The Ninja SF301 (Ninja Speedi) is a combo air fryer and 'rapid cooker,' meaning you can use it as a regular air fryer, add liquid and cook rice, slow-cook meals like stew, steam vegetables, or use it as a sous-vide machine. It's advertised as an all-in-one appliance that you can use for full meals, and its 'Speedi Meals' programs are meant to cook a grain like rice and crisp veggies or meat all at once. Unlike most air fryers with pull-out baskets, the lid opens upwards, and its 6qt capacity is enough for about four people.
Our Verdict
The Ninja Speedi is a great air fryer. It's fast and produces great-quality fried food, with only a small portion undercooked or overcooked. It's also versatile, with multiple fan speeds and a wide temperature range to accommodate uses besides air frying, like dehydrating and proofing dough.
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Cooks quickly.
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Versatile performance.
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Great frying quality.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja Speedi is good for large-batch cooking. It's fast and makes great-quality fried food. Its 6-quart capacity is enough for about four people, although it has a smaller surface area than some other 6-qt fryers. This gives you less room to spread food in a single layer, producing the best frying quality.
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Cooks quickly.
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Great frying quality.
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6-qt overall capacity.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja Speedi has a very good air frying performance. When your goal is crispy, golden-brown food, it does a great job of evenly cooking and crisping. It's fast and has decent temperature stability, which helps you predict when your food will be ready and follow recipes. However, it takes a while to preheat.
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Cooks quickly.
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Great frying quality.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja Speedi cooks food quickly. However, some air fryers can preheat faster.
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Cooks quickly.
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Preheats slowly.
The Ninja Speedi has decent cooking capacity. The 6-qt basket is quite deep, so it has a slightly smaller surface area compared with other 6-qt air fryers. This gives you less room to arrange food in a single layer.
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6-qt overall capacity.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja Speedi is bulkier than some air fryers with a similar capacity. The lid opens upwards, unlike most air fryers that have pull-out drawers.
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Bulky design.
- 8.0 Air Frying
- 7.6 Large Batch Cooking
Performance Usages
- 7.9 Frying Performance
- 8.3 Cooking Speed
- 7.3 Cooking Capacity
- 7.1 Size
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja Speedi comes in two variants: SF301 (with 12 presets) and SF300 (with 10 presets). We tested the SF301 model, and you can see the label for the unit we tested.
The SF300 doesn't have a 'Dehydrate' or 'Proof' preset; otherwise, we expect our results to be valid for both variants.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Air Fryers
The Ninja Speedi is a multi-cooker air fryer and rapid cooker. It makes good-quality fried food like vegetables and breaded meat very quickly. However, it has a bulkier design and a smaller cooking surface area than other six-quart air fryers like the Beautiful 6qt Digital or the Instant Vortex Plus 140-3088-01. That's because its baskets are quite deep, which is useful for 'rapid cooker' functions like making rice or stew, but this means it can't handle frying as much food at once as the Instant or the Beautiful without affecting the quality of the results.
If you're still looking for an air fryer, check out our recommendations for the best air fryers.
Test Results
The crisper tray has a ceramic coating, which isn't as easy to clean by hand as a PTFE coating, but you might prefer it if you want to avoid traditional non-stick materials. It has built-in feet that you can use to elevate it for 2-level cooking, like when you're using its 'Speedi Meals' function.
It has great versatility when used as an air fryer. You can use its lowest temperature for proofing dough or dehydrating, while its highest temperature is good for crisping fried food. However, it doesn't have a very wide range of fan speeds.
That said, it's a multi-cooker, and one of the biggest differences between it and other air fryers is that you can fill it with liquid and use it as a slow cooker, steamer, or sous-vide machine. You can access different functions by flipping the air fry/rapid cooker switch, which you can see in either position here and here. The 'Speedi Meals' function is intended for when you're preparing a grain like rice or quinoa on the bottom and placing meat over it on the crisper tray. There's also a 'Sear/Saute' function, which lets you use it like a frying pan with the lid open.
Air Fry/Stove Top functions:
- Air Fry (Highest fan speed)
- Bake/Roast
- Broil
- Dehydrate (Lowest fan speed)
- Sear/Saute
- Slow Cook
- Sous Vide
Rapid Cooker functions:
- Speed Meals
- Steam & Crisp
- Steam & Bake
- Steam
- Proof
It makes great-quality fried food. Most of the food is crispy and golden brown without being burnt or dry. Its maximum fan speed is faster than some fryers, like the BELLA 6qt Pro 90165. This can help it fry food more evenly.
It has satisfactory temperature stability. It takes a while to heat back up after adding food, but the temperature stays decently stable during cooking. This can help you predict when your food will be ready, like when following a recipe.