Actually, we're not talking about a new iPhone model.
We're talking about the latest free iPhone operating system update, IOS 18, which upgrades, per the internet, all iPhone models produced since 2018. (Older iPhones still work. They are just no longer able to take advantage of the free operating system upgrades.)
Hmm. I bought my iPad in 2017, but it also received the latest iPad OS upgrade, 17.7, yesterday.