EDITOR’S NOTE
The Minu v2 is the newly-release update to the original Minu. It comes in 5 fresh new colors and now has a leather-bound bumper bar and a larger, deeper storage basket.
Innovative Uppababy has been making savvy and chic strollers for a while now. They’ve added a new stroller to their lineup and boy, is it something. The sophisticated and classy Uppababy Minu V2 stroller is lightweight and compact. It’s smaller-ish than others on the market with a quick and tight folding feature that really sets it apart. Although it costs a pretty penny, there’s so much to love about the Uppababy Minu.
The Standard Stroller
Let’s talk first about the default for this stroller, which is the mode with the toddler seat.
When Your Kid Can Use It
The first thing worth mentioning about this stroller seat is the weight and height limits. This stroller will accommodate a baby who weighs 14 pounds, and will keep supporting that kid until they reach 50 pounds.
The seat is 13 inches wide, the seat back is 18 inches tall and there’s 25 inches of clearance from the top of the canopy to the bottom of the seat. That leaves a whole lot of room for a pretty big kid. I’m thinking that it could easily fit a kiddo up until age 4.
But, the one downside is that your kiddo can’t start using this seat until they’re 14 pounds, which for most babies is at about the 3-month mark.
Now, this makes sense, because you probably don’t want to strap your brand-new and tiny newborn in anyways. But it is a bit of a bummer because you can’t start using this stroller when your baby is born unless you buy the bassinet kit or the car seat adapter. More on that below.
Swift and Solid Fold
I already mentioned that the folding mechanism is what makes this stroller unique. And when you see it, you’re going to be like, why didn’t someone think of this before?! Because this stroller doesn’t just fold in half. It folds in half, and then it folds again. It folds in thirds, if you will.
Why is this so amazing? Well, first of all it’s cool because you can actually do it with one hand. The lock that gets this puppy to fold is in the handle. You just squeeze the lever and move it over, and then you push forward and down until the stroller is all folded up.
This sounds super easy, and it is. But it takes some coordination to do. And you definitely need practice before you can do it as quickly and easily as the lady in the demo video. You’ll probably curse out the lever because you can’t squeeze it and then you won’t be able to push it to the right angle to get it to fold. But it gets easier, I promise!
The other reason that it’s so amazing is that once this thing is folded, it’s the ULTIMATE travel stroller. The folded dimensions are 20.5 inches by 23 inches by 11.5 inches. It is like a big backpack. And it can stand up all on its own.
The fact that it only weighs 14.5 pounds means it’s easy to haul around. Add in the carrying handle, attached shoulder strap, and the protective covering bag with drawstring closure, and you can have this stroller on your shoulder and be running around after your kid with zero issues and two free hands.
You can check out another great UPPABABY stroller in our Best Umbrella Stroller article. It’s not as sleek when folded, but it’s still a fantastic option. Check it out for sure!
To open it back up? Just pop the easy-to-find grey lever to unlock the stroller, and pull the handle up to pop the whole stroller up. Just pretend you are unveiling a magic trick, and you will pop that stroller open in no time. Advanced version: do it one-armed while holding your child. I have proven that it can be done.
This is my dream stroller for taking to the airport. It can fit in an overhead compartment!! No more using a crappy umbrella stroller because it’s the only thing I can carry. Plus it gives me the best of a light stroller and a regular stroller, like being easy to carry and having storage and space for my kid. Yay!
See why the Minu is a great stroller for 4-year-olds (or 3-year-olds!) in our toddler stroller article.
The First Three Months
You are totally jazzed for this stroller right? But what about using it during the first three months?
From Birth Kit
This sounds like something they would give you during a prenatal appointment. But it’s actually what they call the bassinet attachment that you can use with the Minu. You remove the toddler seat, attach this pricey From Birth Kit, and voila! You’ve got a newborn-friendly stroller.
This flat bassinet is designed for babies up to 20 pounds. It has its very own canopy that is generously sized. It has a nice high and wide arch with some well-placed ventilation pockets. It even has an extra sunshade that stores on the underside of the canopy and pops out when you need it. You can use the sunshade together with the canopy to cover the whole bassinet.
If you want even more coverage for the bassinet, you can use the zip-on cover to totally enclose the baby’s little nest. I live in a cold and snowy state, so I love this feature for those freezing winter months when you still need a stroller to go some places.
The From Birth Kit also includes a mattress pad to go inside. It’s covered in a removable sheet that’s made from a lovely fleece-knit material. It’s super soft and totally washable.
And to keep baby from sliding and rolling around within this cozy compartment, there’s a 5-point padded safety harness to keep baby safely in place.
This bassinet is great, but it gets better. The Minu stroller still folds up with the bassinet attached! There is a little clip with a strap that helps keep it all in place when folding.
The only downside here is that this system doesn’t always work so well. There’s a lot of fabric and, well, stuff to fold when you have the bassinet attached. So it takes extra practice and some extra encouragement to get the compact fold when the From Birth Kit is attached.
The Minu Travel System
Okay, so that’s not what it’s called. But that’s essentially what it becomes. There’s a lovely and inexpensive little adapter that allows you to attach the Mesa car seat. There is also an up-and-coming adapter that will work with the much-loved Maxi Cosi car seat.
One important note here is that the car seat adapter only works on the stroller frame, so you have to remove the seat to use it that way. But the good news is that it’s such a lightweight system when you use it this way! It makes traveling with your infant a breeze.
It also means that you can use the stroller for basically every age, from a newborn in the car seat to a baby in the bassinet, to a toddler in the stroller. I love the multi-use design!
Fancy Features, Fabulous Design
The Minu is a very attractive stroller, and it comes with some high-end finishes to give it the ultimate in parent style and function.
Here are the best of the best features:
- 4 fantastic colors, all of which are gender-neutral and very trendy.
- A non-adjustable handle that sits 41 inches off the ground, so it works well for parents of most heights (aka me). My husband is just about 6 foot, and he said that it was a bit low for his taste. But the handlebar is covered in soft and durable leather, so you can be fancy no matter how tall you are.
- A very large and wide canopy, complete with SPF 50+ and a peek-a-boo window with a mesh ventilation system for those hot and sweaty months. Need to close the window? It closes with a magnet, so you don’t have to worry about velcro making too much noise or collecting too much lint and not sticking. My favorite part of the canopy is the pop-out sun shade, which hides on the underside of the regular canopy and can come out for extra protection when needed.
- A great 5-point safety harness. It is easy to get buckled and has one-handed unbuckling. Although it’s made from a thinner plastic and my inner old lady is worried about durability, it’s softly padded and seems like it should hold up okay.
- A big storage pocket on the back for parent stuff. This little beauty hangs right under the handlebars and behind the child’s backrest. It’s a good size, and it almost makes up for the fact that there’s no child snack tray or parent organizer tray.
- A comfy, padded seat with one-handed recline. You will need two hands to put the reclined seat back up, though. It has a good range of motion and lies back to like 30 degrees, but not totally flat.
- A bottom storage basket that holds up to 20 pounds. You can get to this basket from the bottom back or under the child’s feet in the front for easy access. However, I don’t like that it’s not a deep basket. It’s more of a bottom shelf with sides, so I feel like stuff may fall out from time to time.
- All-wheel suspension with front swivel wheels. Even though the wheels are on the smaller side, they do a good job tackling most flat surfaces, even if they’re really textured, like brick.
- My favorite braking system! There’s a green tab on one back wheel, and a red tab on the other. Pressing once on the red tab locks both back wheels, while the green tab unlocks both. Linked brakes that are easy to identify? Yes!
All these features landed the Minu on our list of top lightweight stroller options.
Pros
- Holds kid up to 50 pounds
- Really lightweight
- Easy to fold and folds up very small
- From Birth Kit and car seat adapter add more usability (can even fold with the bassinet attached!)
- High-quality touches, like color-coded, linked brakes and a leather handlebar
Cons
- Expensive! And the From Birth Kit adds quite a bit to the price, too!
- Need adapter kit to use stroller before baby is 3 months
- Tough to fold the stroller with the bassinet attached
- Not a ton of storage, and stuff falls out of the big storage basket
Final Recommendation
I really like the Uppababy Minu V2 Stroller! It’s fancy enough for me to feel like a parent who is on her A-game.
It is a lot lighter than other strollers, and don’t even get me started on the compactness of that fantastic fold.
I like that you can use the From Birth Kit with the really nice bassinet for those first 3 months, I just wish it didn’t add so much to the already really high price. And I wish it folded better with that bassinet on, but I’m just happy that it can even do that.
It has the potential to be a great travel system, especially if you already have an Uppababy car seat that you really love.
All the other touches, like the leather handlebar, the huge canopy with magnetic and vented peek-a-boo window and pop-out sunshade, are great. It has good suspension and a rockin’ braking system.
It only scores a C+ on storage. It does have some, so I can’t flunk it in this category. But no drink holders, only one big pocket and one big basket that’s too shallow for my tastes give it a lower score. Oh well, there’s still more storage than most lightweight strollers have!
In the end, if you have the money, this is a fantastic stroller, especially for someone who travels a lot. It’s the ultimate airport stroller!
