New folding system
The Strawberry has a reversible seat – so you can choose to have your baby facing towards or away from you and - unusually for an iCandy pushchair - you can fold the Strawberry with the seat on, whichever way it is facing. This could be useful if you are short of space at home and want to fold up the pushchair for storage.
The fold certainly looks good, as the seat ‘self-aligns’ with the frame and tucks itself neatly into the shopping basket. When you unfold, the ‘memory system’ means that the seat will return to the last recline position it was set in.
The fold can be done with one hand, but we found it much easier to do with two. It was a little tricky to get used to the fold mechanism – it requires you to push in one button in the handle while squeezing another – but iCandy says it is making modifications to make this easier before the pushchair goes on sale.
When reclining and reversing the seat you’ll need two hands as you need to push in levers on either side of the seat. We thought the Strawberry felt nice and easy to manoeuvre, though it is fairly heavy.
Innovative storage
As well as a large shopping basket under the seat, the Strawberry also features extra storage space in the form of the ‘punnet’ – a compartment set in the seat, under the child’s legs which is accessed using a zip. iCandy suggested this would be ideal for storing pushchair accessories like a raincover.
The pushchair also has an adjustable handle bar, five-point safety harness, removeable bumper bar and lockable front wheels. The brake pedal is in the shape of a strawberry leaf and while you need to use your toes to push up to take the brake off, it’s very light to do so shouldn’t be a problem if you are wearing flip-flops.
Price and accessories
iCandy says the Strawberry will go on sale in autumn 2011 and will cost £450 for the seat and chassis. Parents can then buy a ‘flavour pack’ for £75 which consists of the seat liner and hood in their chosen colour.
The seat unit is suitable from six months, so if you want to use the system from birth you’ll need to buy the compatible Strawberry carrycot for £95. The pushchair is also compatible with the Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix and Pebble car seats.
Pros: Reversible seat, can fold with seat on, stands when folded, large shopping basket and extra ‘punnet’, easy to manoeuvre, soft-touch brake pedal.
Cons: Fold mechanism could be easier (and hopefully will be soon), you need two hands to recline the seat, feels fairly heavy.
