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Enthusiast cooled iPhone 18 Pro with cold can of La Croix sparkling water; benchmarks show 25% higher sustained performance — 'liquid cooling' surprisingly reduced thermal throttling Would a can of cold Red Bull offer even more performance? Tech enthusiast and developer Matt Birchler has tested an Apple iPhone 18 Pro with a can of La Croix used as a cooling device to address persistent thermal throttling that he noticed during his other tests with the phone. Surprisingly, this yielded much stronger results than one would assume, given that he simply placed the can of sparkling water on top of the phone, providing a 25% improvement in sustained performance. Birchier has been benchmarking the A20 Pro processor inside the iPhone 18 Pro, and it has so far offered excellent transcription results in its normal non-sparkling-water-cooled configuration. In one test run, the latest Apple smartphone hit a maximum speed of 447.9 words per second, before settling down to a little over 320 for the 7th to the 20th runs. The reduced performance during the latter stages of a prolonged benchmark run is normal for nearly every portable device, as they reduce performance to avoid thermally damaging their chips and other components. It’s exactly for this reason that high-performance computers often come with the best CPU coolers, with some enthusiasts preferring the best AIO coolers or custom water-cooling loops to get the most out of their high-end processors. However, this usually isn’t possible with most mainstream phones, unless you’re running a specialized gaming handset like the liquid-cooled Redmagic 11 Pro — but it seems that Birchler found a solution for the iPhone 18 Pro. “I did some benchmarking today and saw how the newest iPhone thermal throttles, which isn’t severe, but does happen,” the developer said. “I know from experience that if you put a cold beverage on the back of your phone, it will cool down really quick, so I thought…the test is obvious.” So, Birchler pulled out an ice-cold can of La Croix from the fridge, started a benchmarking session consisting of 20 runs, and placed the drink on the back of the phone. After the tests were completed, the results were as expected: even though its initial run had a slightly lower result of 429.5 words per second, the “liquid-cooled” iPhone 18 Pro had a higher average of 400.4. This meant that giving the iPhone a cold drink helped it sustain around 25% higher performance, but at the cost of keeping the phone facing down while running heavy loads. The average user wouldn’t need cooling solutions like these for most mobile devices. But if you use your device for extensive loads, like gaming or shooting and editing photos and videos, you might notice slower performance and a dimmer screen after a few minutes. You could follow Birchler’s lead and strap a cold drink to the back of your phone to reduce thermal throttling, but it’s going to be inconvenient and impractical. After all, it’s quite awkward to hold your phone while a can is sticking out of its back. This is why some smartphone accessory manufacturers make devices like the Black Shark Magnetic Phone Cooler 6 Pro for gamers or the SmallRig Universal Hyper Chill Cooling Phone Cage and the Tilta Khronos Advanced Kit for filmmakers. Other enthusiasts have also experimented with their own designs, like this monstrous SSD cooling solution strapped to the back of an iPhone 17 Pro Max. These will allow you to squeeze more performance from your phone, but at the expense of an impractical design, additional weight, and shorter battery life. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. - bill001g What another article based on some guy on reddit flexing or maybe some tiktok video. So many people doing stupid stuff to get recognition on the internet.Reply This is stupid to call it liquid cooling because a can of soda has liquid in it. What about a bag of ice from the freezer. If he puts a piece of dry ice on the back can he then claim he has a cryogenically cooled phone. There have been silly fans to cool cell phones for along time. A phone is not built for long term sustained performance. Even if you do this the actual parts are like not designed to function long term even if you keep them cold. - lIlIlIlIlIllI Another braindead article, we have phone coolers for that, is everything just about senseless popularity nowadays?Reply - markblu Why not put the phone on top of the can lol. My wife edits some video on her iPhone, I mean its silly to put the phone upside down. Does make sense but silly. Definitely click bate article but it makes sense to do while rendering or if you are mirroring to TV using a lot of processing power. Gonna try it lol but with the phone on top of the can, should get same results but you can use the phone hahahahaReply - LongTallMatt Reply You need more things to fill out your day.VizzieTheViz said:So putting something cold on a phone cools it? Imagine that.
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