Ninja Professional Plus BN701 Review: How Much Blender Does $100 Buy?

Ask what $100 buys in a full-size blender and the Ninja Professional Plus BN701 is the honest benchmark. It's the model reviewers and America's Test Kitchen keep naming among the best full-size blenders under $100 — not because it does everything, but because it does the things budget shoppers actually want, and does them hard.

What $100 gets you

The draw is muscle. A 1,400-peak-watt motor and a stacked six-blade Total Crushing tower turn a full tray of ice into snow in seconds — TechGearLab clocked crushed ice in about 60 seconds and a smooth margarita in roughly two minutes — which is why it's a go-to for frozen drinks and family-size batches. The 72-ounce pitcher (64 ounces of usable liquid) is the biggest in its price class, and three Auto-iQ presets (Smoothies, Frozen Drinks, Ice Cream) run timed pulse-and-blend patterns so you press once instead of babysitting a dial. Pitcher, lid, and blades are all dishwasher-safe.

Where the budget shows

The stacked blade tower is optimized for ice, and it shows its limits on the precise jobs: it pulls fibrous greens and thick mixes toward the center less efficiently, so kale smoothies and oats can finish slightly gritty, and nut butter takes patience. It can't heat soup, it's loud (around 95 dB), and at 17.5 inches tall it may not fit under upper cabinets. The warranty is a modest one year. None of that is a dealbreaker for the price — it's just the shape of the compromise.

Who should buy it

Get the BN701 if you want real full-size capacity and strong ice-crushing for frozen drinks and family smoothies on about a $100 budget. Look elsewhere if you mainly make silky green smoothies or nut butter, need hot soup, or want a quiet, compact machine.

How it stacks up

The most useful comparison is within the brand: Ninja BN701 vs Ninja Detect Power Blender Pro asks whether the smarter, more powerful Ninja is worth about $80 more — the answer depends entirely on whether you'll use greens, thick blends, and the auto-sensing dial, or just want to crush ice for cheap.

This assessment reflects manufacturer specifications and independent-review consensus (Tom's Guide and TechGearLab among them), not hands-on lab testing — how PickGrade works. For more budget context, see best blender under $200 and best blender for ice and frozen drinks, or take the blender quiz.

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