iOS 27 can run on phones as old as the iPhone 11
Key takeaways
- Apple's focus on efficiency and performance improvements is good news for older i Phones.
- Chris Velazco for Engadget Apple's two main focuses for i OS 27 were polishing the performance of its mobile operating system and adding a sprinkle of AI across everything thanks to Apple Intelligence and Siri AI.
- It's not clear if any one change made extending the lifespan of the iPhone 11 possible.
Apple's focus on efficiency and performance improvements is good news for older i Phones.
Chris Velazco for Engadget Apple's two main focuses for i OS 27 were polishing the performance of its mobile operating system and adding a sprinkle of AI across everything thanks to Apple Intelligence and Siri AI. Anything AI-related is the most attention-grabbing, but Apple's attempts to clean up its software have already secured a big benefit: the company isn't dropping support for any i Phones this year. That means any iPhone that ran iOS 26, including the seven-year-old iPhone 11, can run iOS 27.
It's not clear if any one change made extending the lifespan of the iPhone 11 possible. The company is promising that apps running in iOS 27 will open up to 30 percent faster, among other speed improvements. The efficiency could have also been unlocked by iOS' CPU scheduler, which Apple also claims has been newly optimized. That said, this doesn't change what iPhones can work with Apple Intelligence as well as the new Siri AI features — the oldest one is the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.