Not necessarily. Note that the iPad Pro 10.5" has 4 GB of RAM and the iPhone X only has 3 GB of RAM.
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.
iOS 17 Rumored to Drop Support for iPhone X, First-Generation iPad Pro, and More
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
iOS device support has always been a bit of a mystery. In some cases, devices were cut off because of certain hardware aspects (RAM, APU etc), in others it was because the harware had been pushed too far and should arguably been cut off earlier (iPhone 4, iPad 2 anyone?) and finally devices that are cut off for seemingly no reason (iPhone 7).
The current situation is confusing. From iOS 15, anything without an A12 chip missed out on a lot of features that (presumably) leveraged the strong ML cores such as Live Text, Portrait mode in FaceTime and...more detailed Apple Maps?!, but A9, A10 and A11-powered devices still got the update. For someone with an A11 chip, we've now had two updates (iOS15/iOS16) where most of the new features weren't supported. So, why drop A11 devices now when they could just continue to deny them features? Historically, there tended to be some devices that get extra years sipport (generally the S versions of iPhones) - usually because they had some hardware feature that enabled this (faster APU/more RAM in 3GS, More RAM in 6S). Here we have devices that have a decent APU (A11) and additional RAM (3 GB for the iPhone X) compared to the previous generation.
On the iPadOS side, it's clear that the reason customisable lock screens are not supported is that this needs the ML cores (even the weak ones in the A11) and because Apple were recycling the A9/A10 chips in iPads as recently as 2019 they couldn't drop support for them. Thus we get the rediculous situation where an A10/2 GB device (6th gen iPad) looks like it will get OS17 whilst a A11/3 GB devices (iPhone X, iPhone 8 plus) won't.
My take on this is that Apple has been on a downturn for 7-8 years. Less and less devices are being sold year. Apple has been hiding this by no longer reporting unit number sold, bumping up prices and pushing people to buy higher end models. I have no doubt that they have data showing that when a device loses access to the latest OS version a certain percentage buy new devices which may have prompted them to drop more device support. Apple has the money and dmoninance to survive just about anything but when you are pushing prices higher and higher to keep revenue increasing, there will come a tipping point where people can't take any more. In many ways, the monthly pricing helps hide this (remember when iPhone prices jumped from $699 to $999 all the people saying it was only an extra $10 per month), but when increasing prices meets a cost of living crisis something is going to give...
At the end of the day I have to hold my hand up and admit that I am to blame for this: I made the decision last month to get a new battery for my iPhone X rather than get an upgrade to keep me going for another 12-18 months so naturally, Apple act to cut off support within 7 months...
The current situation is confusing. From iOS 15, anything without an A12 chip missed out on a lot of features that (presumably) leveraged the strong ML cores such as Live Text, Portrait mode in FaceTime and...more detailed Apple Maps?!, but A9, A10 and A11-powered devices still got the update. For someone with an A11 chip, we've now had two updates (iOS15/iOS16) where most of the new features weren't supported. So, why drop A11 devices now when they could just continue to deny them features? Historically, there tended to be some devices that get extra years sipport (generally the S versions of iPhones) - usually because they had some hardware feature that enabled this (faster APU/more RAM in 3GS, More RAM in 6S). Here we have devices that have a decent APU (A11) and additional RAM (3 GB for the iPhone X) compared to the previous generation.
On the iPadOS side, it's clear that the reason customisable lock screens are not supported is that this needs the ML cores (even the weak ones in the A11) and because Apple were recycling the A9/A10 chips in iPads as recently as 2019 they couldn't drop support for them. Thus we get the rediculous situation where an A10/2 GB device (6th gen iPad) looks like it will get OS17 whilst a A11/3 GB devices (iPhone X, iPhone 8 plus) won't.
My take on this is that Apple has been on a downturn for 7-8 years. Less and less devices are being sold year. Apple has been hiding this by no longer reporting unit number sold, bumping up prices and pushing people to buy higher end models. I have no doubt that they have data showing that when a device loses access to the latest OS version a certain percentage buy new devices which may have prompted them to drop more device support. Apple has the money and dmoninance to survive just about anything but when you are pushing prices higher and higher to keep revenue increasing, there will come a tipping point where people can't take any more. In many ways, the monthly pricing helps hide this (remember when iPhone prices jumped from $699 to $999 all the people saying it was only an extra $10 per month), but when increasing prices meets a cost of living crisis something is going to give...
At the end of the day I have to hold my hand up and admit that I am to blame for this: I made the decision last month to get a new battery for my iPhone X rather than get an upgrade to keep me going for another 12-18 months so naturally, Apple act to cut off support within 7 months...
Still using my 8-plus. More annoyed by the iPad support being dropped.
I don't disagree with that in general, but I'm hoping for another iOS 12/Mac OS X Snow Leopard like release that focuses on stability over features. At least with the full releases there's a chance for stability fixes, while there's no chance when the OS goes security updates only.
I don’t really understand the correlation to car support. What would car manufacturers “ending support” look like? Most car warranties are 3-5 years, but the car won’t suddenly stop working when the warranty ends. Apple isn’t “ending support”, for these devices, it’s not providing new software features to these devices going forward, but they will continue to work as they had for years more, and will continue to make parts available until they reach obsolete status, which is when Apple will truly end support. How many free updates to your car has the auto manufacturer provided to you? I’m guessing unless there was a safety recall the number is zero.
It could also be just a false rumor lol and the iPhone X gets iOS 17
Frankly speaking, iPhone X has been already struggling with iOS 16. Seems kind of obvious.
With the changes in charging connector and the many camera improvements I'll be upgrading my trusty XR this year! (Replaced the battery last year as it was down to 83% just to give it a bit longer.)
Used to replace every two years, but planned on four years as the costs were getting higher and higher in the UK. Decided to wait one more year when it was fairly clear that USB-C was coming this year.
The XR has been a dependable and reliable phone, but it does feel "old" now. Five years is pretty good going. Only once when it got really hot on the dashboard of my car when being used as a sat nav has it ever struggled to function (it was rather toasty!)
Used to replace every two years, but planned on four years as the costs were getting higher and higher in the UK. Decided to wait one more year when it was fairly clear that USB-C was coming this year.
The XR has been a dependable and reliable phone, but it does feel "old" now. Five years is pretty good going. Only once when it got really hot on the dashboard of my car when being used as a sat nav has it ever struggled to function (it was rather toasty!)
Cutting software support / updates is basically making a product obsolete in artificial way.
I'm still on X with no real incentive to move to a newer model - they are all more or less the same, with incremental changes. Yeah yeah, I don't have a 120 Hz screen, the cameras could be better etc but I don't really need it that much. What's the real big difference between X and newer models? It's a set of spec bumps and updates to form factor, which fluctuate cause what can you really invent here, it's all a cuboid shape in moreless the same proportions
It's sad how every company is trying to push people to keep buying stuff they don't really need while still pretending to give a crap about environment and being eco friendly..
Also this is indicative of Apple shi**y sales as of late. "So, you don't want to buy our M2 Macbooks? Ok then, we'll diversify and force you to buy new iphones!" Maybe come up with cooler products on a less frequent release plan instead of chasing your own tail just to come up with forced products every year. Smh... I really don't like what apple has become.
I'm still on X with no real incentive to move to a newer model - they are all more or less the same, with incremental changes. Yeah yeah, I don't have a 120 Hz screen, the cameras could be better etc but I don't really need it that much. What's the real big difference between X and newer models? It's a set of spec bumps and updates to form factor, which fluctuate cause what can you really invent here, it's all a cuboid shape in moreless the same proportions
It's sad how every company is trying to push people to keep buying stuff they don't really need while still pretending to give a crap about environment and being eco friendly..
Also this is indicative of Apple shi**y sales as of late. "So, you don't want to buy our M2 Macbooks? Ok then, we'll diversify and force you to buy new iphones!" Maybe come up with cooler products on a less frequent release plan instead of chasing your own tail just to come up with forced products every year. Smh... I really don't like what apple has become.
Much older devices being dropped is simply because the software caught up with hardware at the time. Since at least iPhone 7, features introduced in iOS are not mind numbing powerful to warrant significant hardware power. The iPhone X is still a powerful device, the fact that it still does everything in terms of general smart phone usage as the latest iPhone 14 would suggest it could do with a few more years of iOS releases. Its just like Windows 11 vs Windows 7. The same things I do on Windows 11 today: access email in Outlook, launch Chrome and browse web sites, listen to streaming music in Spotify, type word documents in Word. I did all that on Windows 7 and Vista.
The same routines we did on an iPhone 5: listen music, take selfies, watch videos on YouTube, browse social media apps, send messages using WhatsApp are the very same things we are doing today in iOS 16. Sure, there are niche things that Apple can leave out for older devices and make be exclusive to recent and newer model iPhones. But there is only so much you can do with a rectangle. Sure, 5G, satellite calling, 10x zoom, promotion, but those can all be optional. Just as they make features specific to the Pro models versus the standard iPhones.
At this point Microsoft is more like Apple was, than Apple is.
iPhone X has been increasingly excluded from critical new iOS features. Like the rain drops in the weather app don't splash against the UI controls (when they actually load).
I just dropped out of the whole upgrade thing, years ago. App won't update any more and can't use anymore? Oh well, your app is deleted HAHAHAHA! Feels great. Marketing through fake obsolescence is evil. It's their game, I have no say in the rulemaking. But I can choose not to play. They can go to Hell. 🤣Cutting software support / updates is basically making a product obsolete in artificial way.
I'm still on X with no real incentive to move to a newer model - they are all more or less the same, with incremental changes. Yeah yeah, I don't have a 120 Hz screen, the cameras could be better etc but I don't really need it that much. What's the real big difference between X and newer models? It's a set of spec bumps and updates to form factor, which fluctuate cause what can you really invent here, it's all a cuboid shape in moreless the same proportions
It's sad how every company is trying to push people to keep buying stuff they don't really need while still pretending to give a crap about environment and being eco friendly..
Also this is indicative of Apple shi**y sales as of late. "So, you don't want to buy our M2 Macbooks? Ok then, we'll diversify and force you to buy new iphones!" Maybe come up with cooler products on a less frequent release plan instead of chasing your own tail just to come up with forced products every year. Smh... I really don't like what apple has become.
I’m using 29.4 GB of 32 on my iPad 7th Generation.
That includes removing the larger Apps from Apple.
The last two updates needed to remove some Apps to download the update.
They were put back.
iPad OS 16.4 had my first casualty, an app that no longer works.
As an Android user as well, having no more than two OS updates is normal.
My iPad was refurbished and came with iPad OS 14.8.
I updated to 15 on day one.
I feel my iPad is lucky to be able to receive 17.
I wonder if 18 will be too big for the 32 GB storage.
Also CPU limitations (or whatever).
I think the vast majority of people are not that deep into their devices (pick a brand) aside from being able to text, take pictures, email, call, the basic stuff. Those are the huge masses that are not on forums and just want a device that works.
I think so, that is what I have. Still works, but needs to be charged every day. Used to carry it in my back pack everyday but now it sits at home and gets used for misc stuff. Just bought a iPad Mini 6 refurb to carry around.
Yess, they do...in all aspects of life....like if or not. It's all a matter of perspective.
Because as soon as the OS is no longer supported, Home/HomeKit won't get any more bug fixes, and odds are that after not too long they will make a non-backward-compatible change within HomeKit that rules out using the device entirely.
I always found that ridiculous, as the iPhone X itself can run games with FAR superior animations and graphics. The weather app isn't even going to be running for all that long either.