Apple’s upcoming foldable iPhone, reportedly called the iPhone Ultra, is expected to arrive without Face ID, MagSafe, a telephoto camera, an Action Button, and a physical SIM card slot.
That’s a long list of omissions for a device likely starting around $2,000. So what did Apple spend its engineering budget on instead? Apparently, keeping the thing cool.
A fresh detail emerged this week confirming that the iPhone Ultra will include vapor-chamber cooling, with its thermal performance being described as genuinely impressive.
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The iPhone Air, which Apple also designed around a super-slim profile, does not have vapor-chamber cooling. So the technology skipping the Air but landing inside an even thinner foldable device wasn’t something anyone predicted.
Apple introduced vapor chambers to the iPhone lineup with the iPhone 17 Pro last year, using circulating deionized water to pull heat away from the chip and spread it through the aluminum frame.
Apple claimed a 40% improvement in sustained performance for demanding workloads compared to older graphite-based systems.
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Fitting that system inside a phone that folds into roughly the width of four credit cards stacked together is a genuinely tricky engineering problem. Which might explain why production has been rough.
Beyond the cooling system, the iPhone Ultra is shaping up around a 7.8-inch inner screen, a 5.5-inch cover display, Apple’s A20 chip, the C2 modem, Touch ID instead of Face ID, and two rear cameras.
The vapor chamber detail sits atop all that as a sign that Apple is treating thermal management as non-negotiable, even as it trims features that have been standard on Pro iPhones for years.
