The phrase “the phones are running hot” has the potential for a double meaning in the smartphone age, with increasingly processor-intensive apps being used on mobile devices. Desktop computers make use of water cooling to keep their CPUs from overheating, so why can’t smartphones? Why not, indeed. NEC has done just that with the Medias X N-06E, the world’s first water-cooled smartphone.
At the heart of the Medias X N-06E is a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro running at 1.7 GHz that has its heat drawn away to the sides of the phone by a water-filled heatpipe. Of course, this chip can be found in a range of devices, including the LG Optimus G Pro and HTC One, neither of which seem to be experiencing overheating issues.
While the chip supports clocking up to 1.9 GHz, NEC is sticking to 1.7 GHz for the water-cooled phone, so it’s unlikely users will see any real performance boost. The only real benefits we can see would be the potential to possibly extend the life of the chip or keep the phone cooler in your hot little hand…
The phone comes running Android 4.2 and also features a 4.7-inch 720 x 1,280 OLED display, 13.1-megapixel shooter, 2,300 mAh battery and waterproof and dustproof casing (IPX5, 8/IP5X) – which also gives users the option of dunking the phone in a pool of water if they want some other form of water cooling.
It comes in pink or white and has lots of sparkly-warkly accessories, too.
So now the TSA will have to inspect your smartphone, or perhaps you have to check it. Don’t have time? It will merely be seized. Perhaps you can pay $20 to have it shipped to you, if it’s not lost, for which you have no recourse.
The Galaxy S3 runs cool as a cuke.
Just add a siphon tube, valve, and outflow and you could make tea.
Very worthwhile.
So they did this which is likely silent and sealed rather than using a fan which would draw dust inside the unit. I don’t see a problem.
Basic thermo-dynamics:
Liquid-cooling still requires vents and in most cases a fan to dissipate the heat and cool the liquid at the radiator end of the heat pipe sufficiently.
Compu-nerds add liquid cooling to their PCs even if it doesn’t require the advanced cooling (ie no over-clocking).
They do it just because they want to be l33t like their online buddies.
It is in almost all cases a fad/geek thing to do and not a necessity.
The major negative of liquid cooling is the inevitable leaking.
Google the liquid cooled Power Mac and PC leaks for all kinds of laugh-at-the-nerd enjoyment.
This is why none of my (software developer) office PCs or Macs are liquid cooled models.
In an emergency, you can always pee on it, the way we did with overheated mortar tubes in ‘Nam…
.. so that was YOU!
Gimmick.
I prefer liquid nitrogen.
It’s nice to see that the limited sales of this nonsense are probably going to pay off R&D, production costs and (gasp) even make some money.
Unfortunately some of today’s gadget are created just to make headlines rather than fill a useful purpose.
Hmmm. A water jacket round a hand-held electrical device.
Sure! What could possibly go wrong?
This reads like the pitch for Jackass: The Movie.
Does this mean that these phones are dunkable, since they’ve already got water inside them?