Vitamix makes the best blenders. Period. End of story. We know that from years of testing dozens of blenders from different companies, during which time the brand’s tried-and-true 5200 model has maintained a multi-year reign as our favorite blender. But the 5200 is far from the only blender in Vitamix’s arsenal. The Vita-verse has several different series: the legacy series (powerful but straightforward blenders like the 5200), the Explorian series (less powerful, less expensive), the Propel series (basically Legacy blenders with presets), and the Ascent series (techy, Wi-Fi enabled blenders). Now there’s a new addition, the Ascent X series.
Like most of Vitamix’s other high-performance blenders, the Ascent X Series touts a 2.2-peak horsepower. It also has a whopping 10 presets, designed to allow a user to put all their ingredients into the container, press a button, and let the machine work its magic.
The X line includes four different models—the X2, X3, X4, and X5—with more presets and features as you go up in model number (and in price). The X5 includes the largest number of blending programs, a notification for tamping, and a button that adds an extra 15 seconds to any blend that seems inspired by Breville’s well-known “A Bit More” button. So are those upgrades worth the extra cash? We tried out the Ascent X5 to find out.
The Ascent X5 at a glance
The X series is feature-laden, but it’s not bigger than other high end Vitamix models. The X line favors the smaller 48-ounce container as opposed to the original Ascent’s wide 64-ounce blender pitcher. The actual interface also looks a little different. Where the Ascent had physical preset buttons and a knob to control the various power settings, the X mostly uses the knob to scroll through the various presets. There are additional buttons for the self-clean function and to add 15 more seconds to any run times. Other features include an alert telling you when it’s time to tamp and a tamper holder so you always have it on hand.
How the Ascent X5 performed
To figure out whether the slew of new programs and features were worth investing in, I put the Ascent X5 up against Vitamix’s A3500, essentially the brand’s previous high-end tech-forward blender from the Ascent series. The main differences between the two are in the number presets, 5 for the A3500, 10 for the X5. The main focus of my testing was determining whether the presets on the X5 outperformed similar ones on the A3500 and if the new presets on the X5 could perform tasks the A3500 couldn’t. I made a frozen fruit margarita, leafy kale smoothie, frappé, hazelnut butter, almond milk, and ground spices in both blenders, using either the presets each machine had or trying my best to mimic them on the A3500 in the case that it lacked a specific setting for the task.
