I tested the Nutribullet Flex portable blender: a lightweight, convenient companion for smoothies on the go

Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender: one-minute review

Nutribullet has cemented itself as a trusted name in the kitchen appliance space, with its blenders and juicers among the best in the market. The Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender offers this same quality in a more lightweight package, allowing for on-the-go blending.

The Nutribullet Flex is an upgraded version of the Nutribullet Portable Blender, adding a few welcome new features, including increased capacity and clear charge indicators. As such, it comes in slightly more than its predecessor, while still being affordable at under $100.

Considering the quality of this personal blender, it offers excellent value for money for those seeking a convenient, portable blender that produces optimal results with cold beverages and smoothies. Its lightweight design means you can easily disassemble the appliance and take it with you to work, the gym, or on vacation, while its rechargeability means you won’t be searching high and low for a plug socket.

Each of its four charges allows for approximately eight blend cycles (each lasts 30 seconds), meaning you can quickly mix your food and transport it with ease, using the convenient carry loop attached to its lid. If you’re looking for a personal blender that prioritises convenience, speed, and cold beverages, this is an excellent choice.

However, this blender lacks versatility and can struggle with some ingredients or recipes, so you’re best to stick to cold drinks and smoothies with this one. Its portability is always negatively impacted by its volume, which could restrict where you can use it, and the lack of storage for its sharp blades.

Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender: price and availability

• $69.99 / £59.99 / AU$99.95 at Nutribullet
• Available at third-party retailers, such as Amazon, Decathlon, and Target

Priced at $69.99 / £59.99 / AU$99.95, the Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender offers great quality for an affordable price. And, what’s more, we regularly see discounts on this appliance at Nutribullet and third-party retailers.

While it doesn’t offer as much versatility as many of the best blenders on the market, if you’re looking for a portable blender for cold drinks and smoothies, without breaking the $100 mark, this is a great choice.

For those who want to keep under the $50 mark, however, the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Portable Blender ($39.99 / £39.99 / A$79.95) offers a solid alternative. If you don’t mind splashing out a bit more for a more powerful, convenient on-the-go blender, we highly recommend the Nutribullet Flip ($99.99, roughly £80 / AU$150), especially if you intend to make a lot of frozen or icy beverages.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender: specifications

Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender: design

• Rechargeable, with plug-in option
• Tight seals prevent leaks
• Carry loop on sip lid for on-the-go drinks
• No storage for blade block

Out of the box, the Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender comes with a motor base, a 590ml cup, a sip lid featuring a carry loop for on-the-go use, and a blade block. While our model came in black, Nutribullet offers several colour options, including green and grey.

The blender is straightforward to assemble and takes up minimal space, making it ideal for smaller kitchens or communal work/living spaces. Disassembling the appliance also requires minimal effort; its parts are fairly compact, so they easily fit into an average-sized backpack or gym bag. Our only concern is a lack of storage for the blade block, which is sharp. Including a small hub for this could make the appliance safer to transport.

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This portable blender’s 590ml cup offers enough space to make a single smoothie or drink for one, though it's worth noting that the 'max' line on ours was at 400ml, meaning, in reality, that’s the capacity you have to work with. The accompanying sip lid screws snuggly onto the cup, preventing any leakages, while its secure carry loop allows you to carry your finished drink in hand as soon as your blending is complete.

The blade block fits tightly onto the bottom of the cup and is locked into the motor base with a satisfying click. Again, we had no issues with leakages throughout our testing. The motor base has a minimalistic LED display, featuring a large power button. This simply requires one press to turn on. When turned on, a clockwise light ring appears around the button, confirming it's ready to be operated. Below this button are four LED lights, indicating the amount of charge the blender currently has.

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The Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender is rechargeable, meaning it largely works wirelessly. A USB-C cable for charging is included, which plugs into a discrete port at the back of the motor base. However, no adapter is included. While you can use the appliance plugged in, it must have at least one charge (one white light) for this to work, and operating the blender plugged in pauses charging during the blend cycle. In addition, the provided cable is only 50cm long, restricting where you can place the appliance.

We found it took approximately 50 minutes for one light (charge) to appear, and the blender offered approximately eight 30-second blending cycles per charge. This does, however, seem to be variable and can depend on what you’re blending and if you’re overheating the appliance.

This blender’s lightweight design makes it fairly easy to transport, but you may want to consider where you use it. Nutribullet products are typically quite loud, and while the Flex Portable Blender is a bit quieter (depending on its use), we found it averaged a decibel reading of 82, roughly equivalent to the volume of traffic. So, while you can take it to work or the gym, your colleagues and peers may not appreciate it.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender: performance

• Best suited to beverages
• Blends smoothies consistently well
• Struggles with certain solid ingredients
• 30-second blend cycle may not be enough

We began our testing of the Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender with Nutribullet’s own Banana Kale smoothie recipe. Due to the size of the appliance, we had to half the recipe to ensure it fit the cup. This blender comes with a small leaflet instructing you on how to build a smoothie optimally, in other words, the order to add the ingredients. It’s a lifesaver for those new to smoothie making, and blenders, too, for that matter.

After adding the ingredients and securing the cup, we pressed the power button, which triggered a 30-second blend cycle – which you can stop at any time by pressing the button again. The results were impressive: the consistency was thick and creamy, but smooth. There were no lumps of unblended fruit or veg in the cup or under the blades.

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Next, we used one of the recipes Nutribullet recommends for this appliance. Following the included QR code takes you to the Nutribullet app, which allows you to input your appliance type and dietary requirements and suggests recipes based on your needs. The app itself is a bit of a pain; it signed us out every time we closed it, and wouldn’t let us sign in again without creating a new account. The recipes, too, were limited to fewer than 10, primarily smoothies and lattes.

We tried the Strawberry Banana Smoothie, composed of almond milk, ice, chia seeds, half a banana, strawberries, and vanilla extract. We again built the smoothie as suggested, but found that – despite being recommended for the Portable Blender – the ingredients exceeded the max line. This is potentially because they’re for the non-Flex version of this device, but this isn’t specified in the app (nor is Flex specifically a choice when choosing your device). As a result, we had to remove a large amount of ice for the blender to function safely.

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The results, again, were excellent. However, we did find a small lump of unblended banana in the final product, and some of our chia seeds had stuck to the side of the cup in a clump. Overall, this didn’t affect the final product and, again, there was no unblended residue stuck under the blades.

As part of our standard control testing for blenders, we don’t simply test smoothies, however. Nutribullet describes the Flex Portable as being for “on-the-go lifestyles,” and while that suggests it's primarily for beverages, it doesn’t specify it’s only for smoothies and cold drinks.

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We tested Nutribullet’s hummus recipe, again halving the ingredients. While the bottom portion of the ingredients blended fairly well after one cycle, the top remained untouched. The blender struggled considerably with the thickness of the hummus, slowing it to a standstill at one point, despite our attempts to loosen the mixture. Similarly, the appliance struggled with ice.

We wanted to use our ice control tests to check the chopping abilities of the blade. Again, the bottom portion was chopped, but the top remained untouched.

Surprisingly, what did work well was mayonnaise, another of our controls. This recipe applies more to a standard blender, as it requires adding oil while the device is on. We, instead, stopped the blender short of its cycle to add more before blending further each time. The result was actually nice, well-blended mayonnaise.

While the Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender is capable of mixing some non-beverage recipes, it’s not recommended. This isn’t necessarily a big drawback for this product, which is likely aimed at those making beverages on-the-go rather than quick mayo for your lunchtime sandwich.

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What is worth noting is its struggle with more solid, thicker ingredients and its lack of versatility. If you are in the market for a portable blender that focuses on making cold drinks and does that well, but doesn’t offer the capabilities of competitor products, this is an excellent choice.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if