Interesting. Might try a factory reset then and see. There's noticable lag for me, it's especially slow when switching apps or bringing up the keyboard, as well as on first unlock. Interacting within a single app is still fine, it's interacting with the OS that's really sluggish.

Total guess but is there a tiny fan inside that got filled with dust? Maybe it's thermal throttling.

Apple has never made an iPad with a fan

How long have you been running on 26? Every iOS/iPadOS update takes a few days to stabilize.

> Every iOS/iPadOS update takes a few days to stabilize.

What in the actual world of software engineering?

It's not new. With every new iOS release the device can often spend a day or two churning and indexing stuff.

8th Gen iPad is about the same on iPadOS 26 as 18 for me, which is slow. The 32GB really handicapped it for even being usable as to even upgrade it, I have to factory reset it first. I'm replacing it with a Mini.

The iPad Air 13 with a M3 is a really nice experience. Very fast device.

weird, my iPaid Air 3 which should have the same specs has been really for at least a year. Plenty of free storage, not so many apps, all visual enhancements turned off.

I think you accidentally a word?