It turns out that 2025 was way more exciting for the iPad than I was expecting at the beginning of the year. We saw hardware updates, significant Pro app updates, and another big redesign for multitasking on iPadOS.

My expectations for 2026 are about the same as they were for 2025, with a potentially redesigned iPad mini being the highlight. However, just as I was surprised by what 2025 delivered, I’m hoping 2026 also has some good stuff in store for us iPadOS users.

Anywho, let’s break down what we have to look forward to in 2026.

iPad Pro

The iPad Pro generally follows a roughly 18-month release cycle. Since its most recent update, the M5 iPad Pro, released in October 2025, we aren’t expecting another hardware update until sometime around April 2026. Let’s just say “early 2026.”

Logically, it should launch with the M6 chip, but beyond that there isn’t much in the way of concrete rumors. There were talks at one point of a foldable iPad being in development, but that device is reportedly on hold due to price and market-fit concerns.

In the meantime, Apple, if you’re reading this, we’d happily accept a larger flat iPad Pro in its place. Fourteen inches? Fifteen inches? Even larger? Yes, please.

iPad Air

The iPad Air was last updated in March 2025 with an M3 chip and an updated Magic Keyboard. Its 2026 update is shaping up to look fairly similar. The only credible rumor so far is an expected chip upgrade to the M4.

If you’re looking for a more exciting iPad Air update, 2027 may be the year to look forward to. The Air is expected to finally receive its long-anticipated upgrade to an OLED display. Unfortunately, there haven’t been any rumors of ProMotion coming along with it. I’m hoping Apple changes its mind on that before 2027, or, you know, earlier would be fine too.

Because OLED displays don’t require a backlight, I’m hoping Apple uses this opportunity to make the Air at least as thin as the current iPad Pro. If they wanted to go even thinner, I think that would drive a meaningful number of upgrades. It seems to bother a lot of people that the Pro is thinner than the Air, unlike the Mac lineup, so this would be a good chance to correct that.

iPad Mini

This will likely be the most exciting iPad upgrade of the year. Current rumors suggest that not only will we see an updated iPad mini toward the end of 2026, but that the Mini will finally adopt an OLED display. It’s supposedly a 60 Hz OLED panel, which isn’t ideal, but a big upgrade either way.

I’m excited for the iPad mini to finally get a better display. The lack of OLED across most of the iPad lineup is becoming harder to justify, especially now that even the $599 iPhone 16e includes one.

There were also mumblings of the Mini being redesigned to be water resistant. It’s not clear if the Mini is being singled out for this feature because it’s so often used as a Kindle-like reader, or if water resistance will come to the entire lineup. Frankly, I don’t see any harm in every iPad having this feature.

The Mini is expected to ship with the current A19 Pro chip and retain 8 GB of RAM, which was a welcome upgrade on the current model.

There’s still no sign of proper (non-mirrored) external display support, which would truly turn the next Mini into the fabled iPad mini Pro. Or is it iPad Pro mini? You get the idea.

All I know is, if the folding iPhone gets external display support and the iPad Mini doesn’t, I’m going to be super annoyed.

iPad

I’d expect the base iPad to resume its yearly upgrade cadence and receive a newer chip in 2026. Which chip exactly is still unclear. Some rumors suggest the A18, an iPhone 16–era chip, while others point to the newer A19. If I had to bet, I’d say the A18. The last update made it pretty clear that cost is likely the primary factor when Apple selects components for the base iPad.

Either way, I’d expect the iPad to move to 8 GB of RAM so it can support Apple Intelligence, just in time for the new Siri to (hopefully) ship.

Everything else about this model is expected to remain the same as the last two revisions.

All iPads

I’d expect all new iPads to receive Apple’s in-house networking chips: the N1 and C1X, respectively. The N1 brings support for both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, along with improved overall power efficiency.

The C1X modem delivers faster and more efficient 5G performance for cellular-equipped iPads.

Software

We’re still a few months away from serious iPadOS 27 rumors, but there are a few things we can reasonably expect.

• AI, AI, and AI – Bloomberg reports that we can expect a lot of AI features in the next round of software updates, which isn’t particularly surprising. Let’s hope they hit a little harder than the first set of Apple Intelligence features.
• Continued Design Refinements – After its initial release, iOS 7 was refined over subsequent OS releases. I’d expect iPadOS/iOS 26 to follow a similar pattern. I’d expect to see a much more polished Liquid Glass implementation across Apple’s operating systems a year from now.
• Enhanced Spotlight – macOS 26 includes an upgraded version of Spotlight that lets users execute actions directly from Spotlight using assigned quick keys. Presumably, an App Intents–powered version would work just as well on iPad and iPhone. There haven’t been any rumors on this, but I just feel like a year would be enough time to get this working on the mobile devices.

Apps

During WWDC 2025, Apple highlighted background exports in Final Cut Pro as an ideal use case for the new background tasks API in iPadOS 26. However, as of this writing, Final Cut still doesn’t support the feature. Final Cut Pro for macOS is often updated around the Final Cut Pro Summit, which was postponed from November 2025 to April 2026. As a Final Cut user, I’m hoping Apple doesn’t make us wait until April to finally ship this much anticipated feature.

Late last year, references to something called Apple Creator Studio were found in iOS 26 betas. There’s been no additional detail on what this actually is, but I like the theory that it could refer to a bundle of Apple’s creative apps, such as Final Cut, Logic, and the Pixelmator apps. It may end up being nothing more than branding, similar to iWork, but it could also point to some kind of bundled subscription offering.

Speaking of apps that would make sense in such a bundle, Apple is rumored to be developing iPad versions of MainStage, Compressor, Motion, and Pixelmator Pro. It’s always seemed strange to me that Pixelmator Pro has remained Mac-only, given that the iPad Pro has long had the hardware power to be an excellent photo-editing machine. For that reason alone, I’m hoping these apps finally arrive on iPad in 2026.