IOS 27 Drops iPhone 11 Support, Ending A13 Bionic Era

The real story in Apple’s WWDC preview isn’t the new features arriving in iOS 27. It’s the iPhone 11 line getting cut, which would mark the first time since 2020 that Apple has dropped a device that once ran its flagship processor.

The iPhone 11 series launched with the A13 Bionic, which Apple was still using in the iPhone SE (3rd generation) as recently as 2022. Dropping the iPhone 11 alongside the SE (2nd generation) means Apple is effectively retiring the A13 entirely, four years after it last shipped in new hardware. That’s a shorter tail than some A-series chips have received, and it affects a phone that sold in enormous volumes globally, particularly in markets where flagship pricing is out of reach.

The Mac cuts are less surprising and more final. Apple confirmed that macOS 27 will not run on Intel hardware, which ends support for machines as recent as the 2020 iMac and the 2020 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt ports. Those buyers are four to five years out from purchase, which is on the shorter end of what Mac owners have historically expected.

The dropped iPad models follow a similar logic:

• iPad (8th generation, 2020) uses the A12 Bionic
• iPad Air 3 (2019) also runs the A12
• iPad mini 5 (2019) shares the same chip

All three share the A12, suggesting Apple is drawing a clean line at that generation across its entire product lineup.

What This Means for Users

Devices left behind will stay on their current OS and receive security patches for a period, though Apple has never committed to a fixed timeline for that coverage. The more immediate practical effect is app compatibility: as developers target iOS 27 features, older devices gradually lose access to updated versions of apps they depend on, which is where the real friction starts.