Apple Eyes a 2026 AirPods Pro Refresh—No Cameras, Just Refinements

Apple’s earbud roadmap is shaping up to be a little less sci‑fi than the wild rumors suggest. A year from now, the company is expected to ship an updated AirPods Pro – but without the much‑talked‑about tiny cameras that have been the subject of endless speculation.

Mark Gurman, the Bloomberg reporter who seems to have a direct line to Apple’s product plans, reminded us in his latest “Power On” newsletter that the camera‑laden model, internally nicknamed B798, is still on track for a 2027 debut. The device is supposedly deep in design validation testing, which makes a 2026 launch a stretch.

What does look like for 2026, then? According to Gurman, the answer is a different chip‑named project – B790. Unlike its flashy cousin, B790 is said to be “further along” in development and already appears in iOS 27 code. Apple’s internal road‑map even lists it as a potential launch window as early as the fall of 2026, when the company traditionally rolls out a batch of new hardware.

Details on the B790 are scarce. Gurman hasn’t offered any concrete hints beyond the fact that it will be an evolution of the current AirPods Pro generation – likely better battery life, refined ANC, and maybe a tweak to the charging case. The key takeaway? No cameras, no IR sensors, just a cleaner, more polished listening experience.

The notion of putting cameras on earbuds makes sense when you consider Apple’s broader push into AI and spatial computing. The long‑rumored Apple Glasses would need side‑mounted lenses for the AI to see the world, and a camera‑enabled earbud could theoretically serve a similar function without a display. But for now, Apple seems content to keep that vision in the future, opting instead for incremental upgrades that keep the product line reliable and affordable.

So, if you’re hoping to snag a pair of AirPods Pro that can snap a selfie while you’re on a jog, you’ll have to wait another year. In the meantime, expect a modest refresh that fine‑tunes the strengths of today’s Pro model and gets it ready for whatever Apple’s next big AI‑driven hardware leap might be.