September 9, 2025, 6:36 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
All iPhones that ran iOS 17 have also received the update to iOS 18. However, with the successor iOS 26, Apple is ending support for one generation of devices.
The company has a strong track record when it comes to software support for its devices. While Android manufacturers now promise up to seven years of updates, so far only Apple has actually supported a device for that long with the iPhone 6s. But what about iOS 26, which is officially available on September 15–will all previously supported iPhones receive the update?
iPhones That Won’t Get iOS 26
During the keynote at WWDC25 in June, Apple announced which iPhone models are compatible with the new version of iOS. One previously supported iPhone generation will no longer receive the update. This concerns the successors of the anniversary iPhone X:
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
The three devices launched in September 2018 with iOS 12 and have thus received nearly six and a half years of software support. iOS 18.6 is also available–but without Apple Intelligence.
The 7th generation iPad from 2019 will also no longer receive iPadOS 26. The built-in Apple A10 Bionic, which was already used in the iPhone 7, is simply no longer powerful enough for the new iPadOS version.
End of Updates Comes as No Surprise
iPhone XS/XS Max and XR have experienced a total of seven iOS versions, placing them within the normal range of software support at Apple. Nevertheless, many owners of the older devices are likely to be disappointed, especially since they are hardly inferior in performance to the successor generation iPhone 11.
The decisive factor, however, is likely not the A12 Bionic chip, but the fact that the RAM in the iPhone XR is limited to just 3 gigabytes.