Whenever Apple rolls out a major new version of iOS, iPhone owners hurry to check whether their handset (particularly if it’s an older model) will be able to run the update and benefit from its new features. When iOS 26 was announced in June, for example, it was the iPhones XR, XS, and XS Max which got the bad news. They dropped off the list and would be unable to install the new software.
As a general rule, iPhones get iOS updates for at least five years after launch. But sometimes they last longer. The iPhone 6s was able to run seven separate versions of iOS, from iOS 9 when it launched in 2015 to iOS 15 in 2021, and the iPhone XS and XR followed the same pattern until they ended up on the chopping block earlier this year.
With iOS 26 out in the wild (and further updated to iOS 26.1), there’s one big question on iPhone owners’ minds right now. Which phones will be compatible with iOS 27? While we don’t know for certain, we’ve got a good idea of what to expect.
iPhones that will (probably) get iOS 27
If you go by age, the 11-series handsets would be next to go, closely followed by the iPhone SE 2, which is also equipped with an A13 chip but was launched six months later. If the iPhone 11 was cut from the list for the next iOS update, it would still have enjoyed six full years of updates. For the iPhone SE 2, it would be five.
However, I suspect that Apple will also support these older models for another year and let them run iOS 27. There are two arguments in favour of this.
The first is that, while the A12-equipped iPhone XS no longer gets full software updates, there are plenty of other Apple devices with the same chip which do. The A12 is a real jack of all trades, appearing in everything from the 3rd-gen iPad Pro to the iPad 8 and 2nd-gen Apple TV 4K (while the A12Z formed the basis for the M1). The iPad 8 has now been on the market for five years, the Apple TV 4K (2nd gen) for just four, which means that Apple will probably continue to make software that’s compatible with the A12 for a few more years, even if it’s iPadOS or tvOS rather than iOS. And this ought to mean that A13-based devices are safe for a little longer.
The second reason is that Apple is likely to base its decision on the popularity and distribution of individual devices. The iPhone 6s was supported for so long, at least in part, because so many people owned them. And all signs suggest that the iPhone SE 2 was and remains extremely popular as a work mobile. Only the limited RAM could be the device’s downfall: we already noticed with iOS 26 that the iPhone SE 2 had problems with its 3GB of RAM. The iPhone 11 has 4GB, as does the iPhone 12, so there’s no problem with either of them.
As a rule, the processor generation is the decisive factor in whether a model receives a further iOS update or not. In the following list, you can see all models and their respective chips:
This article originally appeared on our sister publication Macwelt and was translated and localized from German.
