The nutribullet Flex is a cordless portable blender for making single-serve smoothies on the go. It comes with a 22-ounce jar, a USB-C rechargeable battery, and a sip lid with a carrying loop for easy transport. The blender features LED indicators that show battery level and blending status, along with simple one-button operation for 30-second blending cycles.
This blender is available in a variety of colors. See the Differences Between Sizes and Variants section for more details.
Our Verdict
The nutribullet Flex isn't a good multi-purpose blender. As a portable blender, it's designed for making single-serve smoothies on the go, yet even that task yields mediocre results. For everything else, it struggles. It can't handle hot ingredients, so soup is off the table. Ice crushing is inconsistent and chunky. Thicker blends like nut butter take a long time, yield poor, lumpy results, and tend to overheat the motor. The 15-ounce blending capacity and short battery life mean you're constantly working around its limitations.
Easy to clean.
Can't hot blend.
Makes inconsistent crushed ice.
Small, 15-ounce blending capacity.
Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
The nutribullet Flex makes acceptable single-serve smoothies. You'll get a drinkable smoothie, but it takes more work than it should. The texture comes out grainy with visible chunks of leafy greens even after six blending cycles. The bigger issue is how much babysitting it needs. You'll have to stop and scrape down the sides multiple times. If you're trying to make a quick smoothie at work or the gym, this blender makes it a hassle, which is unfortunate since personal blenders should excel at this task.
Easy to clean.
Compact, lightweight design.
Makes inconsistent crushed ice.
Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
The nutribullet Flex is a poor choice for making multiple servings of smoothies. To be fair, portable blenders aren't really designed for batch blending, but if you're hoping to make smoothies for two people, it's not a good choice. The battery only lasts about 4.5 blending cycles before it dies, which isn't enough time to process a full batch properly. The end result is chunky and grainy, with visible bits of leafy greens throughout. You'll also spend a lot of time stopping to scrape down the sides.
Easy to clean.
Makes inconsistent crushed ice.
Small, 15-ounce blending capacity.
Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
The nutribullet Flex portable blender isn't suitable for crushing ice. The results are inconsistent; you'll get some snow-like crushed ice mixed with barely processed cubes. The process also takes a lot of effort. You'll need to stop repeatedly to shake the jar and reposition ice cubes so they're actually near the blades. Even after all that work, the texture still isn't good enough for most frozen drinks.
Makes inconsistent crushed ice.
Small, 15-ounce blending capacity.
The nutribullet Flex isn't suitable for making soups. It can't heat ingredients or blend hot ingredients, so it's only capable of making cold soups or pureeing ingredients that you'll heat up later. Even if you're just trying to puree cold soup ingredients, the battery dies too quickly to handle tougher vegetables, and the motor overheats easily. The grainy texture you get from fibrous ingredients means your soup won't be smooth. The small 15-ounce blending capacity also limits how much you can make. If you want to make soups, consider a full-sized or immersion blender.
Easy to clean.
Can't hot blend.
Small, 15-ounce blending capacity.
Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
The nutribullet Flex is a portable blender for personal use, not commercial settings. The 15-ounce blending capacity is way too small for blending drinks in large volumes. You'd need to make each order individually. The battery limitations make this even worse for professional environments. It can't operate for very long, and the motor overheats if you push it too hard. If you're looking for a blender for any kind of business or high-volume use, you need a high-end full-size blender with more power and capacity.
Easy to clean.
Can't hot blend.
Makes inconsistent crushed ice.
Small, 15-ounce blending capacity.
Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The nutribullet Flex comes in six colors: 'Gunmetal Gray,' 'Sapphire Blue,' 'Forest Green,' 'Ruby Red,' 'Orchid Purple,' and 'Violet Purple.' We bought and tested the 'Orchid Purple' version. Here's a picture of our unit's label.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Blender Comparisons
There are lots of portable blenders on the market, and the nutribullet Flex doesn't manage to stand out. Models like the Ninja Blast and the nutribullet Flip produce smoother results with less effort and handle fibrous ingredients better. The Flex requires constant stopping and scraping, and the battery dies before you can get good results. The one area where the Flex excels is cleaning. The removable blade assembly makes it significantly easier to clean than portable blenders with fixed blades. It's also quieter than most other models, making it ideal if you don't want to disturb others at the gym or office. However, when it comes to actually making high-quality smoothies, you can find many better mid-range and even budget models available.
For more recommendations, check out the best portable blenders, the best bullet blenders, and the best personal blenders.
The Ninja Blast Max BC251 is significantly better than the nutribullet Flex overall, but the Flex does have some advantages. Get the Ninja if you often make single-serve smoothies or crush ice for drinks; it excels in these categories and will produce much smoother drinks and finer ice. Consider the nutribullet if ease of use is your primary concern. It's much quieter and features removable blades that make it easier to clean, which is a rare addition for personal blenders.
The Ninja Blast performs significantly better than the nutribullet Flex for most purposes. Both blenders are designed for making single-serve smoothies on the go, and the Blast produces a smoother blend with less effort. It's also more lightweight and has a better build quality. However, the Flex has a bigger jar that detaches from the base, allowing you to blend larger smoothies to take on the go.
The nutribullet Flip is significantly better than the nutribullet Flex when it comes to making single-serve smoothies. It produces silky smooth blends of fruit and kale, whereas the Flex leaves visible bits of greens behind. However, the Flex is quieter and has the edge when it comes to ease of cleaning, due to its removable blades.
The nutribullet Flex and the nutribullet Portable offer similar overall performance, with each model having its own strengths. The Portable is slightly lighter and has a superior build quality. It fares much better when blending large quantities of ingredients and produces higher-quality crushed ice. The Flex, on the other hand, has a larger capacity and is much easier to clean because of its removable blades. It's also significantly quieter.
Test Results
The nutribullet Flex is a small, lightweight portable blender. It's taller and slimmer than the nutribullet Flip, with similar dimensions to the nutribullet Portable.
The nutribullet Flex feels well-built, which isn't a given for portable blenders. The motor base, jar, and lid are mostly plastic, but the overall construction feels solid. It features metal blades, rubber motor gears, and a rubber foot to keep the base stable while you're blending. The motor base features an LED ring around the power button for status indicators and four LED lights showing battery level.
There's one notable issue: the jar locks into the base too easily, which makes it feel unstable when you’re using it. This design prevents you from unscrewing the blade assembly when removing the jar, but the tradeoff is less security during blending. During testing, it unlocked several times accidentally. You can see how this mechanism compares to that of other portable blenders in this video.
The jar has a 22-ounce total capacity, with a fill line at 15.2 ounces (450 mL), which is identical to the nutribullet Flip.
The jar and lid are both dishwasher-safe.
This model features a removable blade assembly, which is rare for portable blenders and makes cleaning much easier.
The lid is well-designed and screws on securely. It has a spring-tensioned cover that flips out to reveal a drinking spout.
The nutribullet Flex portable blender comes with a USB-A to USB-C charging cable.
- Motor base
- 22-ounce jar
- Sip lid
- Detachable blade assembly
- USB-A to USB-C charging cable
- Manuals
This blender struggles with small batches of fibrous ingredients. The process itself is frustrating. It takes over two minutes and six blending cycles, and you have to stop and scrape down the sides multiple times. Even then, the results are just okay. The texture is somewhat homogeneous but is still grainy with visible chunks.
Worse still, the motor tends to overheat during prolonged blending sessions, quickly depleting the battery and becoming inoperable. After it shut off, we couldn't charge it again for about 30 minutes. To be fair, nutribullet's manual warns against extended blending, though the warnings are inconsistent. One section says not to exceed one minute total, while another allows for four 30-second cycles within three minutes. The blender has a thermal breaker that shuts it down when it overheats.
This blender fares poorly with full batches of fibrous ingredients. It can manage about 4.5 blending cycles with a full batch before the battery dies, which isn't as many as when you blend smaller batches. The final product is mediocre, with a chunky, grainy texture.
On top of that, the blending process is messy and frustrating. You'll need to stop several times to scrape down the sides, but it barely helps. The ingredients just shoot right back up when you start blending again. During one cycle, the jar came slightly loose from the base while the blender was running because it doesn't attach securely.
This blender isn't suitable for crushing ice, which is true of many portable blenders. The results are all over the place; you get some snow-like crushed ice mixed in with barely processed cubes. It's chunky and inconsistent, with small unprocessed bits throughout.
Getting even these mediocre results takes a lot of work. You'll need to stop and intervene constantly, shaking the jar vigorously and repositioning ice cubes to get them near the blades.
This blender isn't suitable for making nut butter, which is typical for portable blenders. It takes over 10 minutes and struggles to handle two cups of nuts at a time. The motor overheats, and the battery dies before you can finish processing even a small batch. The resulting texture features a mixture of chopped nuts, partially processed nuts, and some smooth, oily butter.
The process is riddled with problems. The blades get stuck, and the loose jar lock causes issues; the jar unscrews slightly during blending, and you have to stop frequently to reattach it.
This model is very quiet for a blender, outperforming most of the other portable blenders we've tested.
Like most portable blenders, it has a single, fast blending speed.
This blender has simple controls with a single power button. Pressing it starts a 30-second blending cycle at one speed. There are also four LED lights that display the battery level. If you want to pulse, you can press the power button and manually stop it before the 30-second cycle ends.
The power button features an LED ring that lights up in different colors and patterns to indicate the blender's status:
- Off: No power
- White clockwise animation, then two flashes: Blade block properly locked
- Orange blinks three times: Blade block improperly attached or misaligned
- Solid white: Blender is awake and ready
- White clockwise animation during use: Blending in progress (30-second cycle)
- White counter-clockwise animation: Going to sleep after 90 seconds of inactivity
- Red flashes three times, then solid red: Motor overheated (let it cool before using again)
- Orange blinks six times: General error (blade obstruction or cup not attached properly)
The nutribullet Flex is easier to clean than most portable blenders because of its removable blade assembly. Being able to detach the blades allows you to clean the jar without having to navigate around sharp blades in a narrow container. It's still somewhat tricky to clean directly under the blades themselves, and the lid spout tends to collect food when preparing thicker blends like nut butter, but it isn't hard to clean. You do need to remove the gasket in the lid for thorough cleaning, which adds a bit of extra work. Overall, though, this blender is much more manageable to clean than portable models with permanently attached blades.