RAM prices are out of control in the U.S., causing many to fear that electronic devices — computers, smartphones, and anything even indirectly dependent on NAND — will escape the consumer’s ability to afford them. Possibly for years to come. Now the question on everyone’s mind is how it’s going to affect Apple, a company notorious for overpriced products. Still, 2026 has a whole slate of rumored Apple products coming. Even if we can’t afford them, though, we can still enjoy them vicariously through a YouTube video.

Again, these are rumored releases. Leakers and analysts look at supply chains and talk to insider sources to guess — sometimes with high accuracy, sometimes without — what products are coming next and when. However, they are always rumors. Apple may not be able to stop insiders from blabbing, but it is known to keep a tight lip right up until an announcement, often only shortly before release. Anything on this list is subject to change and may not come out quite so soon — or at all. With that said, these six things are the most exciting potential 2026 releases.

Folding phones may be nerdy, niche tech that the average consumer can’t budget for, but they have been around longer than we mentally imagine; the first came out in 2018, making them nearly a decade old. Samsung is already on its seventh-generation: Galaxy Z Fold 7. Most major manufacturers have one, except Apple. The tech giant has been quietly developing its own folding tech, and it appears 2026 is a plausible release window.

As per tradition, Apple is trying to perfect what its competitors have already been doing. Notable features of the Fold could include a potentially crease-free display courtesy of Samsung, a “liquid metal” hinge, and an atypical screen ratio. If the latter rumor is true, then the iPhone would be much squatter when folded, at about 5.3 inches (about 9 mm thick), expanding into roughly the size of an iPad Mini at 7.76 inches (roughly 4.8 mm thick). YouTuber Snazzy Labs printed a mock-up of an allegedly leaked design and “used” it to understand why Apple hadn’t gone with the typical screen size of two side-by-side smartphones. He suggests that this ratio is actually ingenious and makes a foldable a lot easier and more enjoyable to use.

This also may be one of the first iPhones to feature a hole-punch camera design and may even mark a return to the iPhone’s Touch ID days of yore. It’s been argued that the iPhone Air was a test run for ultra-thin technology, and that the iPhone Fold will improve on it while fixing the issues it got wrong — including using a more efficient chip and modem. Naturally, it’s going to cost you. Expect to pay around $1,800 on the low end, or as much as $2,500. Foldables are notoriously expensive, but this is Apple.

MacBooks are incredible devices, and anyone looking to make the switch from Windows to Mac will probably be glad they did. There is, however, one little niggling issue: the price. Apple’s “cheapest” current-gen M4 MacBook Air starts at $899. You can go cheaper with an educational discount, a refurbished model, or by buying new, outdated models on Amazon, but even then, it’s quite pricey for what is Apple’s entry-level laptop. That may change if the long-rumored budget MacBook arrives in 2026.

TrendForce suggests this would be a smaller 12.9-inch MacBook priced much more competitively, perhaps as little as $599. This is Apple we’re talking about, of course, so that price point would likely sacrifice things like RAM, display technology, and Thunderbolt support. The most surprising aspect of this rumor is the possibility that it may use the iPhone 16 Pro’s chip, the A18 Pro. Some people’s immediate reaction is to wonder how a smartphone chip could ever hope to run macOS, but you’d be surprised. The A18 Pro outperforms Apple’s 2020 M1 chip, according to Geekbench. Many people still argue that the M1 chip is plenty powerful for today’s computing needs, so we can safely assume the A18 Pro will get the job done — especially if we’re just talking about everyday web browsing and email.

Of all the items on this list, this is one of the most exciting, since it would drastically lower the cost of entry for getting a MacBook. Plus, it could fill the niche of a small, ultra-portable MacBook that we’ve been missing. Students and light computer users will rejoice — but only if Apple can be aggressive with that pricing, especially in the midst of the RAM crisis.

Apple provides an excellent centralized smart home interface via HomeKit, but to use devices away from your home network, you need a home hub. This requires a HomePod speaker or Apple TV. Both options haven’t been updated in a while, and neither is designed specifically for smart home control; they simply add it on top of what they already do. The Smart Home Hub would be a dedicated device for just that.

Put simply, this would basically be an iPad mounted on a speaker, a sort of smart home assistant that you can talk to or touch-control. It could have some really cool features, like reacting to a specific person’s physical presence to decide what info to display or what actions to perform, perhaps even swiveling as it does. However, rumors are pretty sparse on this one, and past leaks have tried and failed to pin its release on previous years. Take it with a grain of salt.

The elephant in the room is Siri. The voice assistant is famously bad, so much so that there’s a whole bunch of things you shouldn’t even bother asking it. A device that would ostensibly be voice-first would have to be reliable enough that you could give it commands across rooms of all sizes and configurations, with varying noise levels. Who knows, maybe that’s the whole reason why previous predictions about the Smart Hub have fallen flat. Apple’s been rushing to catch up with other AI-powered chatbots and assistants, and in doing so has gone with a competitor, Gemini, while it perfects its own in-house solution. If Siri significantly improves, it might remove that barrier keeping a Home Hub off the market.

The AirPods Pro are one of Apple’s best products and just keep getting better with every generation. They’re good enough that Apple only releases them every few years. While the recent AirPods Pro 3 did have a bit of controversy over the sound, they were otherwise an upgrade from top to bottom. Surprisingly, we may see a slight follow-up upgrade in 2026.

This would be a “Pro” version of the AirPods Pro 3. AirPods Pro 3 Pro? AirPods Pro 3.5? We have no idea, but it wouldn’t be enough of an upgrade to call it the AirPods Pro 4. There are two possible improvements being rumored. First, a built-in infrared camera. It’s not 100% clear what the infrared camera would be used for; some have hypothesized that it would allow gesture-based music control without touching the AirPods, or give them some form of Apple Intelligence capability. The AirPods Pro 3 caught everyone off guard with a built-in heart rate sensor, a feature a lot of people probably just turned off to save battery. Being able to control your AirPods without using your hands or voice, though, would be awesome.

Another surprise of the AirPods Pro 3 was the decision to use H2 chip hardware that was already three years old at that point. The rumored upgrade might fix that by introducing an H3 chip. The H2 chip is still incredibly good in the AirPods Pro 3 (based on firsthand experience), so it’ll be interesting to see what benefits an upgraded chip could offer beyond better battery efficiency.

The MacBook Pro lineup really lives up to the Pro moniker. They have a ridiculous level of power with battery life that leaves just about any competitor in the dust. They are, however, bulky and heavy, as anyone who owns a MacBook Pro knows. Apple seems to have recognized this, as rumors suggest several exciting changes to the MacBook Pro lineup.

That king-sized footprint may be the first item on the chopping block, as Apple is reportedly slimming down its MacBook Pros, though it’s unclear by how much. Maybe the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Max’s cooling tech will allow for a fanless MacBook Pro. Another major wishlist item for MacBook owners could be becoming reality: an upgrade from XDR to OLED display tech, which many high-end laptops have had for years. It could also possibly be a touchscreen with a Dynamic Island-style cutout, though the former is hard to imagine happening. Based on personal experience, touchscreens on laptops — unless it’s a foldable with a pen — are a feature you barely ever use and mostly end up smudging the display. But if Apple can get Face ID working on MacBooks, that would be wonderful.

You may also be able to get a cellular data plan for your future MacBook. This could solidify the MacBook as the ultimate portable productivity device, since it has plenty of chassis space for antennas and battery capacity to spare if a bad signal drains it — along with Apple’s efficient C-series modems. Lastly, it may introduce a new round of Pro and Max chips for power users. The upgrade to M-Series chips back in 2020 was huge, so this could further refine an already excellent platform.

AirTags are one of those products that haven’t gotten an update in a while because, frankly, they don’t really need one. They’re pretty affordable, small, have a battery that lasts ages, and offer a bunch of smart features to keep track of the items they’re attached to. But better is better, and we wouldn’t say no to improved AirTags.

The first improvement would naturally be the Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip. The one in the existing AirTag does a great job, but a new version would offer longer range and better precision. Imagine how much more useful and reliable the entire Find My network could become once more people have recent iPhones with improved UWB chips, and AirTags can be pinged from further away.

Another thing that could change is the location of the speaker. Current-gen AirTags have been shown to allow their speaker wires to be cut with relative ease, which could make it easier for a stalker to place a speaker-less AirTag on a target without that person being alerted. This raises concerns about repairability, but we’d argue that protecting potential victims of stalking should be a priority over that. Lastly, a personal favorite: AirTags may finally display their battery level instead of only notifying you when it’s about to die. Nothing crazy, nothing mind-blowing, but meaningful, polished improvements to an already great product.