Well you could buy another one that hasn't been updated to iOS 26My favorite phone I’ve ever owned, stuck with my least favorite Apple OS I’ve ever used.
The last 4" iPhone is the iPhone SE 1st generation. The last 4" device is the iPod Touch 7th generation. Both have iOS 15 as their final iOS version.SE 2 is the last 4 inch device if I remember correctly
I'll explain, as an app developer. Telegram wouldn't exist without their app. The bank can exist without the app. Telegram prioritizes app development. Banks don't prioritize app development and usually have a handful of people and some offshore QA maintaining an app, likely initially built by an outside consulting company that has since moved on. For most large companies that existed before apps existed, it means their business is not an app, and the app is a 2nd class citizen, usually behind the website.Don’t mind being left behind by Apple and getting stuck on iOS 26 with updates for a few years, my big complaint is developers drop support for previous iOS versions way too early while other ones still maintain support as far back as iOS 13.
My banking app is notorious and dropping compatibility if older than two versions even though their interface is just a web portal forcing you to use Safari to access your account while other apps like Telegram try to keep support for the last seven iOS releases.
I rarely see people complaining about Apple not pushing boundaries enough. In these forums I mostly read that people want a more stable, less buggy experience.I love when people complain about 7 year old devices not getting the latest OS, as if their hardware is rendered useless now. 7 years is a long time, and why should they hold features for users that are happy with their devices as they are? And then people complain that Apple isn’t pushing boundaries enough jfc.
But the iPhone 14 shares the same chip as the iPhone 13 and SE 3rd (A15 Bionic).This is hardly a "leak". This is Apple continuing to do what they've done for every iPhone starting with the 6s: Provide 7 years of OS Support*.
Since iOS 26 is the 7th year for the 11 and SE (2nd ED), those are exactly the phones for which it's expected support will be dropped with iOS 27.
Indeed, based on this, I can provide an even bigger "leak":
iOS 27 (Fall 2026): drops iPhone 11 and SE (2nd ED)
iOS 28 (Fall 2027): drops iPhone 12
iOS 29 (Fall 2028): drops iPhone 13 and SE (3rd ED)
iOS 30 (Fall 2029): drops iPhone 14
iOS 31 (Fall 2030): drops iPhone 15
and so on.....
*Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history#Hardware_support
That's an excellent point—starting with the A15, they've been splitting chips across two different generations of phones, which does complicate things.But the iPhone 14 shares the same chip as the iPhone 13 and SE 3rd (A15 Bionic).
Because of this, I honestly think the iPhone 13 and SE 3rd will have an extra year of support up to iOS 30. Especially SE 3rd was literally on sale by Apple early 2025.