Which iPhones support iOS 16? A good six months before the expected presentation of the next major operating system version, there is again speculation that Apple will no longer provide the update for the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and the first-generation iPhone SE. It would be the first time since iOS 13 in the fall of 2019 that certain old hardware has been excluded. iOS 14 and the current iOS 15 can be installed on all devices that already support iOS 13 – right back to the iPhone 6s built in 2015.
Goodbye A9?
Apple is expected to saw off devices with A9 and A9X chips in 2022, speculates iPhonesoft.fr. In addition to the aforementioned iPhones, iPadOS 16 will then also retire the iPad 5, iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2 and the first iPad Pro generation (12.9 “and 9.7”).
The French side was correct with their prediction of hardware support for iOS 13 several years ago, but also predicted the end of the A9 devices such as the iPhone 6s last year for iOS 15 – which turned out to be obviously inaccurate.
iOS 15 can be installed on older hardware such as the iPhone 6s – and runs fine on it – but core machine learning functions such as recognizing text in photos are reserved for much newer hardware. An iPhone with the A12 chip introduced in 2018 is required for this.
Apple’s unclear update strategy
Apple’s strategy for security patches remains unclear: The company has never clearly announced how long older iOS versions should receive security updates. In iOS 12, serious gaps are still being filled on iPhone 6 and 5s, but iOS 13 is no longer being maintained. iOS 14 is currently receiving security updates, but seems to be lagging behind the current iOS version: The latest patch series, which closes serious gaps, has so far only appeared for iOS 15.
(lbe)