So Apple's About to Kill Off Four iPhones (And Honestly? It's About Time)

Okay, let’s talk about it.

If you’re still rocking an iPhone 11, yeah including you Pro Max owners flexing those triple cameras, I’ve got some news that’s probably not going to land well. According to a pretty reliable leaker over on Weibo (Instant Digital, if you want to credit them), iOS 27 is about to drop support for four iPhone models. And we’re not talking ancient relics here. We’re talking phones that, until like five minutes ago, felt totally fine.

Here’s the kill list:

iPhone 11
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone SE (2nd gen)

So basically if your phone came out before October 2020, you’re looking at the end of the road for major iOS updates. The new cutoff? iPhone 12 or newer. And for SE fans, you’ll need at least the 3rd-gen model to keep getting the goodies.

Wait, didn’t Apple just do this?

Yep. And that’s kind of the wild part.

Last year iOS 26 already wiped out the iPhone XS generation. Now iOS 27 is coming in for round two with the iPhone 11 lineup. That’s two years in a row of Apple shrinking the support list, which honestly breaks the pattern people have been bragging about for years. You know the one: “Apple supports phones forever, unlike insert Android brand here.”

That whole narrative? Getting a little shakier.

What you’ll actually be missing

Look, here’s where I have to be real with you.

Apple’s official iOS 27 reveal happens June 8 at WWDC, and the rumor mill says we’re getting a bunch of stuff: the massively overhauled Siri (finally — like genuinely, finally), the next phase of that Liquid Glass design language, and a handful of other tweaks Apple will pretend are revolutionary.

But here’s the catch, and it’s a big one. A lot of the headline features this year are tied to Apple Intelligence. And Apple Intelligence still requires an iPhone 15 Pro or newer to run. So even if your iPhone can technically install iOS 27, you might be looking at a stripped-down version of the experience anyway.

Translation: the actual line between “supported” and “left behind” is way blurrier than Apple wants you to think.

The not-totally-terrible news

If your phone’s on the chopping block, it’s not bricked or anything dramatic. Apple will keep pushing iOS 26 updates, but only the boring stuff. Security patches. Bug fixes. The kind of updates that keep your phone working but won’t bring anything new to the table.

So you’re safe. Just frozen in time.

My take

The iPhone 11 launched in 2019. Seven years of major iOS updates is still genuinely impressive, there’s no Android phone on the planet that comes close to that kind of support window. So credit where it’s due, this isn’t some scandal.

But it does feel like the upgrade pressure is creeping up earlier than it used to. And with so many of the actually cool new features locked behind iPhone 15 Pro and up, the real question isn’t “will my phone get iOS 27.” It’s “will my phone get the parts of iOS 27 that actually matter?”

Anyway, what do you think? Are you on one of the soon-to-be-dropped phones? Were you planning to upgrade anyway, or does this feel a little early? Let me know.

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Jamie Spencer

Jamie has been blogging about tech, making money online and entrepreneurship for the past 12 years. He is the proud owner of hugely successful website makeawebsitehub.com and has helped over 20k people start their own blogs.