Apple’s cheapest earbuds are reportedly in line for a shakeup. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the AirPods 5 could arrive as early as Apple’s upcoming product event, expected on September 9, 2026 — the same show tipped to bring the company’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, and refreshed Apple Watches.
The headline detail is the split lineup. Gurman followed up his report on X to clarify that the AirPods 5 will come in two variants: a standard model and one with Active Noise Cancellation. That mirrors the two-pronged approach Apple took with the AirPods 4, where ANC was reserved for the pricier version rather than baked into every unit.
This is a genuine refresh rather than a tune-up. Apple last touched its entry-level earbuds in 2024, so a 2026 update slots neatly into the roughly two-year cadence buyers have come to expect. Reporting on the AirPods 5 has been thin, and the buds had generally been pencilled in for 2027 — so a September reveal would land ahead of schedule.
Don’t confuse these with the more exotic project further down Apple’s roadmap. The company is reportedly developing camera-equipped AirPods that lean on Visual Intelligence and Siri for AI-powered features, but those aren’t expected until next year. Apple even managed to fumble that secret slightly: a demo clip of the camera AirPods was mistakenly bundled into the macOS 26.7 release candidate, though the footage didn’t clearly reveal what sets the hardware apart physically.
The rest of the rumored September slate rounds out a busy fall. Alongside the earbuds, Gurman points to new Apple Watches with modest changes — improved fitness tracking and a ceramic-case option for the Series 12 — plus a fresh Mac mini that could surface even sooner.
Pricing hasn’t been confirmed, and Apple, as ever, is saying nothing until the lights go up on stage. For now, the takeaway is simple: if you’ve been holding out for cheaper AirPods, there may soon be two of them to choose from — one that hushes the world around you, and one that keeps things simple.
