Apple hardware can usually be operated well beyond the guarantee and warranty period. Old desktop Macs are often fully functional decades after they were purchased. However, some components become increasingly subject to wear and tear over time. The motors of hard drives, for example, can seize up, batteries increasingly lose capacity or swell up, and mechanically stressed charging sockets are susceptible to loose contacts. Apple continues to offer repairs for a certain period of time after sales end, but sets clear limits on this service. At the turn of the year, Apple has added additional hardware models to the vintage list – if you want these products to be repaired using original spare parts, you should hurry up. In the future, Apple will offer the following devices in vintage status:
- Apple Watch 5 (all materials and sizes)
- iPhone 11 Pro
- MacBook Air 2020 (Intel) – the last model without an ARM chip
In Apple’s support program, “vintage” means that replacement parts availability is no longer guaranteed. So if you go to a certified Apple service provider or an Apple Store to have a vintage device repaired, you will generally still get the device repaired. However, Apple will no longer replenish its supply of spare parts indefinitely. It is possible that within the next few months your inventory will be so depleted that repairs with original parts will no longer be possible. After two years of “vintage” this point will be reached at the latest, because then the devices will definitely go into “obsolete” status. If you want a repair afterwards, you have to rely on spare parts from third-party providers. In this case, you can save yourself the trip to the Apple Store – Apple no longer repairs devices that are listed as obsolete.
Limited spare parts – but still updates
The iPhone 11 Pro continues to receive software updates despite its vintage classification – the Pro versions of the Apple smartphone introduced in 2019 are the oldest models that are compatible with iOS 26. It is therefore very likely that this year’s update to iOS 27 will leave the ranks of supported devices. The fifth generation of the Apple Watch has already reached its system maximum with watchOS 11. The macOS 26 (Tahoe), released in autumn 2025, supports Intel Macs for the last time, but is limited to a few devices – the MacBook Air with Intel processor introduced in March 2020 is no longer one of them.
