Apple’s early 2026 release schedule seems quite busy as the company has already announced upgraded MacBook Air and Pro models with M5 series chips, a new affordable MacBook Neo, iPad Air with M4 SoC and a pair of AirPods Max 2. And according to Mark Gurman, Apple is gearing up to announce an updated regular iPad.
In the “Power On” newsletter, Mark Gurman says the upcoming iPad will be fitted with an A18 chip and will land around the same time as the iOS 26.4, which in turn means by the end of May.
Don’t get your hopes up for a huge upgrade, though. The analyst believes that it will be merely a refresh. Sure, the A18 chip is a big leap from the dated A16 chip, so users will appreciate the extra horsepower. Moreover, the A18 chip will enable Apple Intelligence, something that’s not available on the older A16 SoC.
But aside from that, the 2026 iPad will offer pretty much the same feature set as its predecessor.
