This is why I bought an iPhone 12. I had a Samsung Galaxy S8 before it and I was perfectly happy with it, except for the fact that it had reached the end of its scheduled security updates. The battery life was still good enough for my light usage, it still ran my apps without a hitch, and the OLED screen still looked great, but it had not received a proper software update in over a year and it had just received its final quarterly security patch. I don't care that much for Apple products (except for MacBooks), but it's the only phone manufacturer that actually supports its products beyond the first few years.

Highlights a much better policy than Google with respect to their Pixel phones. Pixel 2 was released at the end of 2017 and stopped getting updates at the end of 2020. I was kinda pissed, as I really felt no other compelling reason to get a later model phone. I might get a Pixel 6 when it's released later this year because 5G network availability is starting to become a real thing, but at this point I feel like only 3 years of support for a flagship phone is bullshit.

While Apple are still supporting six-year-old iPhones, it's disappointing that they're dropping support for six-year-old Macs.

It is worth noting that not all iPhones are bought on day 1. 6s was discontinued September 12, 2018 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_6S) and customers may have bought these phones later.

Also worth calling out that the even older (2014) iPad Air 2 will be supported by iPadOS 15. It is the lone A8-series device with 2 GB of Ram.

I moved from Iphone to android after the Iphone 5S. I had so many android devices after that, I don't even remember for which one. But for me android devices are good for one, two years, even when they have updates. Now just got back to apple world with a 12 Pro Max. I expect it to be still fast and responsible long after most flagship androids from the same vintage will have been neglected to the role of paper weights.

My first-gen SE (same age as the 6S) is also supported and doing just fine. Second screen, third battery, works great for everything except spending extended idle entertainment time on it, which is why I still use it.

Instead of thinking of this as a six-year-old iPhone, from the release date, consider when Apple stopped selling the 6S and the SE. In the case of the SE, that was March 2019, a little more than two years ago.

Happy 6S owner here. If I get another year I’ll be even happier. Hopefully by then the Pinephone will be ready for daily use.

6s/6s Plus are great devices. Last (full size) iPhone with headphone jack.

Put a case on it and it should last a long time.

iPhone 5s (2013 IIRC) is also still receiving security updates for iOS 12.5.x.

I'm not actually super surprised by this. Considering that they didn't really update the system in any way that might push the current performance envelope, who's really surprised? Apple has done this for decades, and when they announce that iOS 16 is getting $KILLER_FEATURE they'll also unveil the heartbreaking announcement that the 6S is being sunsetted.

I wonder if anything about the hardware (really, the CPU) makes it easier to get modern iOS to run on it. Over in PC land, everything since the Pentium Pro has been modern enough that mainstream Linux distros support it out-of-the-box. That's 25 years of support. Supposedly FreeBSD still has 486 support.

My 6S is still going strong but I had to buy a battery case to extend the battery life.

I just got a new battery for my 6S for 49 bucks. A bargain.

Big deal. I just installed ubuntu 21.04 on a ten-year-old machine. There is no non-evil reason why the latest OS cannot run on yesterday's hardware.