Samsung's Galaxy S22 may reportedly feature vapor chamber cooling technology commonly found in high-end gaming smartphones.

This is according to a new DigiTimes article, which has yet to be confirmed, but the rumor is apparently strong enough that "several Taiwanese suppliers" are allegedly preparing for a surge in orders.

The article does not specify which handsets are covered other than "new smartphones for 2022," but the Samsung Galaxy S22 and/or Galaxy Z Fold 4 seem like wise bets.

After all, vapor chamber cooling, which uses small vacuum-sealed canisters that dissipate heat as the liquid changes from liquid to gas, is only necessary in powerful phones where overheating and throttling can be a problem. In fact, vapor cooling is generally the monopoly of gaming handsets, where throttling performance is immediately noticeable in the heat of battle, literally.

While nothing concrete is known about the Samsung Galaxy S22 yet, one recent rumor suggests that it may feature a GPU based on AMD's RDNA 2 architecture, which would significantly improve graphics performance. This GPU is also found in the PS5 and Xbox Series X, and while it is unlikely to rival these consoles in overall power, it could indicate that this phone could be a gaming powerhouse. If both reports are true, vapour chamber cooling would fit in nicely.

What is interesting about this is that Samsung is no stranger to vapor chamber cooling and was an early adopter with the Galaxy S10 Plus.

The recent S20 and Note 20 use vapor chamber cooling, but curiously not all models do. iFixIt disassembled two Galaxy Note 20 Ultras and confusingly found two different cooling systems were installed.

This could be due to cost, but it could also be due to the fragility of the parts. As thermal systems engineer Greg Kramer told iFixIt at the time: "Any little crack, dent, or bend can cause a failure.

Moreover, "just a little bit of heating beyond the limit and it will deflate like a balloon," not ideal for Samsung, which had a battery bursting scandal with the Galaxy Note 7 in 2016. It's an ancient piece of smartphone history, and probably still gives the company's executives sleepless nights.

Nevertheless, the vapor cooler was attractive to Samsung not only because of its literal cooling power, but also because of its metaphorical "cool" factor, according to Kramer. When Samsung first adopted the vapor chamber, it is said that the novelty of having a vapor chamber was enough to sell a million phones. Even though the vapor chamber was a more expensive solution, we were able to make up for it with the volume of devices."

Whether vapor cooling solutions will be seen as that exciting in 2021, when gaming phones have made vapor cooling solutions relatively common, remains to be seen. However, it will be interesting to see if this rumor will be realized in Samsung's flagship device in 2022.

Other recent speculation surrounding the Galaxy S22 says that it may feature an improved camera setup and that the screen may be smaller than recent Galaxy flagships. as we get closer to the early 2022 launch date.