Will your iPhone support iOS 18? The latest rumors could bring good news
iOS 18 may not drop support for any older iPhones
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
WithiOS 18expected to be one of thebiggest updates in iPhone history, the obvious follow-up question is – which models will support it? Well, we now have a good idea thanks to a new rumor from a credible source.
A now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter) fromMacRumorscontributor Aaron Perris says that iOS 18 will be compatible with models from the iPhone XR onwards. The XR was released in 2018 and has an A12 bionic chip, which means the rumor suggests that theiPhone XSandiPhone XS Maxwill also be compatible.
If true, that means the iOS 18 compatibility list would match the one for last year’siOS 17update. And that’d be good news, asAppleusually drops support for older devices with each new iteration of iOS. For example, iOS 17 dropped support for theiPhone 8,iPhone 8 PlusandiPhone X.
iOS 18iPhone XR, XS and XS Max or lateriPadOS 18iPad Pro (2018 or later)iPad Air (2019 or later)iPad mini (2019 or later)iPad (2020 or later)
The three latter phones all ran on the A11 Bionic chip, but it seems that the A12 has a longer shelf life for software updates. If the rumor is correct, then Apple will have given the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max six years of software updates (and counting).
However, the news could be less positive for owners of older iPads. According to the same MacRumors source, iPadOS 18 could drop support for iPads running on the A10X and A10 Fusion chips.
If so, these incompatible models would include the iPad Pros launched in 2017 (including theiPad Pro 10.5 2017andiPad Pro 12.9 2017), plus the standardiPad 9.7 (2018)andiPad 10.2 (2019). iPadOS 18 is likely to arrive atWWDC2024, which typically runs every June – although we’re yet to get a confirmed date for the event.
Which phones will get AI features?
While it’s good news that iOS 18 potentially won’t see Apple drop software support for older models, that doesn’t mean the iPhone XR will get exactly the same experience as theiPhone 15.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
As we’ve seen before, older iPhones can hit a performance ceiling when running the latest versions of iOS, even if they technically support all of the latest features. And given that some of the biggest iOS 18 changes are expected to be AI-powered, some new tricks may still be restricted to more recent models (in reality).
According toBloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s senior management has called its nextoperating system"ambitious and compelling" with some “major new features and designs”.
What kind of features? Reliable leakerRevegnushas suggested that Apple is using a proprietary LLM (large language model) to “completely revamp Siri into the ultimate virtual assistant", while Messages, Apple Music and Pages are also expected to get major AI upgrades.
The question is how many of these new features will run on-device or via the cloud. Given Apple’s privacy-focused stance, it seems likely that it’ll err towards the former, but we’ll likely find out for sure in June. For now at least, your iPhone XR, iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max will live on to see another year, it seems.
You might also like
Mark is TechRadar’s Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both TechRadar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he’s contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph’s Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London’s Square Mile.
A newly reported iPhone phenomenon could be bad news for both cops and robbers
The iPhone 18 series could include a variable aperture, ‘significantly enhancing’ the camera
Belkin’s Travel Bag for Vision Pro has pockets and is way cheaper than Apple’s own case
