The Ninja Smart Screen is a straightforward blender with a 72oz pitcher and a few automatic blending programs. It's fantastic for crushing ice but struggles with fibrous ingredients common in smoothies and soups. It's very well-built, and its components are dishwasher-safe. However, the very sharp blades make it tricky to clean by hand.
Our Verdict
The Ninja Smart Screen is a decent multi-purpose blender. It's outstanding to crush ice with and is very well-built. It's easy to clean and is dishwasher-safe as well. Unfortunately, it isn't the best for smoothies since there's a lot of oxygen mixed into the drink, creating a foamy and grainy drink. It also isn't recommended for hot blending, so it isn't suitable for hot mixes like soups.
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Outstanding at crushing ice.
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Very solid build quality.
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Jar and blades are dishwasher safe.
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Has trouble processing fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't hot blend.
The Ninja Smart Screen is adequate for single-serve smoothies. It takes a long time to blend common smoothie ingredients like kale or blueberries and doesn't fully liquefy them, so your drink has unprocessed grains left over. It can make drinkable single-serve smoothies occasionally but isn't a good choice if you're looking for a blender specifically for single-serves.
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Outstanding at crushing ice.
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Very solid build quality.
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Jar and blades are dishwasher safe.
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Has trouble processing fibrous ingredients like kale.
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No single serve jars.
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Can't hot blend.
The Ninja Smart Screen is decent for multiple servings of smoothies. It has a big capacity for serving a crowd, and it's an outstanding ice crusher, so it's well-suited for smoothies with lots of ice and frozen fruit or similar recipes like blended margaritas. However, it struggles to smoothly blend fibrous fruits and vegetables, so if your recipe includes ingredients like kale or blueberries, the final result will have many unprocessed bits.
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Outstanding at crushing ice.
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Very solid build quality.
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Jar and blades are dishwasher safe.
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Has trouble processing fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't hot blend.
The Ninja Smart Screen is outstanding at crushing ice. It's a very well-built blender, and the blade assembly has no trouble crushing down many ice cubes to snow-like quality in no time.
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Outstanding at crushing ice.
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Very solid build quality.
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Jar and blades are dishwasher safe.
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Can't hot blend.
The Ninja Smart Screen isn't safe for hot blending, so it's not meant for making soups. It can't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients like kale or broccoli, so pureed soups will have a grainy texture even if you use room-temperature ingredients. However, its big capacity allows you to blend a full recipe in one batch.
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Outstanding at crushing ice.
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Very solid build quality.
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Jar and blades are dishwasher safe.
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Has trouble processing fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't hot blend.
The Ninja Smart Screen is good for professional use. It's not ideal for every use since it can't hot blend or make a smooth puree with fibrous ingredients. Still, it's very well-built, has a big capacity, and is an outstanding ice crusher, so it's well-suited for making crushed ice to add to cocktails or frozen drinks like blended margaritas. It's also easy to use for recipes like nut butter and hummus. However, it doesn't have many speed settings and doesn't have a 2-part lid, which limits its versatility.
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Outstanding at crushing ice.
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Very solid build quality.
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Jar and blades are dishwasher safe.
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High capacity jar.
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Has trouble processing fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't hot blend.
- 6.4 Multi-Purpose
- 6.9 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 7.2 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 9.7 Ice Crushing
- 4.6 Soups
- 7.8 Professional Use
- Updated May 18, 2023: Updated text to match Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Sep 06, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Sep 16, 2020: Review published.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja Smart Screen is a pretty bare-bones blender on its own, but it has some variants with many more accessories like the Ninja Smart Screen DUO or the Ninja Screen Kitchen System with FreshVac Technology. While these products have the same main blender base and jar, our results are only valid if you're using the 72oz pitcher.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Ninja Smart Screen is a full-size blender with limited versatility. Like most full-size Ninja blenders, it has a big capacity and stands out for its ice-crushing ability. It's a good blender for frozen drinks but struggles to blend fibrous ingredients, so recipes with leafy greens or fruit won't be completely smooth. Similar blenders with a faster blending speed, like the Ninja DUO, or more power, like the Ninja Mega Kitchen System, are better for that purpose. This blender has very limited speed settings compared to full-size blenders from other brands like the KitchenAid K150 or Vitamix Explorian E310.
If you're looking for more options, check out our recommendations for the best blenders for smoothies, the best blenders for ice crushing, and the best Ninja blenders.
The NutriBullet Blender Combo is better for smoothies than the Ninja Smart Screen. The NutriBullet comes with personal jars for blending single-serve drinks, and it's much better for processing fibrous ingredients, so kale smoothies come out silky-smooth. It can hot blend, so it's also a better choice for recipes like soup. It's quieter and easier to clean by hand. On the other hand, the Ninja can crush ice. It's also much better for making nut butter.
The Ninja Smart Screen and the Ninja Professional Plus Blender with Auto-iQ perform similarly, so you may prefer either. The biggest difference is that the Smart Screen is easier to use to process hard ingredients like nuts and makes a smoother nut butter. It also has a digital blending time indicator. On the other hand, the Professional is much quieter when it's running.
The Blendtec Classic 575 is a better blender than the Ninja Smart Screen for most uses. It makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients, it's easier to clean by hand, and it has a wider range of speed settings. However, the Ninja is much better for recipes like nut butter or hummus, which is a weakness of the Blendtec.
The Vitamix Explorian E310 is a better blender than the Ninja Smart Screen. The Vitamix has a better build quality, is easier to clean by hand, and makes a much smoother blend with fibrous ingredients like kale. On the other hand, the Ninja has the edge when it comes to crushing ice, and its main pitcher has a bigger capacity.
The Ninja Mega Kitchen System is better than the Ninja Smart Screen for most purposes. The Kitchen System makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients, so it's much better for making single servings as well as big batches of smoothies. It has more extras, like personal jars meant for smoothies and a food processing bowl. However, the Smart Screen has a few programs for automatic blending, and it makes better nut butter with less effort.
The Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-iQ is better than the Ninja Smart Screen for most purposes. The Kitchen System can make silkier smoothies with fibrous ingredients and is quieter when running. It also comes with extra accessories you might want, including personal jars for smoothies and a food processing bowl.
The Ninja DUO is a better blender than the Ninja Smart Screen. The DUO creates a much more enjoyable smoothie than the Smart Screen and has a micro-juicer attachment. On the other hand, the Smart Screen is much easier to clean and crushes ice better than the DUO.
The Ninja Foodi Power Pitcher SS201 is better than the Ninja Smart Screen for most purposes. The Foodi has a speed dial and a few preset modes, including a self-clean cycle and a crushed ice program. It makes smoother, more spreadable almond butter and better-blended smoothies. On the other hand, the Smart Screen is much easier to clean by hand.
Test Results
This blender is quite bulky. It has to be stored directly on your kitchen counter or in a very large cupboard. On the upside, you can easily just detach the main jar from the base and store them separately.
This Ninja blender, like most from this brand, is very well-built. Even though the base is made of plastic, it feels sturdy and solid. The jar might not feel as premium as some others found on Vitamix blenders, but it still feels rigid. Unfortunately, the contact point between the bottom of the jar and the transmission feels cheap.
The jar has a 62oz liquid capacity and a 72oz total capacity, so it's ideal for big batches.
The jar is made of plastic and is dishwasher-safe, along with the lid. It has a comfortable handle and a pouring spout. It's not a 2-part lid, so it has no removable center piece to add ingredients mid-blend. The jar must be correctly oriented on the motor base to fit into place.
The blade assembly has six sharp blades that spiral around a center column. The assembly is removable but very sharp, so you need to take care when handling it. This design is typical of Ninja blenders and prevents you from using a tamper.
The Ninja CT650's lid is annoying to set as it needs to be in a specific orientation to be locked. It also doesn't allow you to add any ingredients while mixing.
The power cord is long enough to reach nearby outlets, but there isn't any stowaway compartment to hide it if you're storing the blender, which can be annoying for some.
It's okay for processing small batches of fibrous ingredients. It takes a long time to process ingredients like kale. The final result isn't perfectly smooth, but the leftover grains are small and uniform in size. Ingredients also tend to splash up the sides of the jar when you're working with smaller batches, and you need to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the jar.
It's not good at processing fibrous ingredients at full capacity. Like most Ninja blenders, its top speed is quite slow, which makes it more difficult to blend fibrous ingredients like kale smoothly. The blade assembly also means that ingredients aren't pulled down into a vortex in the same way as most other blenders with blades at the bottom of the jar. Even if you blend for 10 minutes, the result is a disappointing, grainy puree.
This blender is outstanding for crushing ice. In seconds, it crushes a big batch of ice cubes into perfectly snow-like ice.
The Ninja Smart Screen is fantastic for nut butter. If you start at a low speed, it easily crushes nuts and does a good job of keeping the ingredients moving. You need to stop the machine about once to scrape the sides of the jar with a spoon or spatula, but otherwise, the blender does most of the work. The final result is very smooth, almost liquified nut butter.
It's loud for a blender, even compared to similar blenders with the same motor power, like the Ninja Professional Blender 1000. The noise when it's running quickly becomes irritating.
There are only two different speed presets, and there isn't a big difference between them. Both speeds are quite slow for a blender, which isn't ideal because faster speeds are better for smoothly blending fibrous fruits and vegetables.
This blender has four different blending programs, 'Smoothie', 'Frozen Drink', 'Puree', and 'Ice Cream', which are timed modes that stop the blender automatically at the end. When using both the High and Low speeds, you'll start a stopwatch that lets you know how long you've been blending. The stopwatch keeps counting up if you switch from low to high speed and vice versa, but it resets itself if you press the pulse button, which is inconvenient.
It's not easy to clean, mainly because the blades are so sharp. It's very easy to cut yourself while cleaning the blade assembly by hand, making the process tedious because you need to be so careful. The opening at the bottom of the blade assembly and the hole where it fits into the base of the jar can also trap residue, and it takes some effort to get these areas clean.