The Mu fold-up USB phone charger gets an international update

If I got commission for all the people who’ve bought a Mu charger plug after seeing mine, I’d be rich.

The innovative Mu is a USB wall plug that folds flat. Seriously. Why don’t all UK plugs do this?

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My white Mu, after several years of faithful service, recently broke. The fact that I was gutted says quite a lot about how much I love this product, so I was pretty happy to see that there’s a new version on the way, currently being crowdfunded on IndieGoGo. It’s currently raised over 1000% of its funding goal.

The new Mu is international, with a simple click on, click off system that lets you attach the right prongs for any country. Mu say it’s the thinnest international charger in the world:

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A full set, with attachments for every socket type in the world, costs $49 (about £32) and ships free to the UK. It’s compatible with all smartphones, tablets, MP3 players and “pretty much all USB-charged devices”.

If you don’t want to wait until August for your Mu, though, you can buy one of the UK ones now: and you absolutely should. When I broke my white one, there was no question I’d get another (though I went for classy black this time, because white gets a bit mucky).

There’s the Mu Classic, at £15:

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It has a 1Amp USB port, whereas the 2.4Amp Mu Tablet also works for smartphones, and can auto-detect the optimum charge level for your device. At £20, I’d say you might as well spend the extra £5 and get something that’ll has twice the power:

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And finally there’s the Mu Duo, which has two 1.2Amp USB ports and again, can intelligently work out how much charge to deliver. It’s £22:

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Created by Made in Mind, the Mu charger is an excellent example of improving something no one thought could be changed. When you’re designing a new gadget, the plug seems like a given: after all, you can’t change the many millions of sockets in the country, right? But as the Mu proves, you can change the plug. For the much, much, much better.

Holly Brockwell