Rumor: Apple is developing M5 MacBook Air, M6 iPad Pro and a new budget iPad
New MacBook laptops and iPad tablets featuring the unreleased Apple M5 and M6 processors are reportedly in the early stages of development.
Mark Gurman outlined the updates coming to iPads and Macs that are already under development in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. The Cupertino company is reportedly already testing the next iPad Pro featuring an unreleased Apple M6 chip that could arrive “as early as this year,” likely in October. The current iPad Pro featuring the Apple M4 chip was released in May 2024.
The Cupertino company has also kicked off early work on an iPad Pro featuring an Apple M6 processor and in-house 5G modem chips, targeting a 2027 release. Gurman didn’t mention any other changes aside from faster chips.
M5 MacBook Air in the works
The MacBook Air, Apple’s most popular laptop, should get an M5 chip this year even though the company recently launched an M4-powered update. Gurman provided no other information about the next MacBook Air. The current model was updated with the M4 chip (giving it 20 percent faster performance than the previous M3 model), a new Sky Blue color option, and a $100 lower starting price.
M5 iPad Pro coming this October
He says these M5-powered iPad Pros should use “an Apple-designed 5G modem,” but he didn’t say whether that would be the Apple C1 modem that debuted in the iPhone 16e or a second-generation version. The current iPad Pros use Qualcomm’s modems, but the iPhone 16e marked Apple’s transition away from Qualcomm.
The Information reported earlier that Apple will first use a new custom modem (codenamed “Ganymede”) featuring mmWave 5G capability in the 2026 iPhones and “at least one iPad,” so there’s that.
While the iPhone 16e is currently the only Apple device equipped with the C1 modem, hardware technologies chief Johny Srouji said Apple would keep improving the modem each generation, “so that it becomes a platform for us that will be used to truly differentiate this technology for our products.” Apple says the C1 is 25 percent more power efficient than previous modems.
The C1 does pretty well in benchmark tests, with a real-world study conducted by Ookla (which makes the global broadband speed test app SpeedTest) finding that the iPhone 16e featuring the C1 outperformed the standard iPhone 16 equipped with Qualcomm’s modem in most benchmarks.
iPad 12 with a faster chip
The company is allegedly readying an update to its budget iPad, which will get “a newer chip.” He did not say when the new entry-level iPad might launch, but 2026 sounds like a reasonable bet: The current eleventh-generation iPad with an A16 chip and more storage options was released earlier this month.
From Gurman’s reporting, it doesn’t sound like the budget iPad will get any other hardware improvements. In Apple talk, this is called a “chip and ship” update, where you swap the main processor, maybe change the color finishes and call it a day.
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