The nutribullet Portable is a battery-powered personal blender. It's meant for blending personal smoothies and protein shakes, thanks to its lightweight design with a spout lid that pops open so you can easily drink on the go. This model's motor base is identical to the Magic Bullet Portable Blender's, although it comes with a 20oz jar instead of 16oz jar.
Our Verdict
The nutribullet Portable blender isn't good for multi-purpose use. It's intended for making drinks like protein shakes and smoothies, and doesn't perform well for uses like making nut butter or crushing ice. The 20oz jar limits what you can blend in it, as does its limited battery life. Like most personal blenders, it can't be used with hot ingredients.
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Quiet for a blender.
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Makes a decently smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Makes unevenly crushed ice.
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Small 16oz blending capacity.
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Some parts are difficult to clean.
The nutribullet Portable blender is alright for single-serve smoothies. It's designed for blending personal smoothies and protein shakes, and its jar has a spout lid so you can easily drink from it on the go. Using its full 14oz blending capacity, it makes a decently smooth blend with difficult fibrous ingredients like kale in a couple minutes. However, it does leave behind some unprocessed bits and you must shake and scrape the jar for best results.
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Small, lightweight design.
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To-go lid included.
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Makes a decently smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Doesn't make a completely smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Shaking and scraping required.
The nutribullet Portable blender isn't good for making multiple servings of smoothies. Its maximum blending capacity is about 14oz, so it can only blend one smoothie at once. It makes a decently smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like leafy greens and fruit but it isn't the fastest blender and has a limited battery life, so it's not ideal for preparing several smoothies in a row.
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Makes a decently smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Small 16oz blending capacity.
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Doesn't make a completely smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Shaking and scraping required.
The nutribullet Portable blender is poor for ice crushing. It can roughly crush a small batch of ice cubes, but it requires lots of effort for sub-par results. It's not really intended for making crushed ice, but it'll do a better job of blending ice cubes with liquid as part of a smoothie or shake recipe.
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Makes unevenly crushed ice.
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Difficult to use for ice crushing.
The nutribullet Portable blender isn't suitable for making soups. It can't be used for hot blending and has a small 20oz capacity. It can make a decently smooth blend with fibrous ingredients, but it's slow and leaves behind unprocessed bits.
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Makes a decently smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Small 16oz blending capacity.
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Can't hot blend.
The nutribullet Portable blender is poor for professional use. This portable blender is meant for making personal smoothies and protein shakes, and it isn't well-suited for making multiple batches or processing difficult ingredients. It's not powerful enough for jobs like making nut butter, and its 20oz capacity is limiting. Its battery life also limits how much you can blend.
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Makes a decently smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Makes unevenly crushed ice.
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Small 16oz blending capacity.
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Doesn't make a completely smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
- 5.2 Multi-Purpose
- 6.3 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 5.3 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 4.7 Ice Crushing
- 2.6 Soups
- 4.4 Professional Use
- Updated Mar 10, 2025: Review published.
- Updated Mar 04, 2025: Early access published.
- Updated Feb 26, 2025: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Feb 12, 2025: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Jan 28, 2025: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This blender comes in 'Black,' 'Bright Pink,' 'Light Purple,' 'Navy Blue,' and 'White.' Our unit is 'Light Purple,' and here's a photo of its label.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The nutribullet Portable blender doesn't really stand out as a portable blender. It does an okay job of blending fibrous ingredients, and its jar has a spout lid so you can drink from it on the go. However, pricier models like the nutribullet Flip and Ninja Blast Max BC251 make a much smoother blend with common smoothie additions like fruit and leafy greens. This blender's blades are fixed on the motor base, unlike the Flip and Ninja, which are designed so you can carry the jar around on its own. That said, it offers a better performance than some oportable models like the BlendJet 2 and nutribullet GO.
If you're looking for more options, check out the best portable blenders, best personal blenders, and best nutribullet and Magic Bullet blenders.
The nutribullet Portable is better than the BlendJet 2. The nutribullet does a better job of blending fibrous ingredients, so smoothies with kale or fruit come out smoother. The design of its lid makes it easier to sip on the go without spilling. Then again, you might prefer the BlendJet because it's easier to clean.
The Ninja Blast is a bit better than the nutribullet Portable. The Ninja is easier to use for drinks like smoothies, since you don't have to shake or scrape its jar for the best results. It's also easier to clean by hand, and quieter when it's running. That said, they both have a similar design and performance, and you might prefer the nutribullet because it comes with a USB-C charger instead of the NInja's proprietary charger.
The nutribullet Flip is better than the nutribullet Portable. The Flip does a much better job of blending fibrous ingredients like leafy greens and fruit into a smooth puree. Its design lets you drink from the jar without the motor base attached, and you can buy it with a plastic or stainless steel jar.
The Magic Bullet Portable Blender and the nutribullet Portable blender are essentially identical. The Magic Bullet is usually sold with a smaller 16oz jar, which makes it easier to use for blending smoothies, since the shape of the jar results in less ingredients splashing up the sides. It also comes with a 'Flavor Infuser'. The nutribullet comes with a bigger 20oz jar, but you can buy either jar for either blender.
Test Results
The nutribullet Portable blender is lightweight and small. The motor base is the same as the Magic Bullet Portable Blender's, but its jar is bigger, so it's a bit bulkier.
It has a great build quality. The motor base, lid, and jar are made of plastic but feel sturdy. It's easy to assemble. The jar and motor base each have a marker that indicates when the jar is properly installed. Both the jar and lid are easy to twist on and off. There are small feet under the motor base that help keep it in place when blending. The power button has an LED light around it that lights up red or blue for different statuses, like low battery.
The jar has a 20oz overall capacity, with a maximum fill line at just below 14oz (or exactly 400 mL). It's worth noting that the nutribullet Portable is almost exactly the same as the Magic Bullet Portable Blender, except for its jar capacity. The Magic Bullet comes with a 16oz jar (12oz maximum fill) that helps it perform a little better. That said, you can buy the 16oz version of the jar as well as a small fruit infuser separately on nutribullet's website.
The jar and lid are both dishwasher-safe.
The nutribullet Portable blender's motor base has four blades that cannot be removed. Because they must be washed by hand, the motor base cannot be immersed in water, and the manufacturer recommends wiping the blades with a damp sponge.
The lid's spout cover is spring-loaded and opens with the push of a button, so it's easy to drink from when you're on the go. There's also a locking mechanism you can use when you want to prevent it from popping open accidentally in your bag.
It comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable that plugs into the motor base under the power button.
- nutribullet Portable blender motor base
- 20oz jar
- 'Sip and Carry' lid
- USB-A to USB-C charging cable
- Manuals
It has a sub-par performance for processing small batches of fibrous ingredients. You have to blend for around two minutes overall, shaking and stirring often. The result is a fairly well-blended smoothie, but it looks a bit chunky and has plenty of unprocessed bits leftover. The Magic Bullet Portable Blender performs a little better with small batches because its smaller jar results in less of the ingredients splashing up and getting stuck near the lid.
It performs better using its full 14oz capacity. Having more ingredients in the jar results in less need for shaking and scraping. After about two minutes of blending, it makes a smoother blend versus the smaller batch. There are still plenty of unprocessed bits leftover.
It's not good for ice-crushing, which is typical for a portable blender. It can crush a small batch of four ice cubes but makes uneven crushed ice. You must shake the jar vigorously, and using enough force gets tiring and may even be difficult for some. It'll be easier to process a couple of ice cubes along with liquid for a smoothie or shake, but it's not ideal for making ice for cocktails or processing mixes with a lot of ice.
The nutribullet Portable not really suitable for making nut butter. To get it to process the nuts, you have to shake the jar aggressively and hit the sides of it to dislodge stuck ingredients. You also have to remove the lid and scrape the jar with a spatula, which makes it a very messy process. It can make one batch of chunky, barely spreadable nut butter. However, you can't continue blending for longer because it overheats, which results in an error message and prevents you from running another blending cycle.
It's very quiet for a blender, which is normal for portable blenders, which aren't as powerful as most plug-in blenders. Using it to blend a smoothie in the break room or early in the morning isn't overly disruptive.
It has a single, fairly fast blending speed.
Its controls consist of a single button that you use to power on the blender and start a 20-second blending cycle. You can also press it again to stop a blending cycle early, which allows you to simulate pulse mode. There's a ring of six LEDs around the power button that light up in different colors and patterns depending on the status of the blender.
Status light key:
- LEDs off: no power
- LEDs blinking on clockwise in blue: charging
- All LEDs solid blue: fully charged
- Top LED flashes red: low power
- Top and bottom LEDs flash red: Too many blends (do not exceed nine blends in six minutes)
- All LEDs red: Motor is overheated
- All LEDs flashing red: General error such as blocked blades or incorrectly installed jar
It's fairly easy to clean. The jar and lid don't pose a problem and are easy to wipe with a sponge. However, since you can't remove the blades from the motor base, you can't immerse them in water, which makes cleaning more difficult. The charging port has no cover, so you have to be extra careful when rinsing the blades. The area where the jar screws onto the base is a narrow crevice you'll probably need a brush for.
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