Oster BLSTPB-WBL vs Ninja QB3001SS Fit Side-by-Side Comparison

The consistency of the Oster’s protein shake was about average and much in line with other low-powered blenders, such as the Black+Decker FusionBlade. After letting it pass through a mesh strainer, we found a small amount of dried berries remaining partially intact and this made the shake somewhat gritty. The oatmeal and almonds were mostly turned into liquid form, however. So overall, the beverage was still drinkable enough to help an athlete or gym enthusiast increase their muscle mass without feeling uncomfortable.   

Despite being second to none within its market segment, this blender abjectly surrendered to its higher-priced counterparts in terms of blending time. To manage an acceptable result, it took up to nearly three minutes, which was about one minute slower on average. For this reason, we only gave it a 5.2/10, in comparison to other personal blenders in our Protein Shake test.

No matter what ingredients you have on hand for your protein shakes, the Ninja QB3001SS Fit will quickly turn them into a chunk-free mix. Its impeccable performance in this test is evidence of that. Consisting of the toughest-to-blend ingredients, our recipe presents a high level of difficulty, but it still didn’t give this blender any trouble. 

Our Ninja took only 50 seconds to churn out the desired result. The oatmeal was completely broken down while almonds and berries were blended to their finest state. After straining the drink through a strainer, we found a smattering of partially blended chunks, but we don’t think it's enough to turn off many folks. Given such a result, this machine is a worthy competitor to the NutriBullet Pro — our best personal blender at the time of writing.

The Oster BLSTPB-WBL did fairly well in this test, producing a result that was roughly the same as that of a higher-powered blender. So if you tend to focus on frozen smoothies, this device should be worth your consideration. Spinning at speed, we can assure you its blades will yield a silky frozen smoothie without a particularly intense struggle. Just make sure to give your blending cup a good shake once you notice any food getting stuck in the blades and prevent them from turning.

However, you might be wondering why it only got a 6/10 if its smoothie came out that good. Again, it was because of its longer-than-average blending time. 

In particular, after a course of testing trials, we found that a good blender for making icy beverages has to process all the frozen ingredients as fast as possible so they don’t have time to thaw and dilute the overall consistency. As such, the completion time of the Oster meant its smoothie was thinner and less ice-cream-like than faster models, namely the Ninja Fit or the  NutriBullet.

When it comes to preparing smoothies, this blender’s efficiency is something that we’ve all dreamed about, but never thought possible on a budget. In our test, it allowed for a quick preparation of frozen foods with very little effort thanks to its heavy-duty motor and sturdy blades. The compromise was that we had to pause now and then to shake chunks free from the blades.  

The smoothie was ready to drink within 1 minute of blending, which was far faster than average. In fact, it was fully twice as fast as some other models like the Magic Bullet, the Hamilton Beach, and the Oster. You may think it doesn’t matter much to wait a bit longer, but actually, the difference in blending time between blenders did create a substantial discrepancy in the drink’s texture and temperature.

As a general rule of thumb, frozen foods thaw quickly at room temperature, especially when you start grinding them up. The faster your blender does its job, the thicker and less diluted your smoothie will be. 

Simply put, not only did the Ninja Fit blend smoothly, but its rapid operation also provided us with the thick, ice-cream-like consistency that we prefer in frozen fruit smoothies. If you’re craving icy-cold drinks on hot days, this blender definitely has the chops for it.

With the Oster, it was definitely an undertaking to extract high-fiber food into liquid form in a short period of time (20 seconds). By our cutoff point, we drained the final mixture with a mesh strainer and ended up with a substantial amount of coarse pulp. This suggested that the test was just one-third completed. 

Perhaps, if we allowed this blender a longer runtime, we would eventually get a smoother outcome. However, one noticeable point was that some personal blenders we tested could do this trick perfectly following the same time frame. (For example, the Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ). As such, the performance of this Oster means more than just a slower extraction — it also has some implications for its overall efficiency in comparison with the expensive, high-end ones.

The Ninja Fit is quite capable of incorporating leafy vegetables and other fiber-filled foods into your drink. Of all the blenders we tested, this was one of the few that could break down almost all of kale, spinach, and celery in only 20 seconds. The greens were blended finely and had consistent-sized grounds. Not only that, but it left us with only a little pulp that was too big to pass through a strainer — better results than even the pricier Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ.

The weak motor power didn’t allow the Oster BLSTPB-WBL to crush ice so the final outcome came out almost pristine but this is a common occurrence of this type of personal blender. If you want fluffy, snow-like crushed ice or desire to incorporate ice into your smoothies, we recommend more powerful blenders, like the Ninja Fit.

In this task, this blender struggled quite a bit, and couldn’t quite power through all the ice cubes. A small amount of ice remained solid — accounting for 20% of the total — when it was all said and done. And again, we had to stop and shake the blending jar to promote the contact between the ice and blades. 

Of all the blenders with small blending cups, however, the Ninja Fit was the only one that actually could perform that well. It even crushed ice as fluffily as its larger counterpart, the NutriBullet Pro. With the Ninja Fit, you may no longer have to deal with whole ice cubes in your drink.