Review: iCandy cherry pushchair

The concept:
After the success of the sleek, simple and versatile iCandy apple, the cherry is another light and classy option if you're looking for a good buggy that can become a complete travel system but without a designer price tag.

In action:
One-hand folding, chunky solid wheels and a large basket are features the busy parent wants in any good from-birth pushchair and the cherry delivers on these. Its back pocket is zip-up, too, which is a nice touch. Plus the soft-grip handle which goes all the way across the back of the buggy means that you can handle this with one hand pretty easily.
With its anti-corrosion aluminium chassis, it's not a bad weight, either, especially compared to other models in carrycot mode. And with the Maxi-Cosi infant carrier added it's a nifty travel system. Getting the extra features on and off the chassis is fairly simple so folding it down is pretty compact too, even without taking off the wheels - always a baffling challenge to a parent who needs to get the buggy into a small storage space or the back of a car on a regular basis. (Who has time to take wheels on and off? Especially on a wet day when the wheels might be sticky with leaves and mud!)
For your baby or toddler, the interior is cosy (especially with the optional padded mattress for the carrycot or the optional core seat snuggle) and the ability to have your child facing you or facing forward is great. There's a real move now to get parents to position their buggies with baby facing them, which is very good from a bonding and developmental point of view, but it's useful to be able to switch easily to forward-facing, because most toddlers want to see where they're going!

Accessories and colours:
It's a bit of a shame at the moment that the main body colour is only available in liquorice (black) or fudge, but the trim is pretty colourful.
The accessories available are a superfleece luxury footmuff (regular 'apron' cover included as standard), the core seat snuggle, the Lifestyle changing bag, and a sun parasol.

Optional extras:
The padded mattress you can get for the carrycot has a fully washable liner, which is great.
Other optional extras are the integral padded carry-handle, and the adjustable hood.