We have about 3 weeks from when Apple introduced iOS 27 To the world at WWDC26 and it can still be said with certainty: this is an incredible update. this incredible performanceand besides some minor quirks and a bit of battery drain, iOS 26.5 is much more usable.
While iOS 27 supports every device running iOS 26, the same is not true For iPadOS. A number of older iPadOS 26 devices won’t receive the iPadOS 27 update, which I think is a shame – and Apple needs to mitigate this one way or another.
iPadOS 27 device support
iPadOS 27 drops support for all devices with an A12 or A12X chipset, including:
While yes, these devices are all 6-8 years old and Apple has definitely given them a long software life – most people can agree that iPadOS 26 is not a great place to leave older devices.
I think Apple can realistically solve this.
Allow iPadOS 18 to download
This would be the easiest solution to run them all: just let iPadOS 26 users go back to the more performant OS.
Currently, Apple is deprecating older versions of its operating systems, so it is not possible to downgrade to older software after the signing window has passed. Currently, Apple is only signing iOS 26.5 for most compatible devices.
This decision makes sense from a security perspective, as Apple ideally wants you to be able to run only the most stable version of iOS. There is a loophole in this logic: Apple is still releasing security updates for iOS 18.
iPadOS 18.7.9 has been released more than a month ago iPadOS 26.5 brings many of the same security patches to older iOS devices as well. So, iPadOS 18.7.9 is not like an unreliable OS that is not suitable to run on A12 devices that do not support iPadOS 27.
I can’t imagine the everyday user would be worried about downgrading their device, but at the same time, as long as Apple is still releasing iOS 18 security updates, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be an option for those looking to buy it.
Just give them iPadOS 27
That would be pretty unprecedented, and I think it’s incredibly unlikely that Apple would choose to add support for devices it already chose to release despite public outcry. It’s worth noting though: it’s not 100% unprecedented.
Back in 2022, with Stage Manager in iPadOS 16, many people in the Apple community were upset that Stage Manager required an iPad with an M1 chip or newer, which was rare at the time. Later in the beta period, Apple lost and He brought the stage manager for 2018 and 2020 iPad Pro models.
It was a bit more limited in capacity, as those iPads couldn’t support external displays like the M1 models. Regardless, Apple has reversed course on device support requirements here.
Will Apple do it again? Only time will tell. I’d imagine there’s some engineering reason for not wanting to support these older devices, though it’s hard to find anything obvious from the outside.
Perhaps the full window support works too poorly with the A12 GPU and 4GB of RAM. If that’s the case, I think users would be fine with this feature being somewhat limited — in exchange for a smoother feel to their iPad.
Where do you stand on this issue? Do you own an older A12 iPad that doesn’t support iPadOS 27? Sound off in the comments.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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