By Paul Kendrick, Cardio & Endurance Editor · Updated 23 September 2026
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YOSUDA makes some of the most popular budget rowers on Amazon UK, and its folding cross trainer follows the same formula: a compact steel frame, magnetic resistance, a simple display and a price well under £300. At £275.99 it's £74 cheaper than the pooboo folding elliptical we reviewed last week, and the pitch is almost entirely about space. YOSUDA says it folds in three steps to about 2 square feet.
That's the reason to buy it. Everything else about the machine is a compromise made to hit that footprint, and the biggest one sits in YOSUDA's own listing, which says the 38cm stride is "ideally suited" to users up to 175cm tall.
How we review
This review is built from YOSUDA's Amazon UK listing and specifications and direct comparison with the folding and full-size cross trainers we've already reviewed. Where the listing makes a claim we can't square with how these machines work, we say so.
Shorter users in small homes. If you're under about 5ft 9in, live in a flat, and the only way a cross trainer gets in the door is if it disappears between sessions, the YOSUDA does that job at a fair price. Anyone taller, or anyone with a permanent spot for a machine, should buy a longer stride.
Check price on Amazon£275.99A cross trainer's stride length decides whether it feels like walking or shuffling, and 38cm is short. Full-size home machines tend to sit around 45 to 50cm, and even the folding pooboo manages 39cm. With a short stride your hips don't extend as far, so the glutes do less and the quads do more, and taller users end up taking choppy little steps that are tiring for the wrong reasons.
YOSUDA's honesty about the 175cm limit is worth crediting. Plenty of listings claim a short-stride machine suits everyone up to 6ft 5in. This one doesn't, and we'd treat 5ft 9in as a firm line rather than a suggestion.
Sixteen magnetic levels on a 5.5kg flywheel give a decent range for a machine this size. The catch with a lighter flywheel is momentum: the motion is smooth at a steady cadence but feels less fluid when you slow down or change pace than it does on machines with an 8kg-plus flywheel.
On noise, YOSUDA claims "under 25 dB". That's roughly a whisper, and we don't believe any moving cardio machine hits it in a living room. What's true is that magnetic resistance makes it much quieter than older friction or air machines. Expect a soft whirr from the flywheel rather than silence, which is fine for a flat with neighbours below.
| Resistance | Magnetic, 16 manual levels |
|---|---|
| Flywheel | 5.5kg, perimeter weighted |
| Stride length | 38cm |
| Recommended user height | Up to 175cm (manufacturer guidance) |
| Folded footprint | About 2 sq ft (0.19 sq m) |
| Display | Time, speed, distance, heart rate, calories |
| Frame | Steel, adjustable levelling feet |
| Transport | Integrated wheels |
| Max user weight | Not stated in listing bullets |
| Price | £275.99 on Amazon UK |
Low impact is the real argument. Your feet never leave the pedals, and research on elliptical trainer parameters found the foot carried roughly 70 to 81 percent of body weight even at higher settings (study on elliptical trainer parameters), where running loads each landing with a multiple of it. For anyone with sore knees or a lot of weight to lose, that matters more than stride length does.
It also makes the NHS target easy to reach. The guidance is 150 minutes of moderate activity a week (NHS physical activity guidelines), and five 30 minute sessions on a machine that lives in the corner of the lounge is about as low-friction as exercise gets. Our cross trainer workout guide has sessions to follow, and if you're still deciding between machine types, we compare them in elliptical versus treadmill.
The pooboo foldable cross trainer is the direct rival. It costs more, but its 7.3kg flywheel carries more momentum and the stride is a centimetre longer. If you're near the 175cm line, spend the extra.
If you don't need to fold it away, the Aeriflo M100 gives you a 42cm stride and an 8kg flywheel, and it's a better machine to use every day. The full field is ranked in our best cross trainer UK guide.
Check price on Amazon£275.99YOSUDA says it folds in three steps to roughly 2 square feet of floor space, which is about 0.19 square metres, and it has transport wheels on the front for rolling it away. Unfolded, you still need room for the full stride and the moving handles, so measure the space you'll train in, not just where you'll store it.
YOSUDA's own listing says the 38cm stride is ideally suited to users up to 175cm, which is about 5ft 9in. Taller users will find the stride feels clipped, and we'd take the manufacturer at its word here rather than hope it stretches.
The Amazon UK listing doesn't state a maximum user weight in its bullet points or title. Check the product specification table on the listing, or ask the seller through Amazon, before buying if you're over about 100kg.
We doubt it. 25 dB is roughly the level of rustling leaves or a whisper, and no machine with a moving flywheel, pedals and handles measures that in a real room. It is a magnetic design, which is genuinely quiet, so expect a soft whirr rather than silence.
The listing describes a display tracking time, speed, distance, heart rate and calories but doesn't mention a mains adapter, and the resistance is adjusted manually. Budget folding ellipticals of this type usually run the console on batteries, so check the listing's specification table if socket position matters in your room.
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