Overheating of smartphones is increasingly becoming a problem as users worldwide stay connected longer and more frequently with high-speed fourth-generation Long Term Evolution services.

In response, some of the top smartphone makers are expected to incorporate a high-precision water-cooled pipe technology into future devices, according to cooling module manufacturers.

Samsung Electronics, Apple and HTC have recently shown interest in adopting the new cooling technology for their future models.

The conventional graphite and foil cooling method currently being used in smartphones fails to effectively dissipate heat generated by the device’s core parts.

In May, Japanese tech corporation NEC released the first Android-based water-cooled smartphone ― Medias X06E ― with a 0.6-millimeter cooling pipe in the chip.

The diameter of the pipe is half that of the coolant commonly used in Ultrabook laptops.

Other smartphone makers, however, showed no interest in incorporating water-cooled technology in their devices, arguing that overheating did not constitute an urgent technological problem.

Experts are also debating whether the uniform application of water-cooled technology in future smartphones is necessary.

(bjkwon@heraldcorp.com)