The Samsung Galaxy S26 Has A Clever New Cooling Trick To Compete With The iPhone 17 Pro

With the introduction of the Galaxy S26 series, Samsung announced it had greatly improved the vapor chamber on all three of its newest models. These upgrades provide a boost in performance while serving as a direct response to Apple's first smartphone with a vapor chamber, the iPhone 17 Pro. While it's not possible to say which company has the best vapor chamber cooling system, as both use the same physics, the thermal architecture differs to make the most out of each device.

Compared to the Galaxy S25 series, Samsung says the vapor chambers are about 29% better at dissipating heat on its Galaxy S26 and S26+ models. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S26 Ultra's vapor chamber is said to be 21% more efficient than its 2025 counterpart. While the vapor chambers themselves appear larger in teardown videos, size isn't the only difference. Some of these heat dissipation improvements can be attributed to tailored thermal interface material (TIM) that is now positioned along the sides of the processor — think of this like the thermal paste you might apply between your computer's CPU and its heat sink.

With all these improvements, Samsung says its new models perform better in everyday activities like recording videos, gaming, or multitasking. Powering it all is a new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, which offers 19% better CPU performance, a 24% boost in GPU performance, and 39% NPU gains for Galaxy AI features. Those improvements should be noticeable to users thanks to the new thermal design — in other words, the cooling system should help more intense tasks have more sustained performance, and battery life shouldn't degrade as fast.

Samsung touts the new Galaxy S26 Ultra as the perfect device for "demanding sessions," and adds that the Galaxy S26 and S26+ are also "optimized for long gaming sessions." Thanks to the improved cooling system, you should have no problems playing Fortnite or Genshin Impact for hours, and even using Galaxy AI for everyday tasks, like Live Translate, Circle to Search, Generative Edit for photos, or Note assist.

The company also says that Vulkan-optimized games can better render light and shadows, while ray-tracing makes the gaming experience more realistic with help from the vapor chamber and the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. Benchmark results bear that out in most scenarios, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra often scoring higher than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. While real-life scenarios might tell a different story depending on what users do, it's clear that Samsung was focused on sustainable performance in this generation. It's also important to note that the Korean company offers customizable RAM, as the 1 TB models can feature up to 16 GB of memory instead of the regular 12 GB, which can impact performance as well.

While Samsung tweaked the vapor chamber experience previous Galaxy users already knew, Apple finally took a step forward with a better cooling system on the iPhone. After two iterations of iPhone models with titanium frames, which weren't great for making the iPhone cooler, Apple decided to go back to aluminum while adding a custom-made vapor chamber for its Pro series. According to the company, it seals deionized water inside the vapor chamber, which, combined with the aluminum chassis, helps move heat away from the A19 Pro chip. Similar to what Samsung does, Apple is trying to make the chip run as cool as possible by dissipating heat through the device.

Like the Galaxy S26 series, Apple was able to achieve impressive gains in its new chip with help from the vapor chamber. The company says this internal design change delivers up to 40% better sustained performance, and it also touts gaming, video editing, and improved AI features — all of that with a bigger battery that makes the iPhone 17 Pro Max last longer than all previous models. In other words, whether customers choose the Galaxy S26 Ultra or the iPhone 17 Pro Max, they can expect some of the best sustained performance available on the market right now.