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LG's First 5G Phone Includes Vapor Chamber to Prevent Overheating

The chamber covers a good chunk of the phone's interior to help keep the major components inside cool. LG will show off the 5G device next month at Mobile World Congress.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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LG's first 5G smartphone will debut next month with an interesting feature under the hood: a vapor chamber to prevent overheating.

MWC 2019 BugThe upcoming device swaps out the traditional heat pipe for a water-powered chamber, which absorbs heat more efficiently than air. The chamber also covers a good chunk of the phone's interior to help keep the major components inside cool. Compared with the LG V40's heat pipe, the vapor chamber is about 2.7 times larger in term of a surface area.

In a press release, LG said it added the vapor chamber to improve the phone's stability. But left unmentioned was how the cooling mechanism might address a potential concern with the 5G high-speed modem inside overheating when it comes to streaming large amounts of content, like downloading a movie.

We'll have to wait and see how this all works when the phone debuts at Mobile World Congress next month in Barcelona, Spain. Another lingering question is if any hardware sacrifices were made to include the vapor chamber.

In the meantime, LG has revealed some other key details about the upcoming device, including how it'll come equipped with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 855 processor, which can offer up to a 45 percent faster CPU performance than the older 845 chip.

LG is also well aware the phone's 5G modem may guzzle a lot of power. So the company included a somewhat large 4,000mAh battery.

The Korean vendor teased the upcoming phone months after Sprint said it was partnering with LG to bring a the first 5G phone to the carrier's network. The handset is scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2019.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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