iPad 5th gen (A9/2GB) was just released in 2017 (and still performs decently) so I can actually see it getting iOS 15. If that happens, that means a stay of execution for 6s, 6s+, SE1 and 1st gen iPad Pros.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Other Devices dropped by iOS 15?
- Thread starter ian87w
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The thing that kills an older iPhone that's stuck on an older version of iOS is the web browsers that won't work on it. Be it Safari or any of the others, the web browser is the Achilles heel of the phone. The phone itself may be functional for 10 years or longer but its ultimately the old crippled browser that dictates when its time to get a new iPhone.
In a very real <and cruel> way, every 5 years you've got to buy a new $800 web browser that happens to come with hardware attached
In a very real <and cruel> way, every 5 years you've got to buy a new $800 web browser that happens to come with hardware attached
I honestly think the A9 iPhones will get iOS 15 because the A9 was such a huge jump from the A8 and really similar to the A10. I feel like Apple is moving more to a Mac-style support system where they support devices for at least seven years.
For iPadOS especially, they'll probably only retire the Air 2 and Mini 4 (or surprise us yet again and keep them) and keep all A9 and up iPads. They're now the oddballs in that they are missing some hardware features such as: DDR4 RAM, NVMe storage, HEVC decoding, etc.
The A9/X devices aren't really missing anything (except for HEVC encoding) and are still relatively modern. Either 2GB or 4GB of DDR4 RAM (which the iPhone 8 still has 2GB), speedy enough CPU and GPU (the A9X devices in particular are at about A11 level in GPU performance and a bit under A10 level in CPU), HEVC decoder, NMVe storage, etc. All the A10 really has over the A9 is a faster GPU (it's based on the A9 though) and faster clock speeds, along with the two high performance cores and two low performance cores.
For iPadOS especially, they'll probably only retire the Air 2 and Mini 4 (or surprise us yet again and keep them) and keep all A9 and up iPads. They're now the oddballs in that they are missing some hardware features such as: DDR4 RAM, NVMe storage, HEVC decoding, etc.
The A9/X devices aren't really missing anything (except for HEVC encoding) and are still relatively modern. Either 2GB or 4GB of DDR4 RAM (which the iPhone 8 still has 2GB), speedy enough CPU and GPU (the A9X devices in particular are at about A11 level in GPU performance and a bit under A10 level in CPU), HEVC decoder, NMVe storage, etc. All the A10 really has over the A9 is a faster GPU (it's based on the A9 though) and faster clock speeds, along with the two high performance cores and two low performance cores.
Last edited:
Really? The 7 really struggles with it. Like, really struggles. So bad I had to turn on “reduce motion” to make it tolerable. Tons of UI stuttering and lag. I have two 7s (one work, one personal) - one is upgraded and the other is not. The difference is huge.
Probably depends on how loaded the phones are.
I'm playing with an old 32GB iPhone 7 that I had reset due to battery drain issues (on iOS 13). Only thing I installed were AdGuard and Dropbox. I updated it to iOS 14 and it actually feels faster compared to my 256GB iPhone 7 on iOS 13 (restored from backup which originated from OG iPhone).
I have a 7 and everything is perfectly smooth.
Maybe you have an hardware issue on the battery side ? This can deteriorate performance too
They’ll drop A9/A8X.
They might drop A9X too.
They won’t drop A10.
They might drop A9X too.
They won’t drop A10.
Cheer up, provided the hardware works well, you will still be able to use them all with iOS 14 even after iOS 15 comes out. 🖐
The battery is at 89% and about 25 GB free so those shouldn’t be the issue. But, I upgraded to 14.0.1 and it’s much better. Not as fast as the un-upgraded 7 but WAY better.
If Apple can keep supporting the A9, that's good news for consumers and also AS Macs, as it indicates that Apple is willing to provide at least 6-8 years of support (added 2 years for the typical Apple supporting macOS down to -2 versions) for their silicons.
I wonder if we will see Apple supporting their devices for 10 years. With the focus on services as another revenue stream, it's doable from the business perspective.
This is so very true. The A8 was crippled from its released. I’ve said that since day 1. The A7 was already a huge step forward with 64Bit and the M7 it brought with it that the A8 really is just an overclocked A7.
On top of that Apple crippled it out of the door by keeping the iPhone 6 with 1GB of RAM. The A8X chips are MUCH better. Which I think is the reason the Air 2 is still receiving updates and the iPhone 6 was dropped at iOS 12.
On the other hand the A9 is so close to the A10 that it’s possible that they both get dropped with iOS 16 instead of iOS 15 for the A9. If the A9 devices receive the next update it will be RIDICULOUS the amount of support Apple gives. The fact it’s going from Fall 2015 to Fall 2021 is AMAZING. If it goes one more year that’ll be CRAZY!
Once Apple gets to where all devices are 3GB of RAM or more are all that’s supported I could see them giving 10 years of support.
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone X
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone XR
iPhone XS and Max
iPhone 11, Pro, and Max
iPhone SE 2nd gen.
Then the new devices... the issue would just lay with the 7 and 8 4.7” having just 2 GIGs and supporting 2 different SOC’s and the iPhone X sharing the same chipset of the 8, and 8 Plus.. I feel like im saying this the way I’m intending. Essentially I’m saying I could see Apple getting to where they support for 10 years. Which is amazing!
In addition, I hope Apple breaks out of giving the S models only one more extra update, especially considering that the S models are MUCH more similar to the next number model rather than the preceding number model. The most obvious example of that is probably the iPhone 6S, the 6 and 6S had pretty much nothing in common, not counting design and screen tech (except 3D Touch). Other than that, the 6S had a Taptic Engine, 12MP rear camera, HEVC decoding, embdedded motion co-processor, 4K camera recording, NVMe storage, 2GB LPDDR4 RAM, dual band 102.11ac WiFi, second generation Touch ID, much better selfie camera (5MP instead of 1.2MP), water resistance (but not advertised), and more. Much more in common with the 7 and 8 than the 6.
This isn't a case of an S model, but the only time I can think of where Apple gave more than one extra year to the next succeeding device in a lineup would be the iPad mini 2 (got six iOS versions from 7-12, the mini 1 only got four iOS versions from 6-9). They usually only do a system like this (3G gets iOS 2-4, 3GS gets 3-6, iPhone 4 gets 4-7, 4S gets 5-9, etc).
Going forward, I think the 6S will continue to be supported as it's the turning point of modern iPhones (the 5S and 6 were flawed in that they didn't have enough RAM).
Let's also look at the iPod touch. It has an A10, yet it's underclocked to A9 performance. If they were to support it in iOS 16, they should also support the 6S as well since they're identical in terms of performance. But then again, this is Apple, so I'm not sure which direction they're going with this one.
As for iPadOS, they most certainly will not drop two generations at once (i.e A8/X and A9/X). Unlike the iPhone 6 situation, there's no need to drop more than one generation at a time. I think there's a good chance the A9 and A9X will still be supported. The iPhone 6 is the exception here because it only had one gigabyte of RAM.
This isn't a case of an S model, but the only time I can think of where Apple gave more than one extra year to the next succeeding device in a lineup would be the iPad mini 2 (got six iOS versions from 7-12, the mini 1 only got four iOS versions from 6-9). They usually only do a system like this (3G gets iOS 2-4, 3GS gets 3-6, iPhone 4 gets 4-7, 4S gets 5-9, etc).
Going forward, I think the 6S will continue to be supported as it's the turning point of modern iPhones (the 5S and 6 were flawed in that they didn't have enough RAM).
Let's also look at the iPod touch. It has an A10, yet it's underclocked to A9 performance. If they were to support it in iOS 16, they should also support the 6S as well since they're identical in terms of performance. But then again, this is Apple, so I'm not sure which direction they're going with this one.
As for iPadOS, they most certainly will not drop two generations at once (i.e A8/X and A9/X). Unlike the iPhone 6 situation, there's no need to drop more than one generation at a time. I think there's a good chance the A9 and A9X will still be supported. The iPhone 6 is the exception here because it only had one gigabyte of RAM.
In all fairness, Apple’s pretty good at supporting iOS devices as long as hardware can handle the new firmware. I actually think a lot of those devices received iOS updates way past acceptable performance. I remember being able to type a couple of sentences on the iPad 3 with iOS 9 before it’s displayed on screen. Personally, I would’ve stopped updates on that on iOS 7.
That is true...
iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2nd gen on iOS 4, iPhone 4 on iOS 7, all A5 devices on iOS 9 (and 8 for that matter) were all bad experiences. I feel like the A6/X devices were the first to actually run decently on their last iOS version (which was 10). I'm not sure about other people's experiences with 1GB devices on iOS 12, but my iPad mini 2 did improve (I skipped iOS 11) but still remained laggy due to limited hardware. In my opinion, iOS 10 was the last iOS to be good on A7 devices.
And they should still continue to work. For a backup phone/line, I don't need it to be on the latest OS.
They can still work as a phone, but functionality wise as a smartphone might be affected.
The biggest downside for iOS devices is that since Apple updates its stock apps as part of iOS, when a device is no longer supported, it will stop getting updates for the critical apps like the Safari browser and the web engine. Also, sooner or later some updated apps might require a newer iOS version, and some functions like iCloud stuff or iMessage might be affected.
The 5 introduced 1gb of RAM, the 5s introduced a 64-bit CPU, and then two years later then the 6s doubled RAM to 2gb and added touch ID.
The iPhone 6 was probably Apple's most disappointing release in that it had bigger screens and nothing else. The device was severely underpowered with a very poor A8 chip and only 1gb of RAM. The 6 was effectively a 5s plus (and I guess 5s plus plus) and the 6s was the innovation you'd expect in a non-s year.
I feel the iPhone 7 and 8 were very similar to the iPhone 6 in that there was next to nothing to differentiate themselves from the model that preceded them. It's very concerning that the Xs, 11, and the upcoming 12 are following a similar path where there is very little differentiation. The 12's main selling point is 5G. That will give some longevity to it, but for the vast majority of users, they will not get to benefit from that for at least a year - at which point the 2021 iPhones will be available.
It seems to me that technology is at the point where yearly hardware updates are becoming harder and harder to justify. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the jumps in performance and features from year to year were significant and highly noticeable. Since the mid 2010s. however, it's becoming harder and harder to see the benefit that updated hardware provides. I look at my 6s and see a device that runs the current operating system flawlessly. We're at the point with hardware where I guess the kind of updates you can look forward to are little jumps in speed and some camera improvements.
The S versions have traditionally been where the performance improvements are though. The non-S was usually chassis and feature changes.
It's probably been mentioned, but Apple want people to keep using their line of services. Supporting the older devices is actually more beneficial to them than stopping support and updates etc. But until next year, no one outside of the software designers will know what iOS15 will or won't support from the older devices.
Touch ID came with iPhone 5s.
For many that were waiting and hoping for larger phones that was probably one of the releases that they've been waiting for for a long time.
The A8 CPU was underwhelming, but the graphics were actually quite a big jump for the time over the A7. I guess they prioritised the graphics for the iPhone 6 plus' @3x retina display. The 1GB of RAM was definitely the real weakness of that generation (as the iPad Air 2 and mini 4 have shown).
This could be something unique to this chipset generation, but at the moment it looks like iPad and iPhone have separate support timeframes. So we could see the A9 iPhones dropped, but the A9 iPads remain supported, like they have done with the A8 generation. Further ahead this would almost certainly be necessary for the A10 based iPads vs iPhone 7, or else one side will get very short or ludicrously long support...
The graphics improved but if you check graphics benchmarks at native resolution, the improvement was pretty much just good enough to handle the iPhone 6's higher resolution. I think the 6 Plus actually had lower FPS than the iPhone 5s in gfx benchmarks.
The A8X iPad Air 2 is the one that really saw massive GPU improvement.
With Apple, I expect it's not so much that they're distinguishing between product lines but about overall performance. Some iPhones have received longer support than iPads and vice versa. 1GB was simply a major weakness going into iOS 13.
Next drop could be RAM or could be chipset. We'll just have to wait and see.