iPhone iOS 13 - no iPhone 6 support, but iPad OS supports iPad Mini 4 when they have the same processor...

[moobat]

I’m sure this is due to the fact that Apple have only just stopped selling the iPad Mini 4 this year, and it would be pretty bad for them to suddenly stop supporting it with software upgrades.

But the iPhone 6 has the same A8 processor. And yet it won’t get an iOS 13 upgrade.

I’m guessing that, because, what was iPhone OS > iOS has now diverged to iOS and iPad OS, that the same processor subset isn’t in the plan for older iPhones.

Okay, I’ve got both an iPhone 6 and iPad Mini 4 and they’re both what I use on a daily basis. Just wish there was maybe an update for the iPhone 6.

 

[mrochester]

The amount of RAM is probably contributing to it.

 

[mohdamerul]

Different in RAM

 

[Broken Hope]

iPhone 6 only has 1GB RAM.

 

[moobat]

iOS 13 must be a bit more of a RAM muncher. That’s fair enough if they took the call to phase out devices where the performance would be poor and I know the newer phones, especially the Xr and above are geared towards things that would make my phone burp its processor out of the lightning port.

 

[aakshey]

Ever since the 6 was launched with 1 GB RAM I told everybody to stay clear off it. It was always a slower and bigger 5s (unless you only want faster graphics for gaming). I always told everybody to not even consider the 6 if it were free and move to a 6s or higher.

And finally the day has come that people realise that the 6 was the most underpowered iPhone in the history of modern iPhones.

1 GB RAM wasn’t enough back in 2014. And it makes little sense to support it in 2019 through 2020.

That said the 6 did enjoy a long period of support. It was unusable even on iOS 9. Yet it was supported all the way through iOS 12. Kudos to Apple.

 

[CheesePuff]

Ever since the 6 was launched with 1 GB RAM I told everybody to stay clear off it. It was always a slower and bigger 5s (unless you only want faster graphics for gaming). I always told everybody to not even consider the 6 if it were free and move to a 6s or higher.

So you told people to steer clear of the 6 at launch and get the 6s which didn't exist for another year? Hmm...

 

[sracer]

Ever since the 6 was launched with 1 GB RAM I told everybody to stay clear off it. It was always a slower and bigger 5s (unless you only want faster graphics for gaming). I always told everybody to not even consider the 6 if it were free and move to a 6s or higher.

And finally the day has come that people realise that the 6 was the most underpowered iPhone in the history of modern iPhones.

1 GB RAM wasn’t enough back in 2014. And it makes little sense to support it in 2019 through 2020.

That said the 6 did enjoy a long period of support. It was unusable even on iOS 9. Yet it was supported all the way through iOS 12. Kudos to Apple.

RAM does indeed seem to historically be the greater indicator of whether or not a device would receive an iOS update.

2GB RAM is the new baseline and will continue to be until Apple ceases actively selling iOS devices with 2GB RAM. IIRC, the 2018 9.7 iPad is the only iPad with 2GB... when that goes, it'll be 3GB.

 

[007p]

RAM does indeed seem to historically be the greater indicator of whether or not a device would receive an iOS update.

2GB RAM is the new baseline and will continue to be until Apple ceases actively selling iOS devices with 2GB RAM. IIRC, the 2018 9.7 iPad is the only iPad with 2GB... when that goes, it'll be 3GB.

Don’t forget the new iPod touch only has 2gb ram :/

 

[sracer]

Don’t forget the new iPod touch only has 2gb ram :/

The iPod Touch is not an iPad. But yes, that too is a stealthy indicator of the longevity of 2GB RAM devices.

 

[aakshey]

I feel 6s and SE will possibly be supported even by iOS 14. And 3GB RAM likely won’t be the minimum requirement sooner than iOS 16 at the earliest I guess. Worst case scenario iOS 15 but that’s unlikely.

 

[Jimmy James]

The amount of ram doesn’t matter. It’s about the user experience. /s

 

[mrochester]

The amount of ram doesn’t matter. It’s about the user experience. /s

Exactly. If the user experience isn't great on a 1GB device then it shouldn't be supported.

 

[BeatCrazy]

iOS 13 must be a bit more of a RAM muncher. That’s fair enough if they took the call to phase out devices where the performance would be poor and I know the newer phones, especially the Xr and above are geared towards things that would make my phone burp its processor out of the lightning port.

If you look at the "non-destructive" video and photo editing features of iOS 13, you can see where minimum RAM requirements are likely the culprit for older devices. It's actually rather amazing all iOS can squeeze out of 2GB!

 

[Shirasaki]

So you told people to steer clear of the 6 at launch and get the 6s which didn't exist for another year? Hmm...

Definitely not unheard of, and I think this is very reasonable, especially for people who kinda want to upgrade but otherwise perfectly fine for another year.

 

[AmazingTechGeek]

Ever since the 6 was launched with 1 GB RAM I told everybody to stay clear off it. It was always a slower and bigger 5s (unless you only want faster graphics for gaming). I always told everybody to not even consider the 6 if it were free and move to a 6s or higher.

And finally the day has come that people realise that the 6 was the most underpowered iPhone in the history of modern iPhones.

1 GB RAM wasn’t enough back in 2014. And it makes little sense to support it in 2019 through 2020.

That said the 6 did enjoy a long period of support. It was unusable even on iOS 9. Yet it was supported all the way through iOS 12. Kudos to Apple.

While the 6 was underpowered for sure, I found iOS 9 to be more functional and efficient than iOS 8...I hated that version and iOS 7 the most...

 

[Homme]

RAM does indeed seem to historically be the greater indicator of whether or not a device would receive an iOS update.

2GB RAM is the new baseline and will continue to be until Apple ceases actively selling iOS devices with 2GB RAM. IIRC, the 2018 9.7 iPad is the only iPad with 2GB... when that goes, it'll be 3GB.

If you mean in terms of what Apple is selling now, yes

But at the same time there’s so much iDevices with 2GB of RAM it’s hard to say when Apple uses its limits ( years from now)

Let’s see umm

DDR3

Air 2/ Mini 4

DDR4

6S/6S+/SE/7
Touch 7G
Pro 9.7
iPad 2017/2018

DDR4X

iPhone 8

 

[Shirasaki]

If you mean in terms of what Apple is selling now, yes

But at the same time there’s so much iDevices with 2GB of RAM it’s hard to say when Apple uses its limits ( years from now)

Let’s see umm

DDR3

Air 2/ Mini 4

DDR4

6S/6S+/SE/7
Touch 7G
Pro 9.7
iPad 2017/2018

DDR4X

iPhone 8

My thought is Apple will keep everything we have this year and support all of them with iOS 14, then, iOS 15, kill all A8X and A9 devices. Too early to say that though.

 

[ganja24]

Ever since the 6 was launched with 1 GB RAM I told everybody to stay clear off it. It was always a slower and bigger 5s (unless you only want faster graphics for gaming). I always told everybody to not even consider the 6 if it were free and move to a 6s or higher.

And finally the day has come that people realise that the 6 was the most underpowered iPhone in the history of modern iPhones.

1 GB RAM wasn’t enough back in 2014. And it makes little sense to support it in 2019 through 2020.

That said the 6 did enjoy a long period of support. It was unusable even on iOS 9. Yet it was supported all the way through iOS 12. Kudos to Apple.

Stupidity here...So at launch you knew the cutoff point for iPhone 6? I don’t think even Apple knew iOS 12 will be last iOS on iPhone 6 at launch. 2014 iPhone 6 was not free and people still bought it knowing it’s 1gb ram. Don’t act like you know the future.

 

[aakshey]

Stupidity here...So at launch you knew the cutoff point for iPhone 6? I don’t think even Apple knew iOS 12 will be last iOS on iPhone 6 at launch. 2014 iPhone 6 was not free and people still bought it knowing it’s 1gb ram. Don’t act like you know the future.

It was obvious 1 GB would be a limitation. It has been very slow and stuttery ever since iOS 9.

I don't care if Apple supports a device or not. What matters is that it should be usable. As early as iOS 9/10, iPhone 6 wasn't usable.

 

[Homme]

Stupidity here...So at launch you knew the cutoff point for iPhone 6? I don’t think even Apple knew iOS 12 will be last iOS on iPhone 6 at launch. 2014 iPhone 6 was not free and people still bought it knowing it’s 1gb ram. Don’t act like you know the future.

He’s right in a way.. A8 isnt much of a difference in terms of performance verses A7. Then you have the screen resolution and how many pixels the A8 and that 1GB of RAM has to handle (especially 6 plus) verses that tiny screen of the 5s not to mention GPU Performance of the phones (especially 5s verses 6+) but I disagree with his view that 1GB isn’t enough in 2014 and that it shouldn’t have been supported throughout 2019. That goes against Apples view of longevity verses Android

The 5s and 6 are the closest in performance compared to other iphones and their successors however

It was obvious 1 GB would be a limitation. It has been very slow and stuttery ever since iOS 9.

I don't care if Apple supports a device or not. What matters is that it should be usable. As early as iOS 9/10, iPhone 6 wasn't usable.

that may be your experience but iOS 9 was optimized for those A5 devices with 512MB of DDR2 RAM. So no way 6 would be slow in iOS 9. I had a 5s which had iOS9 and it wasn’t slow

 

[Falhófnir]

They hinted that iOS 12 would be the last for the iPhone 6/plus when they announced it (specifically called out the 6+ as a device that benefitted from the optimisations) - at any rate, if they hadn't supported the 5s in iOS 12, the 6 would have been dropped by 13 as a natural progression anyway. As for why the iPads get an 'extra year' - apart from the RAM as everyone has mentioned, the mini 4 was still being sold up until a couple of months back, I guess that was an indication (not necessarily a cast iron one (iPod touch 6)) that it wasn't on the chopping block quite yet.

 

[iOZZY]

My 6 Plus is still in daily use and while it is not the fastest phone around it is still very useable for what I use it for.

It will be retired on its 5th Birthday to be used as an iPod so a new phone is on the horizon.

 

[aakshey]

They hinted that iOS 12 would be the last for the iPhone 6/plus when they announced it (specifically called out the 6+ as a device that benefitted from the optimisations) - at any rate, if they hadn't supported the 5s in iOS 12, the 6 would have been dropped by 13 as a natural progression anyway. As for why the iPads get an 'extra year' - apart from the RAM as everyone has mentioned, the mini 4 was still being sold up until a couple of months back, I guess that was an indication (not necessarily a cast iron one (iPod touch 6)) that it wasn't on the chopping block quite yet.

I don’t think Apple cared about the selling part. iPhone 6 and iPod Touch were sold worldwide till a few months back as well, maybe just not in USA. The only reason is 2 GB RAM. That’s it.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

2GB RAM is the new baseline and will continue to be until Apple ceases actively selling iOS devices with 2GB RAM. IIRC, the 2018 9.7 iPad is the only iPad with 2GB... when that goes, it'll be 3GB.

So with the iPhone 7 & 8 Plus having 3GB does this mean the regular 7 & 8 with 2GB won’t be supported when the bigger ones are? Or will they just drop the A10 & A11 processors all together??