Modern smartphones are an incredible invention of technology. With CPUs and GPUs, they are more capable than PCs, but, as a result of all this power in such a small space, keeping the hardware cool has become a real challenge.
Most manufacturers thought outside the box to find a proper solution to keep the phones running cool as the performance ramped up. Water cooling seems to be the ultimate solution in such a case. It’s not the same as the water cooling process used in PCs as there is no actual liquid flowing through the phone’s system.
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In this article, we are going to discuss how does water cooling work on a phone.
Water Cooling In Phone
Cooling by the usage of liquids like water, deionized water, glycol – water solutions, fluorocarbons, and other dielectric fluids in smartphones for dissipation of heat is known as water or liquid cooling.
It is preferred over air cooling systems as this is much more effective. The CPU uses separate fans for each component such as CPU fan, graphics card fan, etc but in water cooling, there are heat sinks and the liquids travel in vaporized form.
Why Is Water Cooling Important
Water or liquid cooling on a phone is important as it reduces the problems caused by the heating of the device. The system is protected from a decrease in processor speed that would affect the overall performance of the smartphone, especially if it’s a gaming phone. Many brands have recently been highlighting this feature, but this mechanism is being used over a long period in PCs, laptops, etc.
Some of the reasons why water cooling, or prevention of phone’s heating, is important are listed below:
- Overheating of phones prevents the working of the battery to its maximum efficiency.
- Over usage of phones or multi-tasking of different applications might be the reason for the quick heating of your device. This must be prevented to ensure a long and smooth running of the smartphone.
- The efficiency of the phone processor, that is, the speed of the phone’s functioning is reduced.
- Heating can be caused due to the running of background applications on your phone. This would slowly lead to a reduction in energy retained in the battery.
How Does Water Cooling Work In A Phone
The traditional way of cooling involves the transfer of heat dissipated to the heat sinks via conduction. Earlier, the heat dissipation was conducted through a metal radiator followed by a replacement with graphite.
This was later replaced by the water-cooling technique as the process of heat transfer by convection of fluids is faster than conduction.
- Its function begins once the processor gets heated up.
- The liquid is transferred to the heat sink as it is vaporized due to the excess heating in the phone.
- In the heat sink, it condenses back into a liquid as it cools back.
- To increase the efficiency of this process, Thermal Interface Material (TIM) is used as a part of the phone hardware for cooling.
- Various brands work on this heating issue to find out excellent solutions by adding their creativity. This is where a few solutions have been introduced in practicality.
Some examples are given below:
Samsung Note 9
- Samsung Note 9 was introduced along with an effective solution to improve its efficiency and reduce the heating problem.
- The changes made by them when compared to their previous version phone were:
~ Widening the thermal pipes
~ Addition of a copper layer between the pair of thermal spreaders. This results in better heat transfer.
- This Water- Carbon cooling system makes it great for the gaming purpose as heating is prevented.
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HONOR
HONOR has this unique design of heat pipe that flows in the shape of ‘S’.
This enhances its function as it runs close to all major components in the phone.
Let us take a look at its functioning:
- The functioning is based on simple thermodynamics that involves dissipation of heat by transferring heat to the colder part of the phone.
- After the vapours reach the colder side, they are condensed back to liquid form.
- The heat tube is placed in such a way that the cooled liquid flows back to the overheated area.
- The same process is repeated until equilibrium is attained.
- The features added to enhance this process are:
Heat conduction gel: This gel helps in the process of heat removal in a better way as it has high thermal conductivity.
Components: It consists of a total of 11 heat dispersion parts or components. Another feature is AI SoftCooling Technology.
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What is AI SoftCooling Technology
- HONOR View20 worked on this software that coordinates with different chips and components in the device to ensure:
- Optimal performance
- Optimal temperature regulation
This technology is an add-on to its previous version, thereby taking it to the next level.
Other examples of brands that have implemented a water-cooling mechanism are:
- One Plus 6T McLaren
- Nubia Red Magic
- ASUS Rog phone
- Xiaomi POCO F1
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Now that we have an idea about how water cooling works on the phone, let us proceed to know more about what the reality is, that is, whether this is entirely good or has few glitches.
- As explained earlier, the water cooling system works on the principle of convection and the surface area of the heat pipe plays a major role in determining the rate of heat transfer.
Since we are using this technology inside the phone, neither can we expect the surface area to be large nor can we expect it to be having a circular diameter, as it would be a bit flat according to the phone’s structure.
Hence, this points out that the convection process would be difficult.
- Another point is that unlike in big PCs one cannot place pumps inside a phone. So, the rate of heat transfer would be slow.
- The heating tube is just a path through which the heat from the processor reaches the heat sink. So, ultimately the efficiency of the heat sink plays the main role that the heat pipe.
- However, the liquid cooling system is sure to slow down the temperature rise, if not drastically reduce it.
- Water is not used as it is not suitable to be placed inside the gadget. Usually, insulated mineral oils or other fluids that undergo evaporation are used.
So, in this article, we have seen the various aspects and facts about water cooling or liquid cooling in phones. Hope it was useful for you to know about the technology as well as the brands that have equipped their gadgets with it.
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