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Chicco Nunù Review

The Chicco Nunù wins two awards on Best Buggy! First of all for having the most beautiful fabrics we have seen on a pushchair to date, and secondly for the number of parts which come in the box. The latter is a positive comment, because included in the price of the Nunù is absolutely everything you could possibly need for a pushchair for child from birth to three! There is the pushchair; the parts to make a pramette for a newborn; a footmuff; apron etc for each mode; a gorgeous changing bag and more! Due all the various parts that we have decided to write our review of the Chicco Nunù on this page, as it should be easier to explain everything with the photos in view.

Two boxes arrived. In the first box was the Chicco Nunù pushchair, and in the other was the matching Chicco Nunù Auto-Fix 0+ car seat with car seat base, which turns the Nunù into a useful travel system. Opening the Nunù pushchair box was really exciting because there were so many parts to explore.

Fabrics

The Nunù fabrics are stunning. We have the Cocoa colourway, (there is also Black), and although I am not a fan of brown, I love it!! The main pattern looks like silk with embroidery on and looks really luxurious. The other fabrics feel good quality and the footmuff has a lovely cream fleece interior, although we are not sure how long the cream would stay clean, with little feet being put in and out! We also like the black chassis a lot! Black always looks smart and it really off sets the fabrics well.

Pushchair Building!

The first thing we needed to do was to build the seat back on the Nunù chassis. This is the first time I have had to build a pushchair chassis, but given the box is plenty large enough, it is a shame that Chicco did not do this part for you. It’s not the easiest job and I did scratch my head a couple of times, especially as the written instructions are on a different page to the pictures. However, I managed it and felt chuffed with my accomplishment!  The seat fabric needs to go on whether the seat, pramette or car seat are used, but it was easy enough to put on. The hood went on next, and we had a pushchair that was ready to use. Yes, this did take a while to set up, but once done, then it doesn’t need doing again. One of the good parts about building a pushchair, is that should there be the need to wash the fabrics, you know how they all remove / fit back on!

One of the biggest things that struck me about the Nunù is exactly how much thought and attention to detail has gone into how the Nunù fits together.  For example, someone has really thought hard about how the footmuff, aprons etc. will fit, and all over the pushchair are hidden little loops to make them sit correctly and look good. Every time I thought there couldn’t be another button hole loop or velcro tab, there was! But it was bliss to have places to anchor the footmuff to so that it doesn’t slide off, and to keep the the carrycot apron ‘flap’ up or down.There are examples of good attention to detail like the arm flaps which hide the connectors for the car seat, or the way the footmuff can be used as a liner when warm. There are two different fabrics which zip onto the rear of the hood – depending on whether the Nunù is in carrycot or pushchair mode. Even the pretty rosette on the hood can be easily removed if it is not to your taste. There are also clips on the handlebar to hold the changing bag in place! Honestly, I was really, really surprised at how well thought out the details were, and I want to stress how brilliantly done the Nunù all pieces together.

Nunù Newborn Pramette

For the first six months, a baby can parent face in the Nunù pramette. The pramette is a fabric carrycot type space, which is easily slipped over the footrest and head end of the pushchair seat, and secured to the bumper bar with velcro tabs. The hood has to be moved forwards to the head end, and the fabric which normally hands behind the hood gets replaced with a different piece of fabric to give a neater finish. The pramette has its own beautiful apron which covers the baby. There is a choice of having the apron flap up or down, and there are good fixings to make this look neat. It did not take long at all to convert the pushchair into the pramette – a few minutes. Once this is done, the Nunù will fold with the pramette and apron in situ, so therefore the pramette should not need removing until the baby is 6 months old. Once the baby reaches 6 months old, the pramette is removed in seconds revealing the pushchair underneath. Should the baby grow out of the pramette before 6 months old, (it measures 72cms long), then the main seat unit lies completely flat, thus is suitable for a newborn baby. There is no harness in pramette mode, but slits in the pramette fabric allow the D rings to be pushed through, and a harness can then be added if required.

Nunù Pushchair Seat

The Nunù seat itself looks very comfortable. It is a large size seat with a tall back. However, as the photos of the skeleton Nunù show, there is little support in the seat frame for an older child. Our eldest child was forced to lean back a long way into the upper part of seat fabric and was not happy. She preferred sitting forwards and upright, where she could hold onto the bumper bar. There are two harness height settings – first of all a low setting for an under 6 month old baby, and a fairly high setting for an older child. However there are no settings in between. The crotch strap is also fixed at a relatively long length. This has caused us an issue with our 24 month old, who slipped down in the seat unit as we were out and about. There are also no harness pads or crotch pads. To be honest, these are issues which could be fairly easily sorted and would really make a difference to the Nunù.

The Nunù seat itself has 4 positions of recline from horizontal for a newborn, to upright. The recline is easily done one handed and it was no problem to recline even our heavy 3 year old.

There is an adjustable calf rest. There were two levers which lift the calf rest up or down. We found this useful when our youngest needed to nap.

We love the swing away bumper bar. Our 3 year old could easily climb in and out of the seat on her own so that I did not need to lift her! The bumper bar is padded and covered. The bumper bar can be easily removed, and the Nunù comes with two stoppers to put in the ends. The pushchair folds with the bumper bar left in place.

The hood essentially can be positioned anywhere above the pushchair – at the head or foot end or overhead. In parent facing pramette mode the hood needs to be repositioned over the footend. Thus the hood has a zip on both the front and the rear for the appropriate hood flap fabric to be attached on the correct side. The hood fabric can also be left off in summer to give a moveable sunshade for a child, and to allow air flow through. We love the rosette flower detail on the side of the hood. Its a lovely touch without being too girly. Mr BB liked that he could easily remove it!

Basket

The Chicco Nunù basket is a reasonable size. It is easy to attach with poppers and hooks, and thus would be easy to remove to wash. There is access to the basket through the sides and although I could push small individual items into the basket eg coats, purse etc, it would not be possible to push anything larger through eg a handbag. Rear access is not good. I have to say the Chicco Nunù would not be my first choice for shopping with.

Handles / Push

The Chicco Nunù has two handles. The handles are very adjustable – they both rotate around but also can tilt up or down. This in theory means that you should be able to find a position that suits your height, and the way that you prefer to push, which sounds brilliant. However in reality, the handles are really over engineered.

Most umbrella fold pushchairs have some side to side movement of the handles – however minimal – where the handles can be pushed towards each other. The Nunù is no exception. On top of this the handles rotate, so there is some ‘give’ in this functionality which means that the handles move slightly round even when locked. Then add to this that the handles move up and down, and this too has some slight movement even when fixed. So as you push, even with the handles locked in position, your arms / wrists are moving in and out, round and round, up and down all at the same time with the ‘give’ in all the directions. I have to say, we did not find this comfortable at all and it did make my wrists hurt. We even showed the handles to a pushchair designer, and they were surprised at the amount of movement. To be perfectly honest, having the adjustable handles is a great idea in theory, but by the end of our test period we would have done anything to swap for two fixed handles. We found that fixing the handles, so that they both pointed to the side, stopped the side to side movement, and lessened the effect of the other two movements, as we could brace our hands apart. It is such a shame because the handle movement really spoilt the Nunù down for us. If I could change one thing, then it would be the handles.

Wheels and Brake

The Nunù has 4 sets of 18cms double wheels. These give a smooth ride and we found that the Nunù steered well once we had mastered the handles! The front wheels are lockable swivel wheels. The brake is operated by depressing one of the buttons between both sets of rear wheels. The brake is easy to flick on or off.

Fold

One of the best elements of the Chicco Nunù is the fold. The Nunù is really a luxury umbrella fold pushchair. It takes seconds to fold – simply fold the hood away, pull up the siders on the top of each handle, and then flick up the button in the lower centre back of the pushchair (as you would with an umbrella fold pushchair). The pushchair will start to fold and there is a pull handle in the rear of the back to help complete the fold. The pushchair folds with a lovely click as the chassis locks into position. We absolutely love how the Nunù stands when folded – and best of all feels secure and sturdy when folded. The umbrella nature of the fold means that the Nunù gets narrower when folded, so this is a pushchair that will slide into any gap and will store nicely. It certainly was one of the easiest pushchairs we have had to store.

Opening the pushchair is really easy. Simply pull up the sliders on the side of the handlebars and the Nunù starts to unfold. Press down on the centre back handle until the chassis clicks into place and the Nunù is ready to go again!! The Nunù is a pushchair that I would certainly consider taking onto public transport with me as it is so easy to use, although it is a 2 handed fold and unfold.

Car Seat

The Chicco Nunù Auto-fix 0+ car seat is just as beautiful as the pushchair. The car seat uses the same fabrics as the main pushchair – gorgeous – and makes a lovely travel system! The best thing about the Nunù car seat is that there is no requirement for any car seat adaptors to seat it onto the pushchair chassis. Simply unpopper the fabric covering each arm of the pushchair seat. This reveals two red attachment points. Simply line the car seat up and drop it onto the chassis. This ‘Clik Clak’ system gives an audiable click so that it is clear the car seat is attached. A simple pull on the handle would confirm this. The only issue we found is that if you carry the baby to the pushchair with the handle upright, it is then not possible to attach the car seat. The handle needs to be moved back behind the car seat hood to click on. This makes putting the car seat a bit of a tricky manoeuvre, whether you leave the handle up and then adjust it on the chassis, or whether you carry the car seat holding it by the sides rather than by the handle.

We really liked that the pushchair hood could be drawn up to meet the car seat hood, thus cocooning the baby inside on a cold or windy day. Removing the car seat just required a squeeze of the handle on the rear of the car seat to release the attachment. It is easy to slightly release the car seat, and then lift the car seat handle up before carrying the seat away from the chassis.

An added bonus of the Chicco Nunù Auto-fix car seat is that it comes with a base for the car seat for use in the car. This base would have been fab for us when our youngest was small because there is no support leg to it. This means that this car seat may fit well in smaller cars or ones with restricted rear leg space. The base gets strapped in using the horizontal part of the car seat belt and the long diagonal part then goes around the car seat. Whilst this is not as easy as some bases, where the adult seat belt is used to secure the base in only (and then the car seat simply drops on top), there is no requirement for the seat belt to be undone each time to remove the seat. Simply slip the belt off the rear of the car seat and pull the seat out. To secure, simply refit the diagonal part of the adult belt and tighten up. The car seat can also be used without the base, and there is also an ISOFIX base option too.

The Chicco Nunù Auto-fix car seat is suitable from babies from birth to 13kgs in weight. The car seat itself weighs 4.3kgs. The car seat fits rear facing in the car. The car seat comes with a special newborn insert to flatten out the seat for a newborn baby, but it also has a special circular headrest to cradle a newborn babies head and try to prevent the risk of a baby getting a flat head. It was a bit of a challenge fitting the shoulder pads through the strap holes but we did it! The shoulder pads did feel a little hard for a young baby.

There is one big down side to the Clik-Clak system and that is that the car seat can not be used at the same time as the pramette. The pramette fabric covers the Clik-Clak attachments on the pushchair handlebars. There is no way you can realistically just undo part of the fabric – therefore the most of the pramette fabric needs removing. So you have the choice of whether to not use the pramette fabric and simply lie a newborn on the pushchair seat if you need to use the car seat, or else you constantly convert between the pramette and car seat modes. But to be honest, the pramette conversion takes several minutes and is impractical to do if you need to constantly switch between modes. It seems a bit of an oversight to have the Clik-Clak connectors hidden by the pramette fabric, when the pramette mode is the time you are most likely to want to use the car seat on the pushchair.

Accessories

As mentioned at the beginning, the Chicco Nunù comes with various accessories. There is a gorgeous matching footmuff with lovely fleece lining. The top of the footmuff zips off leaving the cream coloured liner. We love how the liner / footmuff secures at the top of the seat unit with velcro tabs, and how there is a choice of how the front of the footmuff goes ie over or under the bumper bar, and there are places to secure the footmuff top with buttons.

The Nunù changing bag is made of the same gorgeous embroidered fabric as the main pushchair. There is a flap at the front which when opened reveals a zipped large section for all your bits and pieces. There are no pockets inside which would have been useful. Under the flap at the rear is a changing mat. The Nunù pushchair has an absolutely brilliant detail for the changing bag – it has a clip on each handle which secures the changing bag to stop it sliding down the handle. We like these clips a lot!

The Chicco Nunù comes with a raincover, but its not the best one we have ever used.

In Conclusion

The Chicco Nunù takes the lightweight umbrella fold stroller and transforms it into a luxury, quality feeling pushchair suitable from birth to three. More than that, the pramette conversion kit, plus the matching car seat, gives three great options for a newborn baby; although the pramette mode and car seat can not be used easily in conjunction with each other. We love the fabrics that all the matching accessories are included in the price. The easy and neat fold is great and makes this pushchair easy to store or put in the car. We really do not like the movement in the handles, and for us this really spoilt the experience of using the Chicco Nunù as we found it uncomfortable to push. We would also like more support in the upper part of the pushchair seat for an older child, and more harness adjustment options for a younger toddler. All round the Chicco Nunù offers great value for money.

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