What we love: The biggest problem with most personal blenders is that they lack the motor power that makes something like a Vitamix so effective. Not so with the Nutribullet Ultra, which has an impressive 1,200-watt motor that cuts through everything we threw at it with shocking ease for a blender of this size. For reference, our favorite Vitamix, the 5200, has a not-actually-that-much-more-powerful 1,380-watt motor, and a standard Nutribullet model has a wattage of 600.
At 1,200-watts, the Ultra is tied for the most powerful personal blender we’ve ever used, and the benefits of that superior wattage shone through in our testing. The Ultra was able to turn a pile of fibrous kale (with stems!), frozen fruit, and almond milk into a creamy smoothie with ease, and it produced beautifully emulsified, supremely smooth pesto in 30 seconds flat—something no other personal blender we tested could do.
That top-notch blending performance is also partially due to the design of the titanium-coated stainless-steel blade, which has six prongs, as opposed to the four I’ve seen in most comparable models.
Even setting aside the stellar performance and powerful motor, there’s a lot to love about this mini blender design-wise. It’s equipped with thoughtful features that make it more pleasant to use than other models: very strong suction cup feet that do an excellent job at keeping the unit stable on the counter while the machine is running, a thick-rimmed lid that doesn’t leak, and sleek, intuitive-to-operate touchscreen buttons. Its two modes allow you to run a 30-second blend cycle, or press and hold to blend or pulse.
The Ultra comes with two extra BPA-free blending jars (including a handled one) and two to-go lids. I’ve been using it to take smoothies on my morning commute.
What we’d leave: Though this is an impressive little machine, a personal blender will never afford you the blending power of a premium full-size model like a Vitamix, so it’s important to set reasonable expectations. If you’re looking to crush ice cubes in large quantities or make nut butters, this is not be the blender for you. Other than that, at $165 at the time of writing, this is a great value for the amount of horsepower you’re getting—especially when compared with a Vitamix, which will run you anywhere from $380–$750.
In the long run: “Having this blender at home actually turned me into a smoothie person. I’ve begun using it to make them for myself and my kids for breakfast a couple of days a week. The Nutribullet’s performance is as good now as it was when I first got it over a year ago, zipping up well-blended mixtures of kale, frozen berries, and coconut water.
The real benefit of the Ultra, though, has turned out to be the mini food processor that comes as an optional add-on. If you are considering getting this blender and you do any cooking at all, do yourself a favor and get the processor attachment. I use it to mince garlic and ginger or chop onions every week, often on multiple nights. They’re tasks I find particularly tedious, and, especially in the case of just a couple cloves of garlic, impractical in my regular food processor (who wants to take that thing down and clean it up for two cloves of garlic?). In the mini-processor, the work is done in 10 seconds with the mess quite contained.” —Noah Kaufman, senior commerce editor
Good to know: For an additional $80, you can upgrade to the Nutribullet Ultra Plus+ Compact Kitchen System, which includes the motor base, two blending cups with to-go lids, as well as a coffee/spice grinder (keep it for spices, use a burr grinder for coffee) and mini food processor attachments. There are also a number of other models in the Nutribullet lineup, including the Pro+, Pro 1000 (reviewed below), Pro, and classic Nutribullet.