There have been even more references to unreleased Apple products have been revealed since the code was accidentally leaked by Apple yesterday. Part of those products is the upcoming base iPad. Bloomberg previously indicated that Apple could launch the upgraded base iPad in early 2026, and this would make sense since Apple likes to release budget products during that season such as the iPhone 16e and MacBook Air (M4). Additionally, Apple usually updates the base iPad every year, so this would be no exception.
This upcoming base iPad is expected to feature the (non-Pro) A18 chip; this is the same chip that powers the iPhone 16e, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Plus. Apple has been using older-generation non-Pro A-series chips for its base iPad. By the time this iPad gets released, Apple would already use the A19 series of chips in its iPhone 17 lineup. Since Apple has been repurposing binned variants of its SoC (system on a chip) for newer iPad models, especially for the base iPad to keep costs down, the next-generation base iPad could feature the binned variant of the A18 chip (4-core GPU) that’s also used on the iPhone 16e as opposed to the full-fledged variant (5-core GPU) used on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.
This upcoming base iPad is expected to feature the same design as the current A16 model as well as the 10th-generation model. Who knows, but we could see a new palette for vibrant colors for this iPad. The current base iPad, introduced in March 2025, starts at $349, and it has double the starting storage at 128GB. That iPad has been such a great value for those looking to buy an iPad, and we’ve been seeing huge discounts for those models starting at $299 on Amazon. The value in that iPad will get even better thanks to substantial updates coming to iPadOS 26 this fall, especially with the enhanced windowed-app management.
