iOS 15 Compatible With All iPhones That Run iOS 14

[PsykX]

It has always been the case that an iOS/iPadOS device on its final operating system runs like crap. If nothing else forces you to buy something new, it's this fact. Also that your apps eventually stop working. So, yeah, planned obsolescence IS in effect here.

Not true since around iPhone 6.

My iPhone 5 is on its final version since a few years. It's not what I would call snappy, but it's also far from being garbage. I've seen brand new Android phones less snappy than that (not flagships but still).

Just removed the dust from my iPhone 6S to try it on iOS 14.6 (it's my vacations phone - if vacations ever exist anymore), and the speed is the same as the day I unboxed it 7 years ago.

So much for planned obsolescence...

 

[Homme]

BTW everyone this is the 3rd time in a row iPhonesoft.Fr predicted that the iPhone SE won’t get iOS13/14/15 and oh boy do they not know how the system of how OS compatibility works. In the past supported devices depended largely if the CPU can handle it, followed by RAM ( like the 1GB A7/A8 which don’t have 2GB of RAM), followed by things like Services and compatibility for older models like the SE, but yeah they don’t know how the system works and they shouldn’t be posting rumors again, ever since shockingly they claimed SE 2016 won’t get iOS 13 because of its tiny screen (forgetting A9 handles its 4 inch screen moderately well even for iOS 12 back then and even iOS 14/15 now) while they claimed Mini 4 will get iOS 13 despite its A8, huge screen res and pixels and DDR3 RAM compared to the advanced tech the SE has not to mention its flash drive being akin to a SSD compared to the Mini 4’s one and they made that claim but no more **** from them

 

[JosephAW]

Because ipadOS is heavier than iOS?

Too bad we can’t load the iPhone iOS 14 on the iPad then.

 

[Miat]

Compatible with the original SE. Sweet.

Time to order a new battery for mine. Only thing wrong with it. Otherwise still in excellent working condition.

Thank you, Apple.

 

[mdgm]

I had my iPhone 6S battery replaced already a while back (back in 2019, I think). It's currently showing 87% of Maximum Capacity and that it supports Peak Performance Capability so it's fine for now. Glad I got the battery replaced. The battery replacement was good value for money getting extra time out of the device.

 

[MartyvH]

This is beyond belief. 7 yearly versions for the 6s, SE and 8 for iPad Air 2. The goodwill that will come out of this for owners. iPhone is my phone and Samsung et al can eat my shorts.

 

[Locke Cole]

Another year for my iPhone 8 Plus

Me too!

 

[Locke Cole]

I upgraded my dad to an iPhone 8 because I was so sure they would cut support 😂

Back in Q1 2020, I made a wild a*s guess that the iPhone 6s and SE (1st Gen) will get iOS 15 and will remain fully supported until at least mid-late September 2022. Can't believe it turned out being true! The 6s will be fully supported for at least a whopping 7 years! This is something Apple has never done before (the longest before WWDC 2021 is the iPhone 5s from Sep 2013 - Sep 2019 or 6 years).

 

[Locke Cole]

People will always be unhappy no matter what Apple or any other company on this planet will do. Personally I am glad iPhone 6S is supported by iOS 15. Now I wonder which devices will be unsupported starting with iOS 16. Will it be iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 or just the iPhone 6S?

I wonder that too. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple decides to drop support for all 2GB RAM devices with iOS 16. The iPhone 7 is very similar to the 6s. 8 is more different, but still not that much. By late Sep 2022, the 8 and 7 will be 5-6 years old. Except for the 5c, Apple has been consistently supporting devices for at least 5 years since the 4s.

 

[nordique]

Too bad they they can’t give iOS 15 to iPad Air 1 yet they can for iPhone 6s, what’s the difference?

A much more powerful processor and twice the ram

 

[Yebubbleman]

Not true since around iPhone 6.

iPhone 6 uses the A8. iOS 12, as one of its marquee features, was optimized for older things. That's an exception and not the rule. That said, my experience has been that A7 devices run iOS 12 to a lackluster degree.

My iPhone 5 is on its final version since a few years. It's not what I would call snappy, but it's also far from being garbage. I've seen brand new Android phones less snappy than that (not flagships but still).

I have iOS 10 running on the fourth generation iPad (A6X) as its final version. Performance isn't as bad as the A5 running iOS 9, but it's not THAT much better.

Just removed the dust from my iPhone 6S to try it on iOS 14.6 (it's my vacations phone - if vacations ever exist anymore), and the speed is the same as the day I unboxed it 7 years ago.

So much for planned obsolescence...

Planned obsolescence is the idea that it is known at the time of a device's launch that it will be eventually obsolete. Your iPhone 6S will eventually be obsolete and I'd wager every Apple product you own that Apple knew it would eventually be obsolete when it came out. A9 was a massive leap forward over A8 in some rather important ways. Even so, especially with so many features in iOS 15 that are dependent on the neural engine in A11 and newer, it's foolish to assume that your 6S will be supported forever, despite being supported for a long time.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Ok, for one thing Apple isn't slowing down older devices. Let's shut that theory down right here.

I have a first generation iPad mini next to me as I type this. I also have a fifth generation iPad mini next to me as I type this. The former ran iOS 7 about as well as the latter runs iPadOS 14, which is to say, decently. The former's final iOS version is iOS 9 and it runs it like crap.

It may not have been Apple's express objective to slow down the first generation iPad mini by letting it into the iOS 9 party, but that doesn't change the fact that this was still the end result. Substitute first generation iPad mini and iOS 9 with iPad mini 2/3 and iOS 12, or fourth generation iPad and iOS 10, or any number of iPhones or iPads and their final iOS/iPadOS release. It's the same damn story. Incidentally, if they DIDN'T put out that final update and cut support early, the iOS/iPadOS devices in question would probably still be somewhat usable.

 

[macguy2021]

I have a first generation iPad mini next to me as I type this. I also have a fifth generation iPad mini next to me as I type this. The former ran iOS 7 about as well as the latter runs iPadOS 14, which is to say, decently. The former's final iOS version is iOS 9 and it runs it like crap.

It may not have been Apple's express objective to slow down the first generation iPad mini by letting it into the iOS 9 party, but that doesn't change the fact that this was still the end result. Substitute first generation iPad mini and iOS 9 with iPad mini 2/3 and iOS 12, or fourth generation iPad and iOS 10, or any number of iPhones or iPads and their final iOS/iPadOS release. It's the same damn story. Incidentally, if they DIDN'T put out that final update and cut support early, the iOS/iPadOS devices in question would probably still be somewhat usable.

But then you'd have people b*tching about them getting dropped. Either way you have people going after Apple. And that's not okay. Very rarely is what I see from the anti-Apple commentary on this forum actually in any way justified. Apple may not be perfect but they are as perfect as a tech company can be and that's why I'm all in with them. I don't see Google and Microsoft offering that level of support any time soon. So it really wouldn't matter what they did frankly!

New features require more power and are more resource intensive. Those devices are still plenty usable given their age. It's not right to expect those things to run at the same speed forever. At some point the right thing to do is upgrade. A first generation iPad mini is ancient. I mean come on! Even when it first got 9 it was ancient. Upgrade for pete's sake!

Whether or not that changes the end result is actually quite meaningful. If they intended to do it by means of planned obsolescence, it's their fault. If they didn't, it's not. Too many people are so quick to whine about the company who gave them this great technology. It reminds me of that dood from Epic. Apple deserves reimbursement for their invention and for their platform. Plain and simple. The devs alone don't make the device what it is. It starts with Apple and ends with Apple. We have a lot to be thankful for really but sadly most people would rather be ungrateful grunts and just complain about it on here. I'm not saying you are BTW, but after today's WWDC and seeing people who look like they belong on Apple Haters Central it gets a little old. I hate those types of people. Be grateful to Apple. Try it!

 

[Darth Tulhu]

As long as iPadOS running on these devices, post PC era doesn’t start.

For me if does, but I can accept it doesn't for you. My Macs went the way of Darth Sidious's apprentices.

They have been replaced, by something far younger and more powerful...

Heck, I couldn’t even transfer 20GB of files from my USB-C SSD to 2018 iPad Pro.

I haven't tried this on my M1, but I'm sure it can.

Count me in for wishing macOS running on iPad Pro

There's a LOT of you guys out there (and I wouldn't mind it myself if done right), but ya'll will be wishing for a looong time.

That said, I'm sure some enterprising dude/dudette will hack it in there, but, you know.

 

[nordique]

iOS 15 may be compatible with the iPhone 6S, but it remains to be seen whether it will slow it to a crawl.
iOS 9 is compatible with the iPhone 4S, but it made the phone unbearable to use.

there is a drastic difference between the A5 and A9

microarchitecture has changed quite a bit over the years and there were some big jumps in the mid 2010’s

now a days the jumps are less drastic. It’s more refinement because those jumps have been made. The high performance cores today in the bionic chips owe a lot to the A9 micro architecture

so what affected the 4S four iOS updates later is a completely different discussion from the 6s six iOS updates later based on those changes

 

[svish]

Though not much has changed from iOS14, good to hear that iPhone 6s and iPad Air 2 are still supported

 

[Yebubbleman]

But then you'd have people b*tching about them getting dropped. Either way you have people going after Apple. And that's not okay. Very rarely is what I see from the anti-Apple commentary on this forum actually in any way justified. Apple may not be perfect but they are as perfect as a tech company can be and that's why I'm all in with them. I don't see Google and Microsoft offering that level of support any time soon. So it really wouldn't matter what they did frankly!

I guarantee you, you have more people wanting their Apple devices to be useful for longer than you do those that demand the latest features of new operating system (especially when they're all annual and with typically few changes to really write home about).

Also Microsoft offers 10 years of support for those that need it. Most people don't because, unlike Apple, Microsoft doesn't permanently break everything under the hood every time they release a new Windows 10 version. At worst, it's buggy for the first month or two and is then perfectly stable. I WISH I could say the same of Apple's releases.

New features require more power and are more resource intensive. Those devices are still plenty usable given their age. It's not right to expect those things to run at the same speed forever. At some point the right thing to do is upgrade. A first generation iPad mini is ancient. I mean come on! Even when it first got 9 it was ancient. Upgrade for pete's sake!

I'm not saying a first generation iPad mini should always get new features, but the idea that its performance has to degrade because people demand the latest features on everything (including devices that shouldn't get them) is ridiculous. Plain and simple. The hardware works, but software is crippling it. Furthermore, it's not like you can't have a perfectly usable operating system running on said hardware, but, since that wasn't the direction Apple wanted to go in, the hardware is useless because the software crippled it.

Whether or not that changes the end result is actually quite meaningful. If they intended to do it by means of planned obsolescence, it's their fault. If they didn't, it's not. Too many people are so quick to whine about the company who gave them this great technology. It reminds me of that dood from Epic. Apple deserves reimbursement for their invention and for their platform.

We BOUGHT the hardware. We never agreed to rent it. Suggesting that the two concepts are to be equated is ridiculous.

Plain and simple. The devs alone don't make the device what it is. It starts with Apple and ends with Apple. We have a lot to be thankful for really but sadly most people would rather be ungrateful grunts and just complain about it on here. I'm not saying you are BTW, but after today's WWDC and seeing people who look like they belong on Apple Haters Central it gets a little old. I hate those types of people. Be grateful to Apple. Try it!

Not everyone can afford to replace their iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, or iMac when they are no longer able to run the latest operating system. The idea that I should be GRATEFUL to Apple for pushing annual OS updates (when they could just as easily do them every other year) that accelerate my Apple product's journey towards obsolescence is like saying that I ought to be grateful to companies that put processed sugar into food that I eat. It shortens my life, but I'm addicted to it and I should be grateful that it's there for me to ingest even though it's doing its part to give me diabetes and/or cancer. Praise be to Apple for making me spend more money sooner!

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Ok, for one thing Apple isn't slowing down older devices. Let's shut that theory down right here.

If you are referring to the battery thing, they were trying to help customers by making their battery last longer so they didn't have to replace it so the phone didn't die not even midway through the day or during an important call. Yes, they should have told people about the battery health, yada yada. But they were only throttling older phones with a bad battery. If you had that same model phone with a new battery or good quality left, you wouldn't notice anything at all!

The other reason for devices slowing down is that the more features you try to bring to a phone over time, the more the oldest phone in the supported list struggles with it. But people would whine if Apple dropped support. They are damned if they do, damned if they don't. But planned obsolescence or  doing things to force people to upgrade is a bad myth!

People want the new OS for those new features! They want the new shiny thing. Can you imagine the feigned outrage if Apple timed WWDC with the phone release and made you buy a new phone to get lets say 95 percent of those features? Apple can do no right in some people's minds. They are an easy target being the biggest name in tech and the most valuable if not in the top 3 at any given time. It's just sad honestly. We should all be more grateful. They aren't perfect but they do care about consumers and today they've shown that in spades be it this news, the news about FaceTime on the web, privacy, or not dropping any iPhones on the supported list this year. But some people are just unpleaseable!

I used to believe that Apple slowed down their devices intentionally so you'd upgrade. Well, I believed that they didn't put enough RAM in them intentionally... which I still kinda do believe. Business is business, but I concede I don't know the reason (it could be technical). I try to be a reasonable skeptic.

That said, this was what kept me from iOS/iPadOS before, but now I'm not worried about it at all because I think we've reached a point where we have more power on tap than we (the average user like me, that is) need.

I don't think I'll ever push my iPhone 12 Pro or my iPads to their limit. But again, non-pro user here.

 

[Herbit]

The only problem with my air 2 is the 16 gigs of storage lol.

Same for me, I pretty much only have space for a handful of apps, the rest has to be downloaded "on demand" before using. 🙈
Otherwise it is still a great little machine!

 

[stevenson3529]

Too bad they they can’t give iOS 15 to iPad Air 1 yet they can for iPhone 6s, what’s the difference?

The iPad Air 1 has a much slower A7 chip compared to the A9 in the iPhone 6s. The Air 1 can’t even run iPadOS 13, its latest version is 12.5.3.

 

[MhaelK]

Ok, for one thing Apple isn't slowing down older devices. Let's shut that theory down right here.

If you are referring to the battery thing, they were trying to help customers by making their battery last longer so they didn't have to replace it so the phone didn't die not even midway through the day or during an important call. Yes, they should have told people about the battery health, yada yada. But they were only throttling older phones with a bad battery. If you had that same model phone with a new battery or good quality left, you wouldn't notice anything at all!

The other reason for devices slowing down is that the more features you try to bring to a phone over time, the more the oldest phone in the supported list struggles with it. But people would whine if Apple dropped support. They are damned if they do, damned if they don't. But planned obsolescence or  doing things to force people to upgrade is a bad myth!

People want the new OS for those new features! They want the new shiny thing. Can you imagine the feigned outrage if Apple timed WWDC with the phone release and made you buy a new phone to get lets say 95 percent of those features? Apple can do no right in some people's minds. They are an easy target being the biggest name in tech and the most valuable if not in the top 3 at any given time. It's just sad honestly. We should all be more grateful. They aren't perfect but they do care about consumers and today they've shown that in spades be it this news, the news about FaceTime on the web, privacy, or not dropping any iPhones on the supported list this year. But some people are just unpleaseable!

Apple have always been amazing at telling how everything they do is only to the benefits of the customer, and just a strange coencidence if it also might persuade people to ditch their old phones for new models. A cheaper better and more efficient way to change batteries the iPhones would be better for the customers and also very much for the environment, but probably not so much Apple as the ”we will slow down your cpu to improve your experience“-strategy. While ditching the chargers was so much for the benefits of the environment, and magically by coencidence also for Apple (surprice!!)

It is okay to drink the cool-aid, it is just smart to be aware that you are drinking it.

 

[stevenson3529]

I used to believe that Apple slowed down their devices intentionally so you'd upgrade. Well, I believed that they didn't put enough RAM in them intentionally... which I still kinda do believe. Business is business, but I concede I don't know the reason (it could be technical). I try to be a reasonable skeptic.

That said, this was what kept me from iOS/iPadOS before, but now I'm not worried about it at all because I think we've reached a point where we have more power on tap than we (the average user like me, that is) need.

I don't think I'll ever push my iPhone 12 Pro or my iPads to their limit. But again, non-pro user here.

I think that it always seemed that way in the past as devices on their last iOS version were very slow. This was especially prevalent around the iPhone 4 era; the iPhone 4 was incredibly sluggish and a poor experience on iOS 7.1, the latest version it could run. It used to be that each generation was revolutionary (relatively speaking) however now it’s more of a conservative, incremental upgrade. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the new iPhones are the same as last year, but the changes just aren’t as drastic as the iPhone 2G > iPhone 3G, and the iPhone 4. My sister’s iPad mini 4 still seems useable now, despite being 6 years old and near the end of support (I’m surprised it’s getting iPadOS 15). It’s not super fast, but it’s certainly nowhere near as slow as the iPhone 4S was when it was on iOS 8 or iOS 9, or the iPad 4 on iOS 10.

 

[MhaelK]

I wonder that too. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple decides to drop support for all 2GB RAM devices with iOS 16. The iPhone 7 is very similar to the 6s. 8 is more different, but still not that much. By late Sep 2022, the 8 and 7 will be 5-6 years old. Except for the 5c, Apple has been consistently supporting devices for at least 5 years since the 4s.

Isnt the budget iPad only 2gb? and Apple is still selling those. If so I don’t don’t think support for all 2gb devices will be dropped. But 2gb is definitely a limiting factor by now.

edit: no, my mistake, the budget iPad has 3gb of ram. So I think you could be right, about dropping support for all 2gb devices at once.

 

[Zozone]

No way I’m installing anything past 12.4.1 on my 6s.
Apple can keep updating the 6s for as long as they want but they already “killed” the device with ios 13.
On 12.4.1 i have great battery life (almost ios 10 level), speed is INSANE, and everything runs incredibly smooth, easily comparable to a fully updated SE gen 2. And that seamless integration of 3rd touch (yes I actually use it, and when mastered it’s a nice feature to have).
Also since apple is still updating ios 12 with security patches, app developers are not fully dropping ios 12 support yet.

 

[PsykX]

Planned obsolescence is the idea that it is known at the time of a device's launch that it will be eventually obsolete [...] it's foolish to assume that your 6S will be supported forever

I never said it would be supported forever. They supported it 2 years more than I already thought, and 3-4 years more than flagship Androids.

People have a varying definition for "obsolete". In the world of tech, things gain power and will expectedly be left unsupported someday, obsolete should really mean : Planning a time until a product becomes unusable. Which is clearly not the case of my iPhone 6S.