Apple's iOS 27 will support iPhones as far back as the iPhone 11, which launched in 2019.
The iPhone 11 runs on Apple's A13 Bionic chip and will be roughly seven years old when iOS 27 ships this fall. Apple attributed the extended compatibility to efficiency and performance improvements in the new release. The software got leaner, not just the compatibility list. That framing matters: when Apple has dropped older devices in the past, the official reason is usually that the hardware can't deliver the full experience. Keeping the iPhone 11 alive implies the engineering cleared that bar without requiring a hardware upgrade.
Seven years of iOS updates is a longer runway than most Android flagship owners could have expected from their manufacturers even recently, though Google and Samsung have both moved to seven-year update pledges for their top-tier devices, making the gap much narrower than it once was. For iPhone 11 owners, the practical win is staying inside Apple's security patch cycle without being pushed into a new purchase. Access to whatever headline feature iOS 27 ships with is secondary.
Apple has faced regulatory scrutiny in multiple markets over perceived planned obsolescence and undisclosed performance throttling on older hardware. Supporting a 2019 phone doesn't resolve that history. But it is a less contentious data point than the alternative, and Apple almost certainly prefers the quieter headline.