Friday 30 September 2011

Graco Symbio pushchair

We were so pleased on the arrival of our Graco symbio in the lovely moon colourway, and weighing in at just 7.5kg this pushchair is super light weight. My first thoughts was that it looked very strong, solid built pushchair as theres a lot out there that do look a bit flimsy, its also very stylish and modern.

Freya world facing

The seat fabric is very soft and almost foam like so very comfy for my princess, the chest pads & crotch pad are also of the same fabric and very comfy. The pushchair is suitable from birth if used with the Graco logico S infant carseat or the Symbio carrycot, but the actual seat unit however is suitable from 6 months. The symbio retails at approx £349.99 and includes raincover & car seat adapter.
It's so lightweight and manoeuvrable to push, the front swivel wheels have spring suspension so make being out & about in the city super easy and because this pushchair has a unique reversible handle you can change your little one's view between parent and world facing, i much prefer to use pushchairs in parent facing mode so i can interact with Freya, and see her cheeky smiles!
Freya in parent facing mode
This isn't the only advantage of the unique handle but it also enables you to have the larger pneumatic wheels at the front to ensure a comfy smoother ride when using across all terrain, although i found it hard to manoeuvre in that mode due to the larger wheels being fixed although they do glide over bumps and un-even surfaces alot easier then the smaller front swivel ones..
The bumper is made of foam same as the handle bar and although Freya hasn't tried it yet but I'm sure sharp little teeth could cause rips & tears as the same has happened to other branded products made from the same materials. The bumper bar is fully removable. The seat unit can be easily adjusted by the Graco labelled handle on the back & can adjust in 3 positions.
extra sun visor
On the back of the hood there is a few poppers this allows the fabric to be folded over and has mesh fabric underneath so its breathable and allows the air to circulate during hot days, and there is also an extra sun visor hidden in the front of the hood for extra coverage from the sun, i found this ideal as Freya's not all that keen on parasols but with the visor the sun wasn't directly in her eyes. The symbio basket is quite small the raincover  just about fills it and the pushchair has a different brake to most, there is a little lever on the side that you pull up to apply the brake and you depress the little grey button on the side in and push the lever down to take off, it's very easy and ideal during the summer months if your wearing sandals/ flip flops so your not hurting your does trying to flip a bar to get the brake off & on.
The harness is easily adjustable and adjusts to a fair size as i have found some other branded ones to be quite tight especially as your little one grows.
Breathable mesh fabric
The Symbio can be folded with one hand and is very easy to do so, although the pushchair does physically fold down with the seat unit in place it is very bulky. I have always took the seat unit off which is probably advised and folded the chassis separate, the seat unit is very easy to take off by depressing both grey buttons to the side of the seat unit frame. The only frustrating thing for me is remembering to lock the frame once folded as a few other pushchairs i have used have locked themselves once shut and i keep forgetting and the chassis has opened back up whilst trying to get it into the boot, obviously not the pushchairs fault but i do find the locking hook a little bit awkward.
Raincover
The raincover for the symbio is brilliant, it covers the full seat unit, it has a little opening on the back so you can still get in to recline the seat, and it also has little side panels the have mesh material in place and the plastic flaps can be held back with velcro straps to allow ventilation. The pushchair as do most has a max weight limit of 15kg.
Overall i have been very pleased with pushchair and would recommend it to other parent and carers.



Additional extras sold separately- Graco logico S infant carseat, Symbio  Go carrycot, cosytoes and pram bag.






Pushchair folded

Thursday 15 September 2011

The new Quinny creations has been announced..Moodd & Yezz

We've all been waiting eagerly and patiently to find out what quinny's new creation is...Well here it is
Quinny welcomes the new sleek, modern and stylish Quinny Moodd (pronounced mood), suitable from birth and has a lie flat system. This beautiful pushchair is available in a white or black frame & comes with a lovely futuristic style seat unit which is easy to take on and off using  the memory buttons on either side, allowing you to take the seat unit off using one hand. The sun canopy (hood) is uv50+ protected, ideal during the summer months or holidays abroad.  It comes with a matching babynest making it cosy and snuggly for babies. The moodd comes with shopping basket, parasol clip, raincover and carseat adapters.The Moodd is compatible with maxi- cosi infant carriers (sold separately) to form a travel system and a new developed carrycot (sold separately)  its a foldable carrycot that can be folded flat for storage, suitable for babies up to 6 months old.
the Quinny Moodd will be available to the uk in 6 fab colours- Purple power, natural delight (white frame), pink passion, (white frame) red revolution, black devotion, and blue reliance.
The moodd will become available at the end of this year and the rrp price is still to be announced.

Weights in comparison with the Buzz model-

Moodd                                      Buzz
Pushchair: 15.1 kg                     Pushchair: 11.4 kg
Chassis: 9.4 kg                          Chassis: 7.7 kg
Seat unit: 5.7 kg                         Seat unit: 3.7 kg

But.... that wasn't all Quinny has announced.... Due to be available on the market sometime next year in the spring time is the super lightweight Quinny Yezz, looking a little like the zapps this new modern style pushchair and appears to have a full handle bar as opposed to the individual handles known to the zapp ans zapp xtra. Unfortunately we are still waiting for more information on this little creation so stay tuned for further news.