Apple is planning to bring vapor chamber cooling to its M6 iPad Pro, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max feature a vapor chamber, a liquid-cooling system that helps avoid throttling caused by the heat generated by the smartphones’ powerful chips.
Gurman’s comments came in the latest edition of his “Power On” newsletter. Gurman explained that the new feature could make an appearance as early as the next-generation “M6” generation iPad Pro. The M6 will be made using TSMC’s 2-nanometer process.
The vapor chamber replaces the need for a fan — like those found in the MacBook Pro and Vision Pro — and allows for higher performance. That’s because there’s less throttling, where the operating system slow downs the processor to make sure it doesn’t overheat. Now that Apple’s iPhone chips are nearly as powerful as laptop versions, this feature has become critical.
If the use of a vapor chamber on the iPhone 17Pro and iPad Pro prove successful, Apple could use the technology on other passively cooled devices like the MacBook Air. The next-generation model should arrive in the spring of 2027, according to Gurman.
