Apple has scheduled a product launch event, dubbed “Apple Experience”, for March 4 at 9 a.m. ET. The company would organize this event at New York, London and Shanghai.
Everyone loves shiny new products, so what can we expect to see at Apple’s first launch event in 2026? We don’t know anything for sure, but we have plenty of educated guesses from industry reports and analyst speculation.
Editor’s note (March 2 at 9:45 a.m. ET): Apple officially announced the iPhone 17e And iPad Air (M4). It is planned to continue revealing new hardware in the following days, according to the rest of this article.
Budget MacBook
Rumors are circulating that Apple is preparing to launch a cheaper alternative to the MacBook Air. Bloomberg reported on this all this in November. Industry rumors indicate that Apple will equip this laptop with an iPhone processor, the A18 Pro, to keep the price low.
It’s worth pointing out that the three colors in the invitation are light green, blue and yellow – which happen to be the colors Apple tested the low-cost MacBook with, as I wrote about yesterday. Coincidence? We’ll see. https://t.co/1FFVkfw9JZ pic.twitter.com/ssKDDzdJsw
-Mark Gurman (@markgurman) February 16, 2026
It has also been suggested that this laptop will only include 8GB of RAM, which goes against the company’s recent stance on equip all Macs with at least 16 GB of RAM. However, it would certainly help reduce costs. You may have heard of a little thing called AI which chomp chomps on all the RAM it can find.
TechRadar reported that this could be Apple’s biggest laptop launch in yearswith potential initial shipments reaching 8 million units. The price will probably be between $699 and $799, which is pretty nifty. However, I would still opt for a $999 Air. They are absolute workhorses.
MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and Max chips
It’s likely that Apple will release more powerful MacBook Pro models this year and the timing seems to match. Bloomberg Marc Gurman suggested a March launch and the event takes place on March 4.
The company has already published a MacBook Pro with an M5 chipbut the M5 Pro and Max are probably on the horizon. We could have new laptops equipped with these chips in different screen sizes.
It was also reported that the two high-end M5 chips are undergoing an overhaul to help improve heat dissipation and reduce defective chip rates. Additionally, the new chipset design would allow the M5 Pro and Max to increase the total number of CPU and GPU cores. The Max should have more cores than the Pro.
This idea is reinforced by the fact that the controls of the MacBook Pro M4 Max are currently late. This is usually the case with an outgoing model, as stock runs out to make room for new releases. Additionally, the Pro and Max variants are usually announced in the fall, so we are expected.
New iPads
Rumors are circulating that we are about to have new iPadsincluding an update to the base model and the Air. The standard model, which would be the 12th generation version, is expected to upgrade A16 chip to an A18. This should also allow the integration of Apple Intelligence tools, if it’s your bag.
As for this iPad Air, rumors suggest an upgrade to the M4 chip of the M3. An extremely light tablet with an M4 would be quite remarkable in my opinion, because only the the latest iPad Pro has this chip.
iPhone 17e
Almost exactly a year ago, Apple announced the iPhone 16eso you know what that means. It’s time for a refresh. Recent reports suggest that an announcement regarding the iPhone 17e is imminentso this launch event seems to be the best place than any other to reveal the latest news. “economic” smartphone.
As for the specs, Mark Gurman suggested it would be get an upgrade to the A19 chipwhich is nice. Additionally, it could benefit from MagSafe support. This looks like an iterative upgrade, but the price should remain stable at $599.
Other possibilities
The following things are less likely, although certainly possible. There have been rumors that Apple is currently preparing a revamped Studio Display and Mac Studio desktop. Reports suggest a release during the first half of the year, and March falls right in the middle of that period.
It is also possible that the company will reveal an upgrade to the MacBook Air with the M5 chip. Reports say this is unlikely to happen at this event, but it’s worth noting that the M4 Air was released in March of last year. In other words, it’s a toss-up.
The inclusion of Shanghai essentially excludes Siri, as expected, given the delays. https://t.co/mgNLR4qCYy
-Mark Gurman (@markgurman) February 16, 2026
What’s not a throwaway? Nothing should be expected regarding the Long-awaited Siri refresh. This appears to be a hardware event, so any software updates will likely have to wait until WWDC this summer. Either way, Engadget will be there to report on all new Apple products.
Updated, March 2, 2026, 9:45 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to add an editor’s note with the latest news from Apple this week.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/what-to-expect-at-apples-product-launch-event-on-march-4-173612816.html?src=rss
