Silver Cross Clic review: A stylish, sturdy and well-designed stroller
A nicely built, stylish stroller with a practical design that makes life easier
Pros
- Stylish and well built
- Easy to fold down and carry
- Rolls well on varied surfaces
Cons
- Under-seat basket is small
- Shoulder strap needs more padding
Whether you’d pronounce Clic as “clique” or a more down-to-earth “click”, the Silver Cross Clic stroller is likely to have universal appeal.
The Clic takes the sleek good looks from Silver Cross’ pricier models and combines it with the fast-folding, compact ingenuity of its more lightweight stroller stablemates. The result? A £200 stroller that’s both stylish and practical.
Silver Cross Clic review: What do you get for the money?
The Silver Cross Clic is a lightweight stroller that accommodates little ones from birth all the way through to a not-so-little 22kg. It’s not compatible with add-on car seats or carrycots but it’s more stylish and sturdy than classic “umbrella” strollers. Best of all, it folds down with one-hand and concertinas into an impressively portable 5.9kg package.
The frame and under-seat basket is finished in a smart matte black, but you can take your pick of black, aqua blue or lilac fabrics for the seat and hood. Whichever you choose, the hood and sun visor fold down to provide SPF50+ rated sun protection, and there’s a raincover included in the box as well.
The Clic fits somewhere towards the middle of the crowded lightweight stroller market, and this encompasses a wide range of models from sub-£100 umbrella-style strollers all the way through to pricier modular ones that add options such as clip-in carrycots and car seats.
That said, the Silver Cross Clic is reasonably priced for what it is at £200. Its combination of elegant design, practicality and features are competitive at the price and, if you’re looking for a compact, do-it-all stroller as an addition to a more fully featured travel system or a standalone car seat, then it’s a good buy.
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If, however, you want a beefier stroller that can tackle off-road use for more intrepid country walks, then consider the Hauck Runner (£160) instead. It’s much bigger and weightier than the Silver Cross and, although it’s nowhere near as elegant, its chunky three-wheeled design and sturdy build allow it to tackle far rougher terrain – and it’s superb value, too.
Silver Cross Clic review: Is it easy to use?
The Clic emerges from its delivery box almost fully assembled; all you need to do is clip the padded bumper bar into place and get to grips with the folding mechanism. Thankfully, this couldn’t be easier: you simply unhook the folding latch on the side of the stroller, grab the large grey button in the centre of the handle, and a sharp upward tug unfolds the stroller. You know you’ve done it correctly when the frame joints click reassuringly into place.
It’s equally easy to fold down, too. Grab the handle and safety latch with one hand and a downward push sees it fold into a neat little package. Cleverly, the large folding latch at the side automatically clips into place to hold it shut, and the stroller stands upright once folded.
At 5.9kg, the Clic is light enough to carry around easily and the integrated shoulder strap – which pops out of the seat flap – is ingenious. Freeing up a spare hand can be indispensable when you’re weighed down with bags. It’s just a shame there isn’t more padding on the strap, as it can dig into the shoulder uncomfortably over longer distances.
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Silver Cross Clic review: How adjustable is it?
The Clic is impressively flexible for a compact stroller. The seat reclines from not-quite-fully-upright to a lie-flat position, and the spring latch makes it easy to lower the seat with one hand, although you’ll need both hands to raise it. The adjustable calf support simply pops up or down depending on your needs.
The five-point safety harness can be fiddly to lock into place when there’s a wriggly child trying to escape its clutches, but it clasps securely and is easy to adjust as your children grow. It fitted both our six-month-old and three-year-old testers well and did a good job of keeping them safely locked in place even while they took turns snoozing on a sedate country walk. Thankfully, the brake is effective, too, and kicks on and off easily with the nudge of a foot.
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Silver Cross Clic review: How does it handle?
One minor design niggle is that there’s no adjustable handle height for parents, but that isn’t especially unusual for a compact stroller. In any case, at 6ft 4in I didn’t find it too low and my 5ft 8in wife found it comfortable enough, too. Especially tall or short parents might want to take the Clic for a test run before taking the plunge, though.
Once you’re on the move, the Clic continues to impress. The little wheels are understandably more prone to getting snagged than bigger-wheeled rivals and there’s no suspension per se, but the soft rubber tyres roll smoothly on pavement and soak up smaller bumps nicely.
Venturing outside of town saw the Clic cope admirably with country walks on reasonably smooth grass, hardpack and gravel paths, and it was light enough to carry over stiles and gates when required.
Silver Cross Clic review: What don’t we like?
By far the biggest complaint concerns the size of the under-seat basket: it’s just not big enough. There’s not a huge amount of clearance between the underside of the seat and the basket, and you’ll struggle to get a normal-sized bag of shopping in there.
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The basket is useful for stashing smaller bags or baby-related paraphernalia, though, and as the mesh sides lean inwards, we didn’t have any problems with smaller, lighter items bouncing or falling out as we bumped our way around town and the local park.
Silver Cross Clic review: Should you buy it?
After spending a couple of weeks with the Clic, it’s hard not to be impressed. It’s well designed, doesn’t take up much room in the boot and it’s actually very keenly priced once you have a look at the competition.
Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give the Clic is that our far pricier (and far bulkier) travel system hasn’t come out of the cupboard since it arrived, because the smaller buggy does exactly what we need it to in a far more compact package. If the under-seat storage was bigger, it would be close to perfect.