 2027. When the M6 iPad Pro does arrive, it could contain an internal tool that Apple uses right now to keep the iPhone 17 series cool when the phones are held in users’ hands. That would be a vapor chamber.
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are both equipped with a vapor chamber to stop the phones from getting too hot
Thanks to the powerful A-series application processor (AP) used by Apple on the iPhone, these devices can get hot as some iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro users will tell you. This year, with the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max powered by the A19 Pro AP, Apple wanted to add the vapor chamber to help dissipate the heat created by the 3nm chipset.
The heat pipe (L) on 2018’s LG V40 ThinQ vs. the vapor chamber used on LG’s first 5G phone. | Image credit-LG via PCMag
The vapor chamber is a small vacuum-sealed metal enclosure that contains a small amount of water. The evaporator side of the vacuum chamber touches the phone’s chipset. When the chip heats up, the liquid inside the chamber evaporates into steam. The steam fills the entire chamber carrying the heat away from the chipset. When the vapor is in contact with the cooler, outer walls of the chamber (aka the condenser side), the heat is released and the steam returns to its original liquid form. This is pretty cool in more ways than one.
The iPhone is not the first phone to use this technology
It’s important to understand that Apple didn’t create this technology and it has been used by Apple’s rivals inside their phones, including Samsung. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is working on adding a vapor chamber to the M6-powered iPad Pro series, which, as previously noted, is expected to launch in 2027. While a tablet is larger than a phone allowing it to dissipate heat easier, the tablet’s performance should improve with the inclusion of the vapor chamber.
The 2027 iPad Pro is likely to be powered by the Apple M6 SoC, which should be manufactured by TSMC using its 2nm process node. The new process node should improve the performance and efficiency of the application processor and leave Apple with no choice but to include a vapor chamber for the device so that it doesn’t end up being used as a griddle for cooking pancakes.
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