Mark Gurman reported on Sunday night that Apple plans to debut the AirPods 5 as soon as its September event, and followed his own report with a post on X saying they will come in both regular and noise-cancellation versions (per 9to5Mac). He has the event on September 9, sharing a stage with the iPhone 18 Pro line, the first foldable iPhone and new Apple Watches. Apple last refreshed its entry-level earbuds in 2024, and reporting on when the next pair would arrive had generally pointed at 2027.
The camera-equipped AirPods, the pair Apple accidentally showed off in a macOS beta last week, are not expected until next year. That leaves the AirPods 5 as the only new Apple earbuds arriving in 2026, with noise cancellation reaching the cheapest pair in the line. Apple has said nothing about any of it, and Gurman's own wording is that the earbuds could debut as early as September rather than that they will.