The Inquisitor reports that NEC's Medias X N-06E is the first smartphone to feature liquid cooling.
Before now, phones didn't have a cooling system at all. But the new Medias X sports a liquid-filled heatpipe that pulls heat away from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core SoC and disperses it all via a graphite "radiator" through the phone's polycarbonate exterior to slow overheating. The system board is also designed to disperse the heat.
What's surprising about this cooling aspect is that the Snapdragon chip isn’t overclocked – it's not even maxed out at 1.9 GHz. Instead, the chip is toned down to a slower 1.7 GHz even with its liquid-cooled core installed. Still, overclocked or not, the chip will generate heat from heavy use like graphic-intensive game playing and media streaming. The liquid-cooling system should help the overall device stay cool to the touch even during heated FPS shootouts.
In addition to the liquid cooling, this phone will feature Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean", a 1.3MP camera on the front, a 13.1MP Exmor RS camera on the rear and a backside illuminated sensor. There's also a 4.7-inch OLED display with a 1280 x 720 resolution, NFC and Wi-Fi connectivity, a 2,300mAh battery and compatibility with Japanese digital TV services. That's right: it's only heading to Japan's NTT DoCoMo this summer.
Still, if this liquid cooling design is successful, it could find its way into other smartphones sold in more regions. It may eventually become necessary as components decrease in size but increase in number within smartphone form factors and in sheer desktop-like performance. It certainly would be the preferred alternative to a noisy fan.
The weird aspect about this phone is that NEC isn't marketing the device to gadget nerds. Instead, it's shooting for the ladies, packing the phone with a pretty pink color option and girly charms. Some of us would buy it nonetheless just to take it apart and see how the cooling system performs... and for the pretty charms.
