SQUATZ Apollo Board Mini Review (2026) | Foldable Home Gym Cable Machine UK
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Most "compact home gym" claims fall apart the moment you actually try to store the thing. This one doesn't. The SQUATZ Apollo Board Mini — a portable cable machine built for small apartment gyms — folds down to roughly the size of a large suitcase, per SQUATZ's own published measurements: 20.5″ x 17.5″ x 7.5″ (roughly 52 x 45 x 19cm) folded. It slides under a bed or into the back of a wardrobe, yet unfolded it gives you a full cable-based strength system: squats, presses, rows, curls, core work, the lot, from a single board.
For a London flat with no spare room, that's the entire pitch. No permanent footprint, no dedicated "gym corner," no rack you have to build a room around. You unfold it, do the session, fold it away, and get your floor back.
What It Actually Is
Strip away the branding and this is a resistance-cable functional trainer: a low, flat board with a smart cable pulley system built in, plus a bar, handles, ankle straps and a waist belt so you can run pretty much any pulling, pressing, or rotational movement through it. Resistance runs from 8lb up to 150lb, adjusted digitally rather than by swapping plates, and the whole unit is metal-built rather than the moulded-plastic feel a lot of budget "compact gyms" have. It also isn't limited to one type of resistance — the board offers five training modes (Standard, Eccentric, Isokinetic, Elastic and Rowing), so it's not just a one-note cable pull.
Resistance range 8–150lb across five training modes, adjusted through the FITZ by SQUATZ app rather than manually — useful if two people with very different strength levels are sharing it, or if you want more than a straight concentric pull.
Folds to roughly 52 x 45 x 19cm (unfolded: approximately 112 x 45 x 13cm), per SQUATZ's published specs — genuinely under-bed sized, not just "compact" by home-gym-industry standards. Worth double-checking your own under-bed clearance before buying.
Item weight around 20kg (45lb), confirmed on the Amazon UK listing — solid enough to feel stable under load, though that also means it's not something you're casually carrying up and down stairs daily.
No mandatory subscription — the FITZ by SQUATZ app comes with workout programmes and auto-logs sessions at no extra cost. At time of writing all app features are free, though that's worth reconfirming before you buy in case it changes.
Includes the full accessory kit — resistance bar, two handles, waist belt, ankle straps and connecting buckles, so you're not immediately back on Amazon buying add-ons to make it usable.
Manufacturer's warranty — SQUATZ backs the board, though we've seen the term quoted differently in different places (three years in some listings, five in others), so it's worth confirming the exact cover directly with SQUATZ before you buy.
The Bit We're Not Going to Gloss Over
Here's the honest part. At time of writing, the Apollo Board Mini has 36 ratings on Amazon globally and a 4.1-star average — but zero of those reviews are from UK buyers. Every review currently visible on the UK listing is from the US, Canada or elsewhere. That's not a red flag on its own — SQUATZ is an established brand with its own site and independent reviews on YouTube and fitness blogs — but it does mean we can't yet point you to a wall of UK-specific feedback the way we could with something like the Concept2 RowErg.
What we can tell you: the pattern in the US reviews is consistent. People who buy it tend to keep using it, cite the compactness as the reason they bought it in the first place, and use the app to guide sessions rather than winging it. The most common niggle isn't the machine itself, it's assembly taking a bit longer than expected out of the box.
If a fully UK-reviewed track record matters more to you than price, it's worth knowing that MAXPRO Fitness — a similar cable-based compact trainer that's also appeared on Shark Tank — has a longer UK review history, currently priced higher on Amazon UK. We haven't tested it, but it's the obvious comparison if you want more social proof before committing:
SQUATZ Apollo Board Mini vs. MAXPRO Fitness — Amazon UK price: £832.01 vs. £1,132.86. Rating: 4.1★ (36 ratings) vs. 4.2★ (179 ratings). UK reviews: none yet vs. longer-established UK history. Resistance: 8–150lb across 5 training modes vs. 5–300lb. Subscription: none for either.
(Prices as listed on Amazon UK at time of writing — always check current pricing before buying.)
Why We're Featuring It Anyway
Because at roughly £832, this sits in a genuinely different bracket to the smart-home-gym systems we've been seeing lately at £3,500–£4,300 — several of which, when we checked, had little to no UK review history either, just with three to four times the price tag attached. If you're going to take a chance on a newer category with limited UK feedback, doing it at £832 rather than £4,299 is the more sensible place to do it.
It also avoids a trap some of the pricier "AI smart gym" systems fall into: leaning hard on language like "AI coach" or "personal trainer in a box." The Apollo Board Mini doesn't market itself that way — it's a functional trainer with an app that logs your sessions, not a substitute for professional coaching, and we'd rather feature kit that doesn't overstate what it does — the same reason we flagged the subscription cost plainly on the Oura Ring 4 rather than glossing over it.
Is It Worth It?
If your flat genuinely has no room for permanent equipment and you want something closer to a real gym session than resistance bands alone can offer, this is one of the more credible compact home gym cable machine options at a price that isn't asking you to bet the equivalent of a small holiday on an unreviewed product. The lack of UK reviews is a real gap, not a dealbreaker — but it's the reason we'd suggest starting with the lower-priced Orange variant rather than committing to a bundle straight away.
If cardio is more your priority than strength, our Concept2 RowErg review covers the compact option we'd point you to instead.
Prices correct at time of writing and subject to change. Always check the current price on Amazon before purchasing.
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