Thermal management remains an inherent limitation in phones. Most phones have powerful chipsets that deliver outstanding performance, but due to overheating issues, these chipsets tend to throttle heavily. Manufacturers are essentially limited by size, so the most they can do is add a vapor chamber to passively cool a phone’s chipset.

ASUS has developed a novel solution called AeroActive Portal for the ROG Phone 6 Pro and Phone 7 Ultimate. It’s essentially a small flap on the side of the phone that works in conjunction with the AeroActive cooler to allow cool air to flow into the heatsink. The idea was innovative, but it resulted in a lot of mechanical complexity, and ASUS doesn’t offer this feature on its latest phones.