Ninja Nutri Pro Compact Personal Blender (BN401) In-depth Review
Overall Verdict
The Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro is among our top-rated personal blenders, tackling heavy-duty blending performance with confidence and consistency. Raw nuts and dried fruits were not its strongest point, but this blender will still do the job if it’s not under time constraints. In more common tasks like pulverizing frozen ingredients, liquefying leafy greens, or crushing ice cubes, your Ninja Nutri Pro will create a smooth, even blend in seconds.
In terms of construction, the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro is an all-round quality design with top-grade materials and solid structure. It boasts a distinctive, upscale blade that stands up to any potential ingredients. Plenty of advanced features, such as the two Auto-iQ presets, are intended to enhance user experience; we’re happy to say most of them do live up to the hype.
Things We Like
- This blender is an all-arounder that works without a fuss.
- Nearly all of its capability is outstanding—it’s very well equipped to crush ice and make smoothies.
- The 1000-watt motor provides heavy-duty blending performance.
- Smart preset programs are designed to deliver excellent consistency.
- There are solid design details throughout the blender.
Things We Don’t Like
- The motor base is roughly the same size as a standard full-sized blender.
- It’s relatively noisy.
At the time of writing, the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro is the newest product in Ninja’s blender lineup. Power rating aside, you’ll see some apparent differences in its overall design compared to standard blenders. Not only does it have more features than most rivals and one of the most powerful motors in the class, but it still comes in at a budget-friendly price that you won’t find from all brands. Check out our hands-on performance testing, along with our evaluations on its quality and usability, to get the full rundown on its pros and cons.
9.4 Performance: Top-Notch Efficiency
The Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro doesn’t just look good. In our tests, it did a lot of things well, rarely compromising the way many single-serving blenders do. We made a quick protein shake from whole-food ingredients, a fibrous mixture with full nutrients, and a smoothie that couldn’t be silkier. But where our Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro really stood out was its ability to crush ice—you can fully pulverize 6 oz of whole ice cubes in only 14 seconds.
8.8 Protein Shake
If your idea of a protein shake includes raw nuts or dried fruits, fear not! The Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro won’t let you down.
In this test, it took only 1 minute to turn all the oatmeal into liquid form, which was far faster than average. A quick blending time means you’ll always have a quick snack or protein shake at hand whenever you want. Note that quite a bit of the almonds and dried blueberries remained solid, making the final drink relatively lumpy. But overall, it was still much smoother than shakes produced by rivals such as the Magic Bullet.
Most importantly, our chefs agree that you’ll get a more savory sipping experience if you let everything mix together a bit longer. Soaking the nuts prior to blending gives you a less chunky texture as well.
10 Frozen Fruit Smoothie
For certain treats like icy smoothies, blending time is a significant factor. Frozen ingredients thaw quickly at room temperature, so if you don’t blend fast enough, your beverage will be thinner than expected. Fortunately, the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro is good enough to generate whichever texture you prefer.
Contrary to the protein shake test, all the ingredients came together quickly in this smoothie. We intentionally created a tough test containing all frozen ingredients, but we still received a perfect smoothness in only one minute.
On a more pragmatic note, the Ninja BN401 operates very smoothly even on heavy-duty blends. While most other personal blenders, such as the Ninja Fit, clogged themselves up with accumulated ingredients under the blades, this unit ensures all the fruits can circulate freely. Sometimes, we noticed a couple chunks clinging to the cup’s sides, but they quickly dislodged themselves without our interference.
All things considered, it’s apparent that the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro is a perfect way to turn your favorite healthy fruits into refreshing breakfast and post-workout smoothies, especially for a busy morning.
9.5 Fibrous Greens
The speed and power of the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro makes it a useful personal blender when you want to incorporate more leafy greens into your daily meals.
In this test, we aimed to create a smooth blend of celery, kale, and spinach. In just 20 seconds, this little Ninja delivered exactly that.
Of all the machines we’ve experienced, the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro was among the elite few that could fully shred the leafy veggies so quickly, thus retaining all of their nutritious fiber and antioxidants. Very little pulp remained behind in the mesh strainer. That’s compared to some of its rivals that needed double the time and others that were too weak to grind the ingredients finely.
The mixture would’ve had a finer consistency if we had blended it longer, but even so, there’s no way to make this blend completely free of pulp. If you prefer your drink to be perfectly smooth, you’ll need to strain it through a filtration bag to remove all the pulp.
10 Crushed Ice Cubes
The blade spins very fast and is sturdily designed. This, combined with a mighty 1000-watt motor, allows the Ninja BN401 to tear apart the ice without a struggle. Believe it or not, six ounces of ice cubes came out with a snow-like consistency in just 14 seconds! Even the toughest ingredients like whole ice cubes won’t pose a problem for this blender. It will be easier than ever to entertain your guests with any icy-cold drinks!
9.6 Design
The Ninja BN401 Ninja Pro looks sporty on our kitchen counter. Its appeal is a combination of elegant style and sturdiness. The quality of build materials is impressively high and there is a wealth of hi-tech features so the price seems justified. Some people may find the two Auto-iQ presets convenient, but we don’t think they make much of a difference.
In the Box
- Motor base
- Blade assembly
- Two 24-oz blending cups
- Two spout lids
- Recipe book & user guide
Dimensions
The 24-oz blending cup is similar in size to those of other personal blenders, but the motor base is roughly the same size as a typical full-sized blender’s. This means this Ninja is larger and heavier than average, but that’s the trade-off for power and sturdy construction. We don’t feel it is overly cumbersome.
9.5 Build Quality
Many things visually distinguish the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro from its rivals and one of them is the overall build quality.
For the motor base, the hard-touch plastics on the exterior combined with high-gloss finish and thoughtfully-designed trim look and feel good. With first-rate build quality, it also offers a pleasing aesthetic that many competitors lack.
The blade assembly is part of the blender’s greatness as well. It comes across as one of the most well rounded, so we don’t anticipate it wearing out anytime soon.
9.5 Blades
The blade is refined in ways you wouldn’t expect a budget-friendly brand to offer. With four expertly designed prongs made of hardened stainless steel, the attention to detail is spot-on. It isn’t razor sharp but instead looks thicker and more robust than most; it definitely won’t be damaged or succumb to wear and tear under daily use.
Motor Base
The motor is a very practical design. It peaks at around 1000 watts which is sufficient to create almost any blended meal. The whole device is mostly made of hard plastic, but it doesn’t feel cut-rate or flimsy. There is an eye-catching control panel in the front featuring a timer and four buttons corresponding to four different speed levels. We also particularly like the rubber grips on the bottom that keep things steady while in use and a cooling fan in the back to limit overheating.
10 Blending Cup
Our Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro came with two 24-oz blending cups. Both have the same excellent build quality and are designed to fit perfectly to the blade assembly. So far, we’ve experienced no leaks while blending. There are also two to-go lids with flip-top spouts included. They similarly screw on tightly and seal well, so we got no leakage even when we shook or turned the cups upside-down.
Speed and Controls
You’ll love this Ninja unless you prefer your blenders to be barebones machines. There aren't a lot of control buttons, but the four it has are enough to make this model feel more like a full-sized blender. After all, personal blenders typically have one speed and no control panel. The Ninja’s digital display showing blending time or a countdown is a significant departure.
Of the four control buttons, two are for the Auto-iQ preset programs, with Crush and Smoothie labels. Once either of them is selected, your blender will start to blend and automatically stop when the program estimates the contents should have reached optimal consistency. Simply put, you don’t have to make your own predictions; the blender is programmed to do that for you instead.
The remaining controls are Start/Stop and Pulse buttons. If you want continuous blending, press the Start/Stop button. To avoid chopping ingredients too finely, the Pulse function gives you greater control; use short presses for short pulses and long presses for long ones.
This Ninja BN401’s personality reminds us of the Ninja Nutri Auto-iQ, another product in the Ninja personal blender lineup that costs about $40 more. The two are broadly similar in capability, efficiency, and purpose, but we like the Ninja BN40 better. The Ninja BL480D Nutri doesn’t outperform its cheaper cousin to the degree that it’s worth the extra money.
9.7 Usability
Visually, much of this Ninja’s appeal comes from its Auto-iQ technology. To create a level playing field, however, we didn’t use this advanced feature in our scored tests. Instead, we employed the manual setting that is common to most personal blenders. But regardless of the setting, this blender is perfectly pleasant to use. It allows for entirely hands-free operation and its control buttons are very responsive.
10 Hands-Free Operation
The Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro offers outstanding comfort since it doesn’t demand that you hold the cup in place throughout the blending process the way so many others do. The existence of a locking mechanism means you can take your hands off your blender while it’s operating.
That is not the only thing that dominates the blender’s ease of use, though. This Ninja turns out great results with no drama. It rarely, if ever, needs extra shaking or stirring to even out the blend. That's probably a result of the powerful motor and well-rounded blade assembly.
The underside of the motor base has two silicone feet and three anti-slip plates to provide stability. Our blender stands and works steadily on any surface, so we didn’t need to hold it throughout the blending process—even at high speeds, it never tried to jump around the way some others did.
9.5 Assembly
We’d award the Ninja BN401 a maximum score in this section if it demanded less force when locking and removing the cup from the motor base. Overall, though, assembling this blender is a breeze.
First, you’ll need to seal the cup with the blade assembly, then turn it upside down and install it on the motor base by aligning the tabs on the cup with the slots on the base. The programs will illuminate and your blender will be ready for use once you lock the cup properly to the base. To do so, rotate it clockwise until you feel them click together.
To remove the cup, turn it counterclockwise and lift it up. Note that you have to pull with quite a bit of force compared to other blenders we tested, so it may be tough to remove or lock when your hands are wet or oily.
9.0 Cleanability
The cups, lids, and blade assembly are safe to put in the dishwasher, but we recommend hand-washing them. It’s very easy to do and will help preserve all the parts’ original quality.
Because no leakage occurred in the course of operation, it didn’t take much time or effort to wipe the motor base clean. The blade assembly, on the other hand, has many nooks, grooves, and crannies so it required much more care. For the blending cup, we thoroughly cleaned it under the tap with a soapy sponge. The cup’s wide opening gave us no difficulty getting our hands inside, so all the tailings rinsed off easily.