Babyzen YoYo Review by Best Buggy

This photoset shows the Babyzen Yoyo.

The Babyzen YoYo is an absolutely brilliant pushchair which folds down into the neatest smallest package we have ever seen – and we have had a lot of neat folding pushchairs!! As one of the Best Buggy Focus group exclaimed “I have bigger handbags than that!!”

The Babyzen YoYo HAS to be the ultimate pushchair for parents who travel!! Having travelled the world with children, my biggest nightmares were when I was left waiting for a pushchair to arrive at the baggage reclaim hall with a crawling heavy older baby. But the Babyzen YoYo is so small that it has been approved to fit into an overhead locker on an aeroplane!! No more having to carry a baby from the plane to the baggage reclaim hall! The Babyzen YoYo also only weighs 5.5kgs and comes with a carrying strap so that the YoYo can be slung over your shoulder when not required.

The Babyzen YoYo is not just about the amazing fold. We had a Recaro Babyzen recently, and we knew that Babyzen make sturdy, great quality pushchairs. So even without having seen the YoYo, we knew that this pushchair would not be flimsy….and believe me it is not! It is sturdy and strong. Babyzen make GOOD quality pushchairs!

Over the years we have had many small folding pushchairs including umbrella folds, a Quinny Zapp and Yezz, a Maxi Cosi Noa, a Lebruss Takeoff, a Safety 1st Surf, a Petite Zia and more. But every one of these pushchairs had some issue which meant it wasn’t quite right for us. But the Babyzen YoYo is absolutely perfect for a lightweight pushchair for our family.

Why is the Babyzen YoYo perfect for us?

First of all the chassis is solid – there is no “give” in the frame as you start to push as the Noa or Zia have. There is one handle, so there is no side to side give as umbrella fold pushchairs can have. There is a storage basket – yes its small – but as the other photoset shows, my largeish handbag easily fits into the rear part of the basket which still leaves space at the front for another smaller bag (my daughter’s swimming bag fits perfectly). Plus there is a tiny mesh pocket in the rear of the seat which is perfect for keys or a phone. We hung our J.L. Childress Maxi-Cool bag full of drinks happily from the handlebar with no fear of it tipping.

The seat itself is not tall, but our 25 month old looks fine in the seat. The seat is very wide, so I am sure an older child would be comfy as a holiday pushchair. There is a toggle recline – not a huge recline but good enough for a napping, over 6 month old. The handlebar is a really good height – on the tall side if anything – which is surprising given the small package this pushchair unfolds from. The handlebar is foam covered and is a nice shape. I am a little worried about how well this will last as the foam is a little soft, but what is lovely is that the handlebar doesn’t hit the ground when folding or unfolding.

There is a hood – a pretty decent sized hood for a small pushchair. There is a peekaboo window which offers a good view of a child. The harness so far seems good – we are not keen on the “jigsaw puzzle” type buckle. We had issues with the Recaro Babyzen harness being slippy and we had to constantly check that it was tight. This harness is made from a different sort of webbing and doesn’t slip. Hurray!

The manoeuverability is great – very good. The YoYo is a one handed push and easily weaves in and out of obstacles. It does not feel rickety as we have found the Bugaboo Bee to be - The YoYo is sturdy! Having just sent our Quinny Yezz back after it tipped when parked on a flat surface, one of our first tests was to see how “tippy” the YoYo was. Mr BB was unable to tip the YoYo and pronounced that he was happy that it was a good sturdy pushchair. We hung our J.L. Childress Maxi-Cool bag full of drinks happily from the handlebar with no fear of it tipping. The brake is a little small and fiddly – but it does the job once you have pushed it on.

The fold is what the YoYo is all about though! Not only is the fold small – but the actual folding mechanism is amazing!! First the handlebar needs folding down – there are two buttons on either side to press in, and the handlebar simply folds down. In videos the next step looks a little odd – underneath the pushchair is a button and a large red slider. Simply press the button in with one finger and then move the slider. Now at this point you need to let go of both the button and the slider which I have to say does feel odd and unnatural – but then you grasp the silver bar under the seat and the whole pushchair simply folds in your hand!! We have had the YoYo for a month and I still can’t quite comprehend that you dont need to do anything further than press a button, move a slider and then let go and pick the pushchair up into the air and it folds! There is an autolock once the fold has finished. There is a neat carrying strap and the YoYo also freestands neatly to store. The YoYo really is a travellers dream, and can be folded with baby tucked under one arm!

Opening is just as simple. There is a video link on Best Buggy where a man demoing the YoYo simply flicks the pushchair open in mid air. It really is as easy as that. Simply undo the autolock and pretty much flick the pushchair open. The handlebar opens and all you have to do is to set the YoYo down on its wheels, strap the child in and go!! Again definitely a one handed open!! I think this is probably the only pushchair I would attempt to take on the Tube in London!!

It may seem a small thing, but I even like that the handle can be folded down when not needed. Today we were at a toddler group in a confined space – it would have been easy to fold the YoYo, but we had coats, bags, drinks etc underneath, but I simply folded the handle down and all of a sudden the YoYo kind of disappeared in the corner of the room. We do the same in the nursery cloakroom at pick up time. It just gives the impression of not taking up much space (not that it does anyway but its perceptional!). I couldn’t get to move the YoYo out at the end of the session, but it was easy to simply lift the YoYo up open, over the obstacles because the handle was down. The YoYo has been fab for the school run where we are literally running from the car into nursery and back – easy to put up and down and the YoYo sits neatly in the back alongside any other pushchair we have in at the time (see the photo in the other set with the Micralite Toro in the boot).

We have used various objects – fabric conditioner, chair and the Baby Jogger City Mini to give an idea of size proportions. The fold is very small, but the pushchair is very much a full sized pushchair. In fact, the YoYo handle is higher than the City Mini handle.

We like that the hood and liner come separately from the main pushchair. This means that if you get bored of one colour, it would be easy to order a fabric pack in a different colour – or even to mix and match!

The Babyzen YoYo comes with a storage bag – not great quality but useful. The one feature that really does not work on the Babyzen YoYo is the raincover. Generally speaking we do not review raincovers because most do not fit well, but this one was so silly that it was worth a mention! I am not even sure I can call it a “raincover”. It is a sheet of plastic with some velcro tabs and a plastic rod in. The daft thing is that the plastic rod will not bend and it is long (see the photo in the other photoset) so there is absolutely nowhere on the YoYo to store it when not in use. When you try to use the “raincover” it simply will not stay on and to be honest is only fit for the bin. We are currently on a hunt for another raincover to find one which works so if you have any suggestions we would love to hear them! But its the one thing that someone at Babyzen really did not think about. The raincover for the YoYo really needs to be small and neat, and in an ideal world needs to velcro on in a pouch like the Micralite ones for when a suddent shower hits.

All round, we can not sing the praises of this awesome pushchair enough. It suits our family completely for those times when we don’t need a bigger pushchair.