What’s happened? The Chinese consumer electronics brand RedMagic is bringing a key desktop-grade innovation to smartphones to improve their sustained performance: liquid cooling.
- At the RedMagic Tech Conference, the company introduced the first mass-produced liquid cooling system specifically designed for smartphones.
- It includes a fluorinated cooling liquid that operates between -40°C and 70°C and an active pump that sends the coolant to the required parts of the mechanism.
- The system also uses a piezoelectric micropump that actively circulates the coolant through dedicated micro-channels, achieving a breakthrough in miniaturization technology.
Why is this important? Unlike vapor chambers, which use a liquid that heats, evaporates away from the heat-generating components, and then condenses back into a liquid, RedMagic’s technology features an active pump to circulate the coolant around the critical components (similar to those found on desktops).
- Liquid cooling has been the gold standard for thermal management in PCs and servers, helping to maintain optimal temperatures during sustained workloads.
- Bringing the technology to smartphones will dramatically improve heat dissipation, a critical factor in determining the peak performance (and the endurance) of a smartphone.
- The improvement could benefit workflows like intensive gaming or on-device AI applications, alleviating the performance bottleneck that comes with the rise in temperature.
Why should I care? For end users like you and me, the liquid cooling system will keep smartphones cooler, even under intense workloads, and provide more stable performance.
- For instance, the technology could help sustain higher frame rates in a video game for a longer period.
- Added thermal stability also prolongs the overall lifespan of a smartphone’s battery.
- Chip manufacturers might leverage the technology to create even more powerful smartphone processors.
OK, what’s next? I can see the active liquid cooling mechanism making its way to gaming smartphones. In fact, the company has confirmed that the upcoming RedMagic 11 Pro series will feature the liquid cooling system as well as the air cooling technology we’ve seen on the RedMagic 10 Pro. Other manufacturers, particularly those in China, could either implement the technology in their smartphones or develop a similar one in the near future.
