The iOS 16 upgrade will abandon the iPhone 6s and the original iPhone SE

IT House December 21 news, according to 9to5 Mac reported that with the release of the official version of iOS 15.2, the new year is coming, Apple will begin to pay attention to the next important version internally, that is, iOS 16. According to iPhonesoft, citing insiders, Apple's iOS 16 plans to give up support for the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and the original iPhone SE. This means that iPhone SE 2, iPhone 7 and above will receive an iOS 16 upgrade.

In terms of iPad, iPadOS 16 is said to be no longer compatible with the iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad (fifth generation) and 2015 iPad Pro models. This means that iPadOS 16 upgrades are available for iPad MODELS that are newer than these updates.

Of course, this is not official news, Apple will announce iOS 16 at WWDC 2022, and a specific upgrade support list will also be announced. In terms of accuracy, iPhonesoft correctly reported the list of supported models for iOS 13 and iOS 14 in advance. iPhonesoft claimed last year that the iPhone 6s and the original iPhone SE would not be able to update to iOS 15, but this was incorrect. Apple eventually allowed iOS 15 to continue to support all device models identical to iOS 14.

Assuming that iPhonesoft's report today is correct, it will mean that iOS 16 will require an A10 chip as the minimum hardware specification to get the latest features. Previously, it was revealed that iOS 16 will be a major feature update.

Still, this represents an incredibly long lifespan for Apple phones in terms of upgrades and maintenance. The iPhone 6s and iPhone SE were first released in late 2015 and early 2016, respectively, meaning they'll receive regular software updates for more than 6 years. iPad mini 4 devices will also be removed from the software update roadmap, even though the product was more than five years old when iPadOS 16 was released.

IT House has learned that Apple also has plans to continue to support critical security patches for current and previous major versions of iOS, further extending the life of older models. For example, customers now have the option to stick with iOS 14 instead of updating to iOS 15. Assuming Apple sticks to its promise, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE users will continue to receive iOS 15 security updates in the years following the release of the official iOS 16 release in fall 2022.