While Xiaomi has a history of designing high-performance smartphones, the company is also known to make debatable claims about its hardware innovations. For instance, many engineers were understandably skeptical when Xiaomi claimed it had successfully commercialized long-range wireless charging technology.

From a more hardware-centric perspective, the phone is centered around a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, features up to 12GB of RAM, utilizes a 6.81’ AMOLED front display, and is powered by a 5000mAh battery, which is said to support 67W of turbocharging.

With so much functionality integrated into one device, one might wonder how these many working parts affect thermal design power (TDP).  

To keep the device at tolerable temperatures, Xiaomi says the Mi 11 Ultra takes a completely new approach to cooling with “three-phase cooling technology.” This technology works by using a macromolecular phase change material in place of the processor’s original thermal paste. The material has the ability to change phases between solid, liquid, and gas in order to conduct heat away from the processor.

The concept is similar to that of vapor chamber cooling, which is often used for GPUs in high-power applications like data centers. 

But according to Xiaomi, this new technique—a first in smartphones—may increase thermal conductivity performance by 100%.