Apple’s iPad Air has gone bionic – and it shows

APPLE has been busy this autumn – new iPhones, new watches, new versions of its operating systems… and next week the company will host the third special event since the summer, when it is expected to unveil new computers using its own chips for the first time.

Macs have run on chips made by Intel for more than 14 years now, but Apple announced in the summer it would begin switching to chips made by itself.

Apple already uses its own spectacular chips in its line-up – the most powerful being the A14 Bionic found in all iPhone 12 models, and the new iPad Air… which we managed to get for a test run this week.

The iPad Air is a beautiful device, of course, and adopts the flat edges that have become the trademark look for the firm’s 2020 releases. The 100% recycled aluminium enclosure comes in five nice colours (space grey, rose gold, green, and sky blue), too, which marks a change in the iPad world.

To most eyes the new Air looks very much like an iPad Pro, but on closer inspection, you’ll find while the devices are the same size, the Air screen is a little smaller, and the camera on the back is a single-lens affair with no LiDAR scanner, which you’d find on the Pro.

The biggest difference, though, is that the Air has no Face ID.

You unlock it with the Touch ID sensor built into the sleep/wake button on the top of the device, allowing for the all-screen front face.

It’s no drag when you’re using the device hand-held, but it does become a bit of a drag when you hook up to a keyboard (the Air, pictured below, is compatible with Apple’s own excellent-if-expensive Magic Keyboard with trackpad – £299!).

Constantly having to unlock by reaching up to the side while it’s docked, rather than just hitting a key and allowing Face ID to do the work, quickly gets tiresome.

That’s about the only negative thing I can say, though.

It’s blindingly fast and capable of some serious heavy lifting.

It’s good for watching, reading, playing, creative tasks like photo and video editing, drawing (it works with the second generation Apple Pencil), and work tasks.

It’s not the cheapest iPad, starting at £579, but you are getting a device that would put most laptops to shame.

■ For more on the iPad Air visit apple.com