The Snapdragon 8 Elite is freakishly powerful for a mobile chip. While Apple had the lead for a while, Qualcomm has come out swinging over the last few years and its recent Snapdragon chips have offered stellar CPU and GPU performance while also being incredibly efficient.
But with more power come more heating issues and the need for better cooling systems, and Samsung understands that. It is why it has been putting massive vapor cooling chamber systems on both mid-range and flagship smartphones since 2023. It’s also why I’m not concerned about the Snapdragon 8 Elite having overheating issues on the Galaxy S25 lineup.
Big vapor chamber cooling system may be the answer
Tests on one of the first Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered smartphones, the Realme GT7 Pro, have revealed that all that power is hard to tame. It’s to be expected on a chip like the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Qualcomm's latest chip does away with the efficiency-focused processor cores that have been a mainstay on mobile chipsets for so long and exclusively uses performance-focused cores.
Samsung fans have begun to wonder how the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra will handle the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Flagship Galaxy phones launched in the last two years have stellar thermal control thanks to big vapor cooling chambers, and we have seen similarly good thermals on recent mid-range phones like the Galaxy A55.
Having its smartphones run cool is clearly an important goal for Samsung, which is why I’m optimistic—albeit cautiously—about the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Galaxy S25 lineup. Granted, the Galaxy S25 series is a few months away so nothing is certain at this time, but for the first time in years, I’m not worried about temperatures on a flagship Galaxy smartphone going hog-wild.
That’s surprising for someone who is a negative Nancy like me and is always looking for a reason to complain, so here’s hoping Samsung won’t let me down or break its streak of doing a fantastic job in making sure Galaxy smartphones don't turn into toasters even when pushed to the limit.
