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iCucina Portable Bullet vs Ninja Nutri Auto-iQ Side-by-Side Comparison

Tina Pham
Reviewer
Nguyen Ntk
Visual Specialist
Reviewed
Tested Using Methodology v1.0
Updated Mar 21, 2023
Tested Using Methodology v1.0
Updated Mar 21, 2023
The iCucina Personal Blender standing on a white table with its accessories, including a to-go lid, an extra blending cup with lid, a user’s manual, and a paper carton box, by its sides.
The Ninja Nutri Auto-IQ personal blender 1000-Watt standing on a gray table with its accessories, including two to-go lids, an additional blending cup, a recipe book & user guide, and a paper carton box, by its sides.
Blenders type
personal
personal

Our Verdict

6.1
Overall Score
  • Performance (60%)
    4.7/10
  • Design (25%)
    7.7/10
  • Usability (15%)
    9.3/10
9.2
Overall Score
  • Performance (60%)
    8.8/10
  • Design (25%)
    9.7/10
  • Usability (15%)
    9.7/10

From an overview, they are two distinct ranges of personal blenders. While the Ninja Nutri Auto-iQ is a top-of-the-line model with high-end features and advanced capabilities that are perfect for those demanding the best in their kitchen appliances, the iCucina Portable Bullet is a basic model that provides a simpler blending solution for those who want an affordable and no-frills option.

Sporting a higher-powered motor, the Ninja Nutri Auto-iQ emerged as the clear winner in all of our tests. It efficiently extracted essential nutrients from a variety of food items, including almonds, dried berries, leafy veggies, and frozen fruits. Its sharper blades could even tear apart 6 ounces of ice cubes, pulverizing them into a snow-like texture in no time. Meanwhile, the iCucina Portable Bullet paled in comparison for it struggled to handle nearly every ingredient and produced uneven results.

However, it’s worth noting that the Ninja’s hefty weight and bulky size may compromise its portability. Moreover, while the intelligent programs are intriguing, their premium price may not be suitable for everyone—some may even consider them gimmicky.

Not a Do-It-All Machine

iCucina Portable Bullet Performance

Ninja Nutri Auto iQ Personal Blender Performance: Top-Rated Results
4.7
Performance Scores
  • Protein Shake (40%)6.0/10
  • Frozen Fruit Smoothie (30%)5.0/10
  • Fibrous Greens (20%)4.0/10
  • Crushed Ice Cubes (10%)0/10
8.8
Performance Scores
  • Protein Shake (40%)8.8/10
  • Frozen Fruit Smoothie (30%)9.5/10
  • Fibrous Greens (20%)8.0/10
  • Crushed Ice Cubes (10%)8.0/10
6.0

Protein Shake

8.8
  • Blending Time: 1 mins 50 seconds
  • Result: Very Coarse

The iCucina may be a good choice for you to prepare any protein shakes that use fresh plant-based food, but if you want to level up your workout drinks with raw nuts and dried fruits, we recommend going with other models, such as the Ninja Fit, Nutri BN401, or the NutriBullet. This blender is inefficient enough to liquify and combine such ingredients fully. 

For this test, our protein shake is designed to include oatmeal, almonds, protein powder, and dried blueberries. Throughout the blending process, we noticed that this blender didn’t have much hard time grinding the ingredients; it worked quite smoothly, indeed. All the oatmeal was turned into liquid form in approximately two minutes, which seemed not to be so fast yet acceptable enough. The final drink, unfortunately, couldn’t get the most flavor out of almonds and berries, since about a third of the fruits were still solid.

  • Blending Time: 1 min 10 seconds
  • Result: Silky Smooth

The Ninja Nutri is essentially a single-serve blender but refinements to its blades and motor’s power have brought it many advantages over the competition. 

You might notice the blade assembly looks like nothing else in the market. Design-wise, it is attention to detail with four sharp, sophisticated prongs. Beyonds spinning extremely speedy, the prongs are towards various sides to allow for more food contact at a time. And such combos did make our Ninja Nutri among the fastest blenders in this test, taking one minute and ten seconds to yield a serving of protein shake. Not to mention the 1000-watt motor which helped churn through ingredients like almonds, dried berries, oatmeal, with super ease. 

As efficient as it was, this blender still underperformed by a few seconds against two top competitors (the Ninja Fit and the NutriBullet), though. The texture it delivered also had room for improvement since while the oatmeal was completely broken down, small amounts of almonds and berries remained solid. Considering the price, we had wished for a chunky-free texture which was exactly similar to those we got from its counterparts. 

Overall, unless you’re really interested in its professional look and hi-tech features, there are some alternatives that can actually blend your drink better and do so at less than half the price.

5.0

Frozen Fruit Smoothie

9.5
  • Blending Time: 1 min 50 seconds
  • Result: Smooth
  • Suction:

Berries are the favorite superfoods of many people but their skins and seeds are typically a little bit hard to be liquified entirely. That’s why our recipe for this test calls for four berry varieties; we want it to be a practical way to test for the smoothie-making capacity of our personal blenders, including this iCucina, and fortunately, it does. 

Preparing frozen fruit smoothies with the iCucina asked us to compromise on texture. This was because while this blender could break down all the fruits in one minute and fifty seconds, after such a duration, the smoothie it delivered did lose its thick, icy consistency we prefer. 

Simply put, for an ice-cold treat to come out perfectly, your blender should blend as fast as possible so the frozen ingredients don’t have time to thaw and therefore dilute the overall consistency. But as we learned from our tests, this blender isn’t capable enough in this regard. We recommend using crushed ice instead of freezing your ingredients in advance if you prefer a smoother icy blend.

  • Blending Time: 1 min 5 seconds
  • Result: Silky Smooth
  • Suction:

The Nutri Ninja was excellent at this test. Again, its distinctly-designed blades and higher-powered motor were good things for a quick, even outcome. They allowed the blender to power through all the frozen mango, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries to perfection in just over one minute. And we remember everything was very easy and simple here, which you will rarely experience with other weaker personal blenders. Just noting that the process was fifteen seconds slower than that of the NutriBullet, but this wasn’t a huge gap. You might be willing to wait a bit longer as long as you get good results. 

Initially, we intended to use the Auto-IQ Ultra Blend setting, but the testing trials then suggested us shifting to the regular one. When running on the Auto-IQ Ultra Blend mode, your blender will blend in short intervals in 60 seconds and there will be a unique pulsing and pausing pattern after each interval. This is meant to force all the clogged ingredients back down onto the blades to even out the blend. That being said, we don’t think this is highly necessary in making icy smoothies; frozen fruits need to blend as fast as possible, but the pausing intervals give them time to thaw and then dilute the consistency. Perhaps, the Auto-IQ technology is better for dry-grinding harder ingredients like whole ice cubes and raw nuts.

4.0

Fibrous Greens

8.0
  • Blending Time: 20 seconds
  • Result: Very Coarse

We blended kale, spinach, and celery in the time benchmark of 20 seconds to see how well this iCucina would incorporate fibers to your meals. Eventually, we found this blender underperformed significantly against top competitors, again. There was a ton of fibrous pulp left behind when we strained the mixture through a mesh strainer. This suggested that our final drink didn’t get the greatest nutritional value. 

Perhaps, you might think it isn’t necessary to blend that quickly, blending a little bit longer is concede as long as your desired consistency can be achieved. For the most part, we agreed this is entirely possible with the iCucina.

  • Blending Time: 20 seconds
  • Result: Fine

The blender’s ability to process leafy vegetables was above average. The final drink came out acceptably uniform but with a gritty texture. We don’t think you’ll get too many complaints if you run everything through a mesh strainer before drinking. Given its high-end price tag, however, we expected better results with fewer leafy chunks.

0.0

Crushed Ice Cubes

8.0
  • Ice Fineness: Coarse
  • Unblended Ice: 73.5% of 6 oz

Typically, personal blenders aren’t designed with a focus on ice-crushing capability, and the iCucina is not an exception. The lack of strength prevented it from powering through the ice. We noticed that the blade couldn't even spin so most of the ice came out virtually untouched. Sometimes we undocked the cup and shook it on purpose to even out the blend, but this still couldn’t help much. If you particularly have a need for this sort of blend, you’d be better served by something that is packed with a higher-powered motor, such as the Ninja Nutri Pro.

  • Ice Fineness: Coarse
  • Unblended Ice: 0% of 6 oz

As a personal blender, this Nutri Ninja didn’t perform half bad, grinding 6 oz of whole ice cubes in just 22 seconds. None of the other blenders we tested could do the same; some took longer to entirely break up the ice while others were simply not powerful enough to churn through such a solid ingredient. (For example, the KOIOS Pro and the Oster)The crushed ice didn’t have a snow-like texture, but would be good enough for your cocktails.

Simple yet Normal

iCucina Bullet Blender Design

Ninja BL480D Nutri Personal Blender Design
7.7
design Scores
  • Blades (20%)6.0/10
  • Build Quality (60%)7.5/10
  • Blending Cup (20%)10/10
9.7
design Scores
  • Blades (20%)10/10
  • Build Quality (60%)9.5/10
  • Blending Cup (20%)10/10

In the Box of the iCucina Portable Blender

In the Box of the Ninja Nutri Auto iQ Personal Blender
  • Motor Base 
  • Blade assembly
  • Two blending Cup
  • Two to-go lids
  • User guide
  • Motor base 
  • Extractor blade
  • Two blending cups 
  • Two to-go lids
  • Recipe book & user guide

Dimensions

  • Height:
    13.6" (34.5 cm)
  • Width:
    5.0" (12.7 cm)
  • Weight:
    2.5 oz (71 g)
  • Shaft Length:

The iCucina is about one-third smaller than a standard full-sized blender, like the Vitamix 5200 or the Ninja with Auto-iQ technology, so we suppose it’ll fit easily into any cabinet.

  • Height:
    14.2" (36.1 cm)
  • Width:
    6.4" (16.3 cm)
  • Weight:
    5.4 oz (153 g)
  • Shaft Length:

The Ninja Nutri is larger and bulkier than your average single-serve blender. The motor section looks more like a full-sized countertop version, coming in at 14.5 inches tall by 6.2 inches wide. At 5.4 pounds, it’s also heavier than most, so you may find it difficult to move your blender in and out of storage.

7.5

Build Quality

9.5

The whole construction of the motor base is plastic except for a thin layer on the outer that is made of stainless steel. It’s supposed that the lack of sleekness of this layer somehow causes the blender to feel cheaper. That’s why although our iCucina  is rather solidly put together, next to the Ninja Fit or the KOIOS, it just looks less of a bargain.

Build quality does match the price point. It’s good, with many parts — to include the entire exterior — made of anti-scratch plastic. We haven’t had to deal with problems like discoloration, paint peeling, or inner components wearing out. Additionally, the construction is sturdy enough to hold up frequent use, so you will get stable performance and consistency for many years.

6.0

Blades

10
  • Material:
    Stainless Steel
  • Type:
    Sharp and Dull Blades
  • Guard Material:
  • Blade Count:
    4
  • Removable:
    No
  • Dishwasher Safe:
    Yes

The blade has four prongs: two are sharps and the others are dull. In comparison with the rivals, it is less refined due to its small-scale and the lack of sharpness. Lackluster performances mainly result from this, we believe.

  • Material:
    Stainless Steel
  • Type:
    Sharp Blade
  • Guard Material:
  • Blade Count:
     6
  • Removable:
    No
  • Dishwasher Safe:
    Yes

The blade features 6 hardened stainless steel prongs. It is super sharp and has a high-quality feel. Unfortunately, the blades can’t be removed from the base, so cleaning their undersides is pretty tricky.

Motor Base

Ninja Nutri Auto iQ 1000 Watts Motor Base
  • Rated Voltage:
    120 V
  • Rated Power:
    300 Watts
  • Working Time:
    ≤ 1 minute
  • Protection:
    No
  • Weight:
    2.0 lbs (0.9 kg)
  • Cord Length:
    NaN" (NaN cm)
  • Extra Feature:
    Silicon feet, a cooling fan

The base stands steadily on our counter thanks to the four silicone feet on its bottom. Like those of other personal blenders, the motor cannot run for longer than 1 minute to avoid damage caused by overheating, though there is an internal cooling fan designed to ensure proper ventilation and air circulation.

  • Rated Voltage:
    110 - 120 V
  • Rated Power:
    1000 Watt
  • Working Time:
    ≤ 1 minute
  • Protection:
    No
  • Weight:
    4.5 lbs (2.0 kg)
  • Cord Length:
    2.6 ft (0.8 m)
  • Extra Feature:
    Silicon feet, cooling fan, anti-slip pads

The motor comes with many user-friendly components. They include a cooling fan to prevent overheating, suction feet to help the blender stand firm against heavy-duty tasks, and small anti-slip pads to minimize the risk of sliding on wet surfaces. We’re also impressed with the inner parts which are all well-made and detailed. 

Just be aware that the motor should not run for more than one minute continuously. If your recipes demand longer than this timeframe, blending for 1-minute intervals can help you avoid overheating. In the event your machine gets too hot, a built-in thermal switch will engage and stop the motor from running. To reset, you’ll have to unplug and let it cool down for 30 minutes before blending again.

10

Blending Cup

10
  • Material:
    Plastic
  • Capacity:
    28.0 fl oz (828.1 ml)
  • Weight:
    0.4 oz (11 g)
  • Dishwasher Safe:
    Yes
  • Measurement:
    Yes
  • Suitable For:
    Small and Medium batches
  • Accessories:
    To-go lids

The set consists of two blending cups. They can work interchangeably with the blade assembly and two spout-flip lids that are extra included.

  • Material:
    Plastic
  • Capacity:
    18- and 24-oz
  • Weight:
    0.5- and 0.58-lb
  • Dishwasher Safe:
    Yes
  • Measurement:
    No
  • Suitable For:
    Small and medium batches
  • Accessories:
    2 to-go lids

This set includes two blending cups which can be used interchangeably with the extractor blade. Each cup comes with a tight-seal lid featuring a flip-top spout for mess-free drinking on the go.

Speed and Controls

  • Control Type:
    Button
  • Min Speed:
    N/A
  • Max Speed:
    N/A
  • Presets:
    No
  • Noise Level:
    97 dB
  • Digital Display:
    No
  • Pulse Mode:
    No

The iCucina is a single-speed personal blender with one-touch operation. This means there is a pressing button in the front center that you’ll use to control the motor. More to the point, the button is very clicky so you don’t need much force to press.

  • Control Type:
    Button
  • Min Speed:
  • Max Speed:
  • Presets:
    No
  • Noise Level:
    103 dB
  • Digital Display:
    No
  • Pulse Mode:
    No

The front interface is intuitive, featuring four buttons that correspond to four different options. As a visual aid, this model also has a digital display which indicates the elapsed blending time or counts down to the end of a preset program. 

If you want continuous blending, press the Start/Stop button. To avoid chopping ingredients too finely, use the Pulse function. For fresh or softer ingredients, the Auto-IQ Blend button will help you create consistent results without relying on guesswork. There is also the Auto-IQ Ultra Blend button, which runs the blender at its fastest speed tobreak ice cubes, fibrous greens, whole grains, or frozen mixtures down to a lump-free consistency. 

We found that the speed settings work very well. Each step gives you a noticeable change in power level. For the most part, however, we agree with some reviewers that it feels a bit gimmicky because single-speed blenders generally work just as well.

Note that regardless of the speed setting, this Nutri Ninja is terribly noisy. If noise is a major factor in your buying decision, this one’s not for you.

Less than Intuitive to Assemble

iCucina Bullet Personal Blender Usability Review

Nutri Ninja Auto iQ Personal Blender Usability Review: Excellent Blending Comfort
9.3
usability Scores
  • Hand-Free Operation (60%)10/10
  • Assembly (20%)8.0/10
  • Cleanability (20%)8.5/10
9.7
usability Scores
  • Hands-Free Operation (60%)10/10
  • Assembly (20%)9.5/10
  • Cleanability (20%)9.0/10
10

Hand-Free Operation

Hands-Free Operation

We like the smooth and non-intrusive operation of this blender. In particular, your iCucina will blend much more like a full-sized model since it doesn’t require you to press and hold the power button or the blending cup throughout the whole process like many rivals. Most impressively, food doesn’t too often get lodged under the blade and demands your intervention to resolve. Those suggest that you can possibly take your eyes off your blender to do other things while it is operating.

This blender is more convenient to use than others because the cup can be locked in place; you won’t need to hold the cup continuously to engage the motor. Additionally, once activated, it draws almost everything toward its blades, creating a homogeneous mixture without extra shaking or stirring.

8.0

Assembly

9.5

It is very easy to seal the cup with the blade assembly. Just align the grooves on the blade assembly with the appropriate grooves on the cup and then turn one of the two pieces clockwise until you feel they attach firmly together. Attaching the cup assembly to the motor base, on the other hand, takes quite some time to figure out how things work.

To set up the blender, simply attach the extractor blade to the cup, turn the whole assembly upside down, and place it on the motor base. Once the display reads “0,” press one of the buttons to start blending. When your drink is complete, simply pull the cup out from the motor base and serve. Note that you must pull with quite a bit of force compared to other blenders we tested, so it may be tougher to remove when your hands are wet or oily.

8.5

Cleanability

9.0

Except for the motor base, you can put everything in the dishwasher. The blending cup has a wide opening so you won’t have any difficulty reaching inside if cleaning by hand. Regarding the blade assembly, you have to remove the silicone gasket first. because this part is attached extremely tight, we found it is quite frustrating to get the job done, however.  On the bright side, there isn’t much difficulty in wiping the blades’s backsides, especially when you have a bottle brush.

We cleaned the cups, lids, and blade manually with soapy water, but they’re also safe to put in the dishwasher. Of all those parts, the blade’s backsides were the trickiest to clean, so make sure you have a straw-cleaning brush available. 

The motor base only took us a couple of minutes to wipe down. Unplug the device and use a dish cloth dampened (but not soaked) with soapy water to wipe down exterior surfaces and the inside of the cup receptacle. We never had any leakage during our tests, so we didn’t have to contend with stubborn food on the actuator tabs or other components.