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Other Devices dropped by iOS 15?

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ian87w

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Feb 22, 2020
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iOS 14 supports all devices that were supported by iOS 13. But iOS 13 dropped 2 generations of iPhones, the 5S (A7) and 6/6 Plus (A8)

What do you guys think iOS 15 will drop? Will it drop just the 6S (A9)? Both 6S and 7 (A9 and A10)? Or will it keep support for the same devices as iOS 14?
 
They are still selling an A10 iPod Touch so my guess is they will either drop the A9 or won't drop support for anything.
I'd like to add that this is just a guess and nobody really knows except Apple but I personally do not see them dropping support for the A10 just yet.
 
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Marlon DLTH :) said:
I think they’ll drop support for the 6s/6s Plus and the iPad Mini 4.
Click to expand...
And the SE 1st gen. I agree, all A9 devices will be dropped as well as the good old iPad Air 2 (A8X).

The question is what will happen to A9X devices like iPad Pro 9.7" and 12" 1st gen.
They might continue to support those but drop support for devices with the non-X A9, like they did with A8X vs. A8.
 
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Marlon DLTH :) said:
I think they’ll drop support for the 6s/6s Plus and the iPad Mini 4.
Click to expand...

Add iPad Air 2 here as well and I agree with this.

Cobold said:
And the SE 1st gen. I agree, all A9 devices will be dropped as well as the good old iPad Air 2 (A8X).

The question is what will happen to A9X devices like iPad Pro 9.7" and 12" 1st gen.
They might continue to support those but drop support for devices with the non-X A9, like they did with A8X vs. A8.
Click to expand...

Indeed! This makes sense.
 
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If they're going for Mac-level support on iPad (~7 years) they've reached that with the iPad Air 2 now, though the mini 4 is still at 6. I assume they will drop both as the last of the A8 generation, but maybe they will go another year - certainly the mini 4 is still being sold refurbished!

I would assume the 6S/plus/SE at least would go, but yeah they seem to have adopted axing 2 generations every other year rather than one per year, so the 7/plus might go, too. The iPad-iPhone support cycle seems to have been separated now so I don't think the A10 iPad that was being sold until a week ago has much bearing on iPhone or the A9 based iPhones on iPads.
 
The Air 2 is still more usable on iOS 14 than the Air is on 12.x, hopefully the A8X sticks around for one more upgrade.
 
ericwn said:
They have not become broken magically and will still perform plenty functions for many.
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I'm not questioning it's usability. But you know Apple. Once it stops being supported its only matter of time. My mom has an iPad Air 2. I passed it on to her in 2017. And we've owned it for over almost 6 years. It's probably my favorite iPad ever. Unfortunately, I can feel it slowing down. I'll portably get her a new one at the end of the year. I'll still hold onto it though.
 
I can somewhat understand the need to retire the A8/A8X (iPad mini 4/Air 2). But it seems that the A9 can still pack a punch even today.
 
dazlicous said:
Think the A9X in the first gen pros will be fine with having the extra ram but can see the normal A9 devices being dropped
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I believe the 9.7" iPad Pro actually only has 2GB of RAM, the same as the iPhone 6S. It would be weird if Apple dropped only the 9.7" Pro, leaving the 12.9" Pro to live another year.
 
I have always wondered if Apple should maintain a range of Ax chips. I mean it's not like the A9 is outdated today. Qualcomm/Mediatek still makes current chips with just Cortex A53 cores. Imagine if Apple made a device today with an A9/A10, but with 4GB of RAM. It will probably be able to hold up pretty well.

But I guess that would defeat the whole business model... :D
 
I’m more concerned now with the difficult to service batteries in these devices running out far before current OS support. My 2015 MacBook Pro runs Big Sur fine but can’t hold a 90 minute charge.
 
bobmans said:
They are still selling an A10 iPod Touch so my guess is they will either drop the A9 or won't drop support for anything.
I'd like to add that this is just a guess and nobody really knows except Apple but I personally do not see them dropping support for the A10 just yet.
Click to expand...

The Apple TV 4k has an A10X, which is still being sold today. Also, the last-gen iPad had an A10, which was sold until a week ago.

I am pretty confident the A10 will be supported for a good long while. For that reason I've been telling people looking at used iPads to get anything A10 or newer.
 
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Anything with Fusion and Bionic behind will still be supported I believe. Other than that I think that maybe just maybe the A9 will lose support.

Doesn’t change the fact that the A9 has been a monster chipset. Just like the A10 Fusion after it. The GPU gap between the A10 and A9 is pretty big though.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus still run great to this day with new batteries in them.
 
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Even iPad Air 2 with A8X and iPad Mini 4 with A8 can get iPadOS 14. So all A9 or above devices should be get iOS/iPadOS 15 update.
iPhone 6/6 Plus dropped support on iOS 12 because they only have 1GB of ram. Mini 4 uses A8 also but it have 2GB of ram so it can get iPadOS 13/14 as well. A8 is supporting 13 and 14, but 1GB ram not. For 15 should be dropping Air 2 and Mini 4, and all iPhones since 6s and SE 1st gen can get iOS 15, or iPads since iPad Pro 1st gen, and iPad 5th generation can get iPadOS 15 update.
 
They just replaced the A10 based iPad, so we can assume the A10 will continue to be supported at least through iOS/iPadOS 16. The A9 may be the cutoff for iOS15, but it may also depend on what Apple has planned on the Mac side of the equation now, especially given the resources that will be going into the Intel-AS transition.
 
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TechLord said:
6S series and original SE surely. They've both had amazing runs. 5 years support and counting as of today for the 6S.
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This is nothing short of amazing. If it does get cutoff it will still technically get 6 years of updates. Since iOS 15 isn’t released until September. Meaning from September 2015 until September 2021 the 6s was supported. Imagine if it does get iOS 15 then it would be 7 years. That’s ABSURD.

iOS 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 that’s crazy I’m sorry but it’s mind boggling
 
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