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Apple on Monday unveiled the highly anticipated iOS 27 operating system, with developer and public betas coming soon. The official iOS 27 release is expected to be available on compatible iPhones in September, around the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro and foldable iPhone models, which should ship with iOS 27 preloaded.
The following iPhone models can run iOS 27, and users can install the beta releases as soon as Apple makes them available to download:
- iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone 17e
- iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16e
- iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max
- iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone SE 3
- iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE 2
As with previous iOS releases, iOS 27 will support several iPhone generations, going as far back as the iPhone 11 series released in 2019. Apple doesn’t offer software update guarantees like some Android vendors do, but the company routinely supports iPhones for five or six years after their original release. That said, some of the older models that can run iOS 27 will not be able to support all the new features in the new software update, especially the revamped Siri experience and the new and existing Apple Intelligence tools. However, iOS 27 should deliver performance improvements that iPhone owners with older models may appreciate.
iOS 27 limitations you should know about
The almost seven-year-old iPhone 11 models will be able to run the core iOS 27 experience, complete with the tweaked Liquid Glass design and the optimizations that may improve the overall software experience and, hopefully, battery life. They’ll also get new features that aren’t related to Apple Intelligence, like the Notification Center sliding in from the left in iOS 27. But some older iPhone models can’t run any Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27, including Siri AI.
As a reminder, the iOS 18 update kicked off this AI-related fragmentation. You needed an iPhone 15 Pro model or later to run Apple Intelligence. The same restriction is true for iOS 26 and iOS 27. The revamped Siri assistant and the new ChatGPT-like Siri app will be restricted to iPhone 15 Pro models or later. Also, Apple is rumored to use a waitlist for the new Siri experience when iOS 27 launches in September.
Finally, Apple has not revealed all of the iOS 27 features coming to iPhones this year. Like previous iPhone generations, the iPhone 18 series will likely introduce unique software features that may not be available on older devices. That’s especially true of the foldable iPhone, which should include a large-screen experience in iOS 27 that will let users take advantage of the larger display.
