Apple has given us enough iPhone X spec sheets and teaser videos to slobber over for now, but there’s still a few missing details about the iPhone X that need to be cleaned up before launch. One thing that was sorely lacking at Apple’s presentation was any mention of software. We know that the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will ship with iOS 11, but it seems as though the iPhone X will come with something even better: iOS 11.1.
Benchmarking service Geekbench has recorded a test from a device showing up as “iPhone 10,6.” It has 3GB of RAM according to Geekbench, and a 6-core ARM processor. The only two devices that fit that description are the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. Given that we saw another Geekbench test from an iPhone 10,5 with the same specs earlier this week, we can reasonably deduce that the iPhone 10,6 is the iPhone X.
That’s exciting, because the OS shown on that device is iOS 11.1. It’s no surprise that Apple’s already testing a number-point upgrade to iOS in private, but it does give us a realistic timeline for when we’ll see iOS 11.1 in the wild. If the iPhone X is already running it in testing, it likely means we’ll see iOS 11.1 on all devices when the iPhone X launches in early November.
There’s plenty of new features that could show up in iOS 11.1. Obviously, all the iPhone X-specific features, like Face ID, will be contained in that update. But it’s also possible that Apple will leave some iPhone 8 and 8 Plus features locked up until then, and other iOS 11 updates — like peer-to-peer Apple Pay transfers — could be contained in that update also.
