This is the first portable blender I've tested that can actually rival a plug-in - it's surprisingly affordable too

I’ve been using portable blenders since the early days of the Nutribullet, back when they had just enough power to blend a banana—barely. Over the years, I’ve watched them evolve from underpowered gadgets to genuinely useful kitchen tools. And now, with the launch of the Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender, they’ve finally reached a point where they can hold their own against full-sized, corded models.

The Ninja Blast Max doesn’t just look sleek — it delivers the same results as some of the best blenders on the market. From flawless smoothies to creamy dips, and even ice-crushing power, it’s handled everything I’ve thrown at it. For the past few months, it’s been my go-to companion for gym sessions, office lunches, and even impromptu picnic dates.

If you’re considering a portable blender to up your fruit and veg game or make healthier choices on the move, here’s everything you need to know about why the Ninja Blast Max might be worth the hype.

Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender Specifications

Unboxing the Ninja Blast Max Blender

As it’s fair to expect from a bullet blender, the Ninja Blast comes in a slim, lightweight box. When you lift it out, you’ll see a few brilliant things: first, the packaging is all sustainable, recyclable, and eco-friendly. Second, the blender comes with some very simple, very clear instructions. And last, but not least, it’s a nice looking piece of kit.

Essentially, you’ll have three parts — all pre-fitted together. There’s the base station and charger, then the blending cup, and the lid. Each part is fitted with neat extras, for example the lid has a rubber handle for slotting a hand into when carrying your smoothie bottle around and the lid locks back in place so you don’t get bashed when you’re tip your bottle upside down for the last few sips of your smoothie.

I’d recommend giving your blender a quick rinse and make sure that you’ve peeled off all your stickers before you start blending, but these are small tasks.

Who would the Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender suit?

The Ninja Blast Max portable blender is perfect for anyone with a busy lifestyle who still wants to prioritise fresh, homemade drinks on the go. Whether you're blending smoothies post-gym, prepping protein shakes at your desk, or whipping up iced coffees while travelling, this powerful, cordless design makes it all effortless.

If you have experience with the older, Ninja Blast model, this offers more capacity and a stronger motor. In fact, it's one of the most powerful portable blenders on the market.

Overall, it’s ideal for those who don’t want to compromise on performance, even when away from the kitchen. It suits commuters, frequent travellers, fitness enthusiasts, or anyone short on counter space but big on convenience.

What is the Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender like to use?

Ninja says you need to charge the base station to full before you can use it. This means plugging it in and watching for the green light to stop flashing. I had mine plugged in for half an hour and the green light was still flashing, so I think my battery arrived with zero juice — or should I say smoothie?

After another hour, the green light no longer flashing, maintaining a solid, consistent colour, so I could get blending. Ninja reckons that you get 25 blends worth of charge and that it takes 2 hours to re-charge your blender, so if you can work out an easy routine of charging, this is brilliant. It does also run when it’s plugged in, so if you have forgotten to prep ahead, as long as you have the charger, you’re in good stead.

Test 1: smoothie and protein shakes

What’s a blender without a smoothie? The two go together like strawberries and cream. I have a smoothie every day, sometimes twice a day, so I knew my lifestyle would put this through its paces.

I started with a simple test, which is my classic smoothie. I put a banana, a scoop of peanut butter, a handful of oats, some frozen strawberries, and spinach into the blender. This gives the Ninja a whole host of different challenges: the frozen berries are like giant, seedy ice cubes, the spinach and oats are both fibrous and tough, and there’s a lot of different texture to work into one, smooth drink.

Ninja says to shake the blender if you want it to have some extra help and I perhaps overfilled it on my first round, so I gave it a shake and, within one, surprisingly quiet, minute, I had a perfect smoothie. It was thick, which is my fault if overfilling it, but there wasn’t a seed or piece of green in sight.

The next day, I made my classic protein smoothie, which uses banana, oats, dates, peanut butter, and vanilla protein powder. Anyone who uses protein powder will know that it doesn’t take much to turn this stuff lumpy and clumpy. Not for Ninja. My smoothie was as smooth as I could have asked for. I don’t think you would have even known that it had been given a bit of a lumpy challenge. It’s amazing.

One of the biggest factors to account for with a portable blender is just how portable it is though. If you want to take the whole blender with you — including the motor — you definitely can. This passed my handbag and my gym bag test, because I didn’t need to take anything out to still be able to fit everything in. I turned the bottle upside down, shook it around and didn’t have a single issue with leakage or performance. What I actually ended up doing more often is blending my smoothie while I was on the go at home and then I would unscrew the blending power base and carry the bottle around with me. My hand could comfortably fit inside the strap and the bottle itself is really compact. It’s become an extra limb for me.

Test 2: hummus and dips

Now, it’s unlikely that you’ll be making hummus on the go, but let’s just say that you were. A more likely scenario is that you have a kitchen island that you want to do something food prep on and it doesn’t have a plug. The very simple answer to that is that you can use a cordless blender.

The Ninja Blast has three settings: crush, blend, and smoothie. I used the blend setting for my hummus and, you’ll be pleased to know, it worked a treat.

I normally test a full can of chickpeas, so I threw them in with some lemon, salt, cumin, and olive oil. This was an instance where I needed to shake the blender around a little, because the hummus is very thick. The chickpeas around the blades will always be we blended, but the ones on top might not get the same treatment.

Nonetheless, after a few minutes of shaking the blender, I made a relatively smooth hummus. It still had a few chunks in, but it was exactly the kind of result that I would expect from a corded bullet blender, so Ninja can be suitably proud of themselves.

I was on a bit of a dip roll and so I decided to test out a pesto. This needs a little more attention, since you’ve got leafy basil, tough pine nuts (and pistachios in my recipe) as well as olive oil and garlic. Nonetheless, the Ninja did a really good job of making a chunky, but delicious pesto. This has more liquid in, so I didn’t need to shake it around quite as much — another win for me and my crudités.

Test 3: crushed ice

Crushing ice aways feels like a slightly unfair burden to put on portable blenders because they’re just not designed for the task. You need a wide, very powerful blender if you want to notice anything more than a slushiest at the bottom of your blender. Naturally, the Ninja ask struggled to crush ice cubes, even with a splash of water. However, when I added more liquid for, say, a frozen cocktail, I noticed that the Ninja didn’t struggle to crush up ice into a nice, cool drink. As long as you give it sufficient help, you’ll be able to crush ice for some circumstances. It’s not ideal, but in the context of portable blenders, this is remarkable.

Cleaning the Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender

The fabulous need for reluctant cleaners like me is that you can put both the lid and bottle of your portable blender in the dishwasher. This means that your home appliances can, quite literally, do your dirty work.

When I made my protein shake, I did notice a little bit of residue in some of the nooks at the base of the blender, but I put it in a very full dishwasher. I’ve since tried it out in lighter loads and not faced the same problem.

Alternatively, Ninja suggests some other way to clean the blender. You can set it on blend mode with water and washing up liquid — it’ll whizz through any residue in no time. I like this, but I found I had to run it a couple of times to get a really good clean, so tended not to go for it. You can also go for the classic choice and wash up your blender by hand. It doesn’t put much wear and tear on all the different components and you’ll be able to target areas that you think need specific attention. You can’t lose.

How does the Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender compare?

I’ve tested just about every portable blender on the market now and this is my favourite. It’s clear that they’ve learnt from their predecessors mistakes and innovated in places that are genuinely useful, especially for smoothie enthusiasts.

Before testing the Ninja, I thought the Nutribullet Flip had covered off these issues. However, you can’t submerge the head or blades under water, which makes it impossible to really clean and painful to partially clean. For all its useful, brilliant design features and merits, this niggle put me off using it regularly. Given that it’s a similar price to the Ninja, I wouldn’t go for the blast, unless you don’t mind the cleaning and you want more capacity and a more robust, protein-shaker style bottle.

Should you buy the Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender?

If you're looking for an affordable, watertight, innovatively designed blender, look no further. The Ninja Blast Max Portable Blender quickly slipped into my daily routine and I had a lot of fun testing this. In fact, I liked it so much that my partner ended up buying one so that we could match each other as we made our way to the gym and off on picnics.

How we test

When we test blenders at woman&home, we have a series of standard challenges that we put them all through. This means that I can directly compare each portable blender for you so that you can pick out the perfect one for you.

My smoothie test is designed to tackle versatility, the ice tackled power, and the dip test challenges a little bit of both. I also make notes on how easy this is to clean and use, so you know exactly what to expect when you invest in one of these. If you still have questions about the process, you can visit out page for how we test blenders.