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Richard8655

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Mar 11, 2009
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After not looking good for the longest time, some sources have it that the iPad 5th gen will be compatible with iPadOS 15. It's surprising as the original iPhone SE also had the A9 chip with M9 coprocessor, but apparently will not be compatible with IOS 15. Unless this changes again. Anyone hear more?
 

AutomaticApple

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Nov 28, 2018
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After not looking good for the longest time, some sources have it that the iPad 5th gen will be compatible with iPadOS 15. It's surprising as the original iPhone SE also had the A9 chip with M9 coprocessor, but apparently will not be compatible with IOS 15. Unless this changes again. Anyone hear more?
Where did you hear that?
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
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Techradar, among a few others. There must not be a lot of iPad 5 interest here. But that's ok this being a mostly iPad Pro fan club here!


The iPadOS 15 support on TechRadar is pure speculation (they say so on the page). It doesn't even make sense to drop the iPad Pro 9.7 A9X/2GB and keep the iPad 5th gen A9/2GB.

With that said, we could see both supported if Apple's not dropping 2GB yet.
 
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Richard8655

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The iPadOS 15 support on TechRadar is pure speculation (they say so on the page). It doesn't even make sense to drop the iPad Pro 9.7 A9X/2GB and keep the iPad 5th gen A9/2GB.

With that said, we could see both supported if Apple's not dropping 2GB yet.
Not only that, keeping iPad 5 but dropping iPhone SE (original) with the same chipset is weird too. I've seen the same prediction for iPad 5 and iPadOS 15 at a few other tech websites too. Yes, all speculation but interesting to do.
 
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Digitalguy

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Apr 15, 2019
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At this point A8 and A8X are being dropped for sure.
A9 I would say it's likely too, but not certain.
A9X I think it's unlikely. My guess is that Apple will drop both A9X products at the same time, so not now. What's more A9X devices support apple pencil, while A9 doesn't (so less sales of accessories).
For those that say Apple will drop all 2GB devices, no. The 2018 iPad 6 has 2GB and I doubt it will be dropped, when even the 2014 air 2 was supported until iPadOS 14.
And honestly the 9.7 pro is not much behind the A10 in terms of power.
 

marty1980

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Apr 22, 2011
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We’re likely looking more at dropped features from iPadOS 15 instead of no support at all. The iPad 5 won’t be able to do things that newer iPads can (this is already the case, I believe with iPadOS 14).

Plus there’s the possibility that some changes coming to iPadOS to account for the M1 chips are a risk to the performance of older iPads. So watch carefully how that plays out.
 

Digitalguy

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Apr 15, 2019
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We’re likely looking more at dropped features from iPadOS 15 instead of no support at all. The iPad 5 won’t be able to do things that newer iPads can (this is already the case, I believe with iPadOS 14).

Plus there’s the possibility that some changes coming to iPadOS to account for the M1 chips are a risk to the performance of older iPads. So watch carefully how that plays out.
I wouldn't be so optimistic about the iPad 5, but at this point only Apple knows...
 

Richard8655

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Looks like the regular iPad 5 and later made it under the wire! I just hope the chip can handle the processing demands of 15. But I think Apple has started to take older iPads into account in adjusting with newer OS software releases.
 

chrfr

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Jul 11, 2009
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Looks like the regular iPad 5 and later made it under the wire! I just hope the chip can handle the processing demands of 15. But I think Apple has started to take older iPads into account in adjusting with newer OS software releases.
Edit- never mind, I was thinking iPad mini, but if 15 runs on the A8 Mini 4, it should be fine on the iPad 5 with its A9.
 
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