iOS 17 Supported Devices: Will Your iPhone Get It?

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iOS 17 will debut to the public in September 2023. But what will the iOS 17 supported devices be?

Whenever Apple releases a new operating system, people wonder what its supported devices will be.

A supported device means the iPhone is capable of installing and running a select version of iOS. The big question is: which iPhones will support iOS 17, the next generation of iOS that is set to debut later this year?

Here’s what we know…

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iOS 17 Supported Devices: Will It Support ALL The iPhones iOS 16 Supports?

Nope, iOS 17 will not support all the devices iOS 16 supports. Apple made a brutal cust to iPhones this year when it comes to which iPhones will support iOS 17. Apple has eliminated three models from the iOS 17 support. Those models are:

Again, the above models are the models iOS 17 will NOT support. The models iOS 17 WILL support are the following:

People were hoping that iOS 17 may support all the same iPhones that iOS 16 supports since rumors had it iOS 17 would be a more minor upgrade than iOS 16 was. While that will have been disappointing to those hoping for radically new features, it would have meant that iOS 17 might not have had any new minimum system requirements – such as chip or RAM requirements.

But that wasn’t the case and Apple added a number of new features – many of which rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Such technology requires a powerful engine, which Apple debuted on the A12 Bionic. The iPhone 8 series and iPhone X have the less powerful A11 chipset.

If you’re interested, too, here are the features of iOS 17. The iOS 17 beta for developers is out now and should drop for public beta testers in July 2023.

iOS 17 Supported Devices: Best-case Scenario

We know know the below best-case scenario for iOS 17 support will not happen. That scenario was support for the following iPhones:

And below you can see our original thoughts on the worst-case scenario, which ended up being what happened…

iOS 17 Supported Devices: Worst-case Scenario

Of course, it’s possible that Apple could decide to drop some models of iPhone from the iOS 17 supported devices list. If Apple does this it will likely come down to the fact that Apple doesn’t think the chipset in some older iPhones are good enough to give users a great iOS 17 experience.

With the release of iOS 16, Apple dropped support for two iPhone series: the iPhone 6s series and the iPhone 7 series.

If Apple decides to drop support for iOS 17 from some iPhone models, it’s likely both the iPhone 8 series, which include the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, will go as well as the iPhone X.

Why both these phone series? Because they both have the Apple A11 Bionic chipset inside, so it wouldn’t make sense for Apple to keep supporting one of the phones and not the other.

If Apple does drop support from iOS 17 for the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, then it’s likely iOS 17 will support the following devices:

Of course, we’ll have to wait until Apple announced iOS 17 later this year to find out for sure. Until then, here is when iOS 17 should be released.

Michael Grothaus

Apple expert and novelist, Michael Grothaus has been covering tech on KnowYourMobile for the best part of 10 years. Prior to this, he worked at Apple. And before that, he was a film journalist. Michael is a published author; his book Epiphany Jones was voted as one of the best novels about Hollywood by Entertainment Weekly. Michael is also a writer at other publications including VICE and Fast Company.

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