The next-generation low-cost iPad may skip a processor generation and use Apple’s A19 chip.
Per Macworld, an “internal Apple code document” that leaked provided information about the company’s 2026 iPad lineup. According to prior documentation discovered by MacRumors it had been suggested that the iPad 12 would be equipped with an A18 chip, not an A19 chip. The A19 chip was just released this year in the iPhone 17, and it would be unusual for Apple to use a current-generation chip in the low-cost iPad due to cost.
Apple’s low-end iPad has not had a current-generation chip since the iPad 4, which came out when Apple was still crafting AX chips for its tablets. The iPad 5 that came out in 2017 used the A9 chip that was originally introduced in the 2015 iPhone 6s, and since then, the iPad has been equipped with an A-series chip that’s a generation or two behind the chip in the most recently released iPhone.
The current iPad 11 model, which was released in March 2025, uses the A16 chip, which first debuted in the iPhone 14 in 2022. Subsequent iPad models have used chips from earlier iPhones as well.
The model numbers listed in Macworld’s report are also unusual. It says that J581 and J588 are the codenames for the upcoming 12th-generation iPad, but codenames are typically sequential. Apple generally uses codenames to reference unreleased devices in its software.
In addition to the A19 leak report, the Macworld article suggests that the next-gen iPad Air will use an M4 chip, and that both the next-gen iPad and iPad Air will feature APple’s N1 networking chip. The N1 chip is an Apple-designed Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip that’s more energy efficient than chips designed by third-party companies.
Apple is expected to release the new iPad Air and iPad models early in 2026.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
