Why Agentic Phones Need a New Generation of Thermal Management After WAIC 2026

1.Introduction
2.From Benchmark Scores to Long Term Stable Operation
3.The Thermal Design Challenge Inside a Thin Body
4.Where BESTAR Fits In
5.The Next Stage of Phone Thermal Management

Introduction
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 in Shanghai made one thing clear. The smartphone is no longer just a communication device. It is becoming an agent terminal, a device that can see, listen, reason, and act on behalf of the user.
At the show, Nubia introduced the NaviX Ultra, described as the first mass produced AI agent smartphone. It runs an on device large model that can carry out multi step tasks across different apps, from booking a ticket to editing a video, using only a single voice command. Honor went a step further with the Robot Phone, a device that hides a small titanium camera gimbal inside the body. The gimbal pops out in under a second, rotates, tracks the user, and gives the phone something close to physical expression. Startup StepFun also brought its STEPX Neo to the show, adding to a wave of devices that treat the phone as an active assistant rather than a passive screen.
Both products indicate the same direction. The phone has evolved into an assistant, a camera operator, an agent and a sensor hub. It handles all the jobs in a thin phone device, in addition to handle the heat from the body. 

From Benchmark Scores to Long Term Stable Operation
For years, phone thermal design was mostly judged by benchmark scores. A chip would run at full power for a few minutes, hit a peak number, and then throttle. That test no longer reflects how an agentic phone actually works.
An agent smartphone keeps its on device model active for much longer periods. Voice wake up needs to listen continuously in the background. The camera can stay on for extended tracking and framing tasks, especially on a device like the Robot Phone where the gimbal camera is meant to follow the user around a room. Multiple tasks now run at the same time, such as speech recognition, image processing, and cross app automation, all sharing the same limited thermal budget.
This changes the real engineering question. It is no longer about the highest score a chip can reach in a short burst. It is about how much performance the phone can sustain over thirty minutes, an hour, or an entire day of agent activity. When internal temperature climbs, the processor throttles and the assistant becomes slower to respond. At the same time, surface temperature on the metal frame or camera module rises, which directly affects how comfortable the phone feels to hold and use. In an agentic phone, heat is not a side effect anymore. It sits directly between the chip and the user experience.

The Thermal Design Challenge Inside a Thin Body
The difficulty is that none of this extra workload comes with extra space. Flagship chips used to power on device AI models draw high sustained power, and phone bodies keep getting thinner rather than thicker. A gimbal camera module like the one in the Robot Phone also competes for the same limited internal volume that used to be reserved for battery or cooling structure.
Traditional passive solutions developed like a single large vapour chamber or a set of graphite sheets, which were selected to manage intense heat for only a short period, not as an ongoing heat demand from an always running agent.  Heat generated near the processor or camera module needs to be spread out quickly and evenly, then carried away from hot spots before it concentrates and starts to affect nearby components such as the battery or the display driver.
This is where thermal design has to move beyond simply adding more copper or graphite. What agentic phones actually need is a combination of efficient heat spreading, targeted active cooling at the hottest points, and a mechanical structure that keeps all of this inside a body that is only a few millimeters thick. The next generation of phone cooling is not about one material doing more work. It is about a system of components working together in a very tight space.

Where BESTAR Fits In
This is the exact problem space that BESTAR works in. As a manufacturer of piezoelectric and electroacoustic components, BESTAR has developed thermal solutions built specifically for compact, battery powered electronics rather than industrial equipment.
Two of the core technologies are the micro piezoelectric liquid cooling module and the micro piezoelectric fan cooling module.
Micro piezoelectric fan employ the inverse piezoelectric effect to create airflow without a traditional motor. A very thin metal blade is attached to a piezoelectric ceramic sheet. Under the action of an electric command the ceramic is quickly deformed, causing the blade to oscillate back and forth more than 20,000 times per second. 
The vibration sucks in the air in the immediate vicinity and forces it through very small nozzles making a concentrated and pointed jet of air sweep across the heat surface. It moves air not just passively using natural convection which means that it's quicker to cool than other passive air-cooling methods such as static heat sinks, but it's small enough for use alongside a chip or camera module.
Micro piezoelectric liquid cooling operate similarly, but do not use air to circulate the liquid. Including two main components, piezoelectric component and a valve body, which are arranged to provide a small sized pump chamber. As the actuator moves, one valve opens to pull coolant into the system, followed by opening up the other valve to push the coolant out. This pump is linked with a closed microchannel loop, to transport coolant from the heat area to a cooler one and back. Being a liquid heat transfer system, this method can accommodate steady and sustained heat loads well which is similar to the mode of operation that smart devices operate under during the day.
Both approaches are built around the same goals: low noise, low power draw, and a footprint measured in millimeters rather than centimeters. BESTAR also supplies matched thermal sensing components that form a closed loop control system, so cooling output can adjust automatically as the chip load changes through the day rather than running at a fixed level. This combination is designed for slim consumer terminals such as agent smartphones, robot phones, and other space constrained AI devices, not for industrial machinery.

The Next Stage of Phone Thermal Management
Once a phone starts to act as an assistant, a camera operator, an agent, and a sensor at the same time, thermal management stops being a background specification. It becomes part of the actual user experience and part of the ceiling on what the device can do.
As more manufacturers move toward agentic and embodied smartphone designs, the companies that solve heat inside a thin body quietly, quickly, and reliably will shape how far this next generation of devices can go. BESTAR works with phone makers and module suppliers on exactly this kind of problem, from early design consultation through to component supply. Teams evaluating thermal solutions for agent smartphones, robot phones, or other compact AI terminals are welcome to reach out to BESTAR to discuss specific power and space requirements.