Ninja's new Crispi Pro XL air fryer isn't your normal worktop appliance – I was one of the first people in the UK to try this wonderfully weird air fryer

A brand new Ninja air fryer has arrived on the scene: the Ninja Crispi Pro (available from today for £249 via Ninja).

Its tagline promises that this is the 'XL glass air fryer designed for non-toxic prepping, cooking and storing' and I was lucky enough to get hold of a sample early to let you know if that's actually the case.

Ninja is routinely ahead of the curve when it comes to tapping into cooking trends and fun and imaginative colour ways, but this upgrade to one of the existing best Ninja air fryers goes even further than that with its somewhat kooky, futuristic design. Here's how it works and the upgrades it offers on the original Crispi (which we reviewed this time last year).

Increased functionality

The original Ninja Crispi was a kind of weird sell – it doesn't look or operate like a normal air fryer and one of its USPs is puzzlingly, portability – but it went down a storm with Ninja fans on its release. Plus it held up to the hype upon testing, earning itself a spot on my list of the best air fryers (which is only 3 products in total).

But one of the big bugbears people had with it was the rigidity of the functions. On the OG Crispi, there were just 4 modes: Air fry, Roast, Reheat, Keep Warm and each of these came with a preset temperature attached which wasn't changeable.

That's all changed with the Crispi Pro, which boasts a souped up control panel (complete with separate temperature and timing buttons) and three new modes: Max Crisp, Prove and Dehydrate. Max Crisp is a fan favourite mode from the brand's larger air fryers (like the FlexDrawer) which has a preset temperature of 200°C.

The standard Crispi also had a much simpler LCD screen, which just counted down minutes until cooking completion. The Pro version is much more user friendly if you're not used to an air fryer just yet.

More cooking space

The capacity of the Crispis works differently to other Ninja air fryers, as all of the cooking is done in glass containers over standard drawers. It makes it so easy to food prep and store foods in them, though the capacity was a bit of a limiting factor in the old version with the maximum cooking space being 3.8 litres.

With the XL, this is amped up to 5.7 litres, though the container felt much bigger than that when the Crispi arrived. It's paired with a 2.4 litre version too, which is good for single portions. These are made interchangeable thanks to a small fitting that you can slot into the back of the unit which holds up the smaller container to the heat element.

So far in the limited tests I've done (with my full review still to come) I've found the larger container much more useful, though I haven't utilised it to its full ability yet. I'm sure it could fit a small joint of meat or something similar, which I'll be giving a go soon.

With oven chips it worked well, though you're limited to the space across the crisper plate inside – with something like a dual zone air fryer you can obviously pack more across two zones.

But for a single or two person household, there's plenty of space. The Crispi Pro also seems like it would hold up very well in a student kitchen situation and of course remains so useful for food prep thanks to the fridge-ready glass containers.

It's available in pink!

While the original Crispi was eventually released in a number of pastel colours, only more neutral shades were available on the launch. That's not so with the Crispi Pro, which looks like it'll include a pink option from the offset. Perfect if you're looking to execute a pink kitchen colour scheme!

Could you see yourself giving the Crispi Pro a go? Or is it a little too modern for your liking?