PopBabies Portable Blender vs. Ninja Fit Personal Blender Side-by-Side Comparison

The testing of the PopBabies blender resulted in a disappointing outcome. Despite the blending session lasting for three minutes and twenty seconds, the oatmeal and almonds were blended well but the almonds remained largely intact, resulting in a chunky and texturally inconsistent shake.

One potential reason for this subpar testing performance is the blender's 175-watt motor, which appears to lack sufficient power to churn through such a tough ingredient. An inadequate blade design and jar shape can be factors that hinder the blender's efficiency as well. 

However, it is important to note that the PopBabies blender had a notable advantage compared to other blenders. During the test, it did not become clogged with food, allowing the blades to turn smoothly and continuously, with minimal disruptions, except for the required idle blending time. Considering this, the PopBabies seems to be not a bad choice for those seeking a quick and convenient solution to make fruity work-out treats. To ensure the best possible results, just make sure to use only soft ingredients.

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 smoothie-making capability of the PopBabies was put to the test using four varieties of berries. Eventually, we found that this blender could achieve a smooth mixture within the allotted time of 2 minutes. That said, the final product did not meet our desired outcome of a thick, icy consistency due to the dilution caused by the fast-thawing nature of frozen fruits. Some other blenders we tested completed the task in only 1 minute so the smoothies they produced were perfectly ice-cream-like (for instance, the Ninja Fit, the NutriBullet, and the Ninja BN401). 

Even worse, the blender itself couldn’t run smoothly, as opposed to the prior test with protein shakes. The fruits were so solid that the blades couldn’t power through so we had to intervene multiple times by shaking the cup vigorously. Nonetheless, we believe this blender still makes sense for all of us when it comes to preparing small batches of smoothies as long as our ideas of drinks involve fresh fruits instead of frozen ones.

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.

It is unclear why the PopBabies blade failed to spin at the outset of our test, but it is possible due to the small size of the blending cup and the large amount of greens we used. To get the food to circulate properly, we had to shake the cup vigorously, which was time consuming and left us underwhelmed, though, after several attempts, we finally got the blender to run for the required 20 seconds. Following this, we strained the mixture through a mesh strainer and were dismayed to find a significant amount of pulp still remained. This indicated that the blender didn’t extract the full range of nutrients and flavors from the greens. Apparently enough, if your aim is to maximize the nutritional value of your vegetables, this blender may not be an ideal choice.

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.

Given our experience with the blender in previous performances, it would have been reasonable to have low expectations for its capability in this test. However, we still gave it a fair shot. 

And again, this blender became obstructed by the ingredients even when we had tried hard to shake the cup repeatedly. To be fair, though, personal blenders like this one are not designed for heavy-duty tasks like crushing ice due to their lack of power. Pushing your device beyond its limits can cause wear and tear that will inevitably impact its overall performance, even in more standard blending tasks. If you want fluffy, snow-like crushed ice or desire to incorporate ice into your smoothies, it may be worth investing in a high-performance blender, such as the Ninja Nutri Auto-IQ.

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.