Aside from the use of a new 2nm chipset, Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max sport new and larger vapor chambers. Apple also redesigned the interior of the phone so the A20 Pro connects directly to the new vapor chamber for better heat transfer. But it seems that during gaming tests on the iPhone 18 Pro Max, there doesn’t seem to be a particularly huge difference.
iPhone 18 Pro Max gaming tests reveal temperature difference
In a video review of the phones, YouTuber The Tech Chap ran some temperature comparisons of the iPhone 18 Pro Max as part of gaming tests. He put it up against the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. According to the numbers, the iPhone 16 Pro Max fared the worst at 42.9C after 10 minutes of gaming.Â
The iPhone 17 Pro Max, on the other hand, reached 38.7C. As for the iPhone 18 Pro Max, this is where it gets interesting. The phone reached temperatures of 37.2C, giving it a difference of about 1.5C, which honestly isn’t that big of a difference. However, it should be worth noting that vapor chambers aren’t about making heat disappear. It’s about spreading heat more efficiently so that the phone has better sustained performance.
Heat is the enemy of performance in our gadgets. That’s why you notice that older phones stutter when exposed to prolonged heat, similar to our laptops and PCs. But as kro on X points out, this begs the question of how much heat the A20 Pro is actually generating.
That being said, when we compare it against the iPhone 16 Pro, the difference in temperature becomes more glaringly obvious.
What other tests are saying?
Now that we know how the iPhone 18 Pro Max fares in temperature tests, how does it compare against other Android phones? In a test conducted by YouTuber Geekerwan, he pit the iPhone 18 Pro Max against Android phones like the OnePlus 15 and the iQOO 15 Ultra, the latter of which is marketed as a gaming phone and has a dedicated fan unit.
Based on his tests, the iPhone 18 Pro Max more than holds its own. It matches dedicated Android gaming phones while operating at higher power limits while maintaining lower internal temperatures. The iPhone 18 Pro Max reached 5.9W power with an internal temperature of 44.3C.
This is versus the OnePlus 15 which reached 6.1W but ran warmer at 47.2C. The iQOO 15 Ultra with the fan off matched the iPhone’s 5.9W limit, but ran hotter at 47.2C. However, with fans enabled, it achieved a higher power limit of 7.3W at 46.2C.
The post iPhone 18 Pro Max Gaming Tests Show a Surprisingly Small Cooling Gain appeared first on Android Headlines.
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