Cybex Sirona Z i-Size R Review

Quick Summary: A from birth seat that lasts your child right up to 105 cm, or around 4 years old, we love that the Sirona Z i-Size R is a seat that keeps your child rear-facing throughout. There's then no temptation to try your child forward-facing before it's safe to do so. There's lots of safety features integrated in the seat, helping to achieve the 1.9 ADAC score and meaning that you can be sure that your child is in a great car seat. The swivel feature makes day to day use so much easier, and even larger toddlers can be placed in the seat quickly and without extra back strain.

The Sirona Z i-Size R is based on the popular Sirona Z, but is purely rear facing. It can be used as the next stage seat after the Cloud Z infant carrier, or straight from birth and is installed in the car with the Base Z.

Things we love...

We love the Sirona Z for its ease of use and brilliant safety features, but Cybex have gone and beaten it with the Sirona Z i-Size R. Looks wise, it's the same as the Sirona Z, but keeps the child in the safest position, rear-facing in the car from birth up to 105cm, or around 4 years old. Tested to the R129/02 or i-Size regulation, the seat is fitted in the car on the Base Z, which is easy to do using the ISOFIX arms and load leg. The seat can then be sat on the base rear-facing. Red to green indicators show clearly on the ISOFIX arms and the front of the base when everything is installed correctly. The three indicators on the panel at the front change to green when the load leg is at the correct height, when the seat is sat on the base properly and when the seat is locked into position rear-facing. The load leg will also beep until it is correctly fitted. As it's a modular system, the Base Z can also be used with different child seats attached, the Cloud Z infant carrier or the standard Sirona Z.

Reducing the side impact energy forces by 25%, the integrated linear side impact protection panels are fitted to each side of the seat, and just need to be pulled out on the vehicle door side as part of the installation. 

The Sirona Z i-Size R tests very well in the rigorous ADAC testing, with a 1.9 Good Rating. The TCS also gives it a 4 star highly recommended score.

For ease of use, the Sirona Z i-Size R gets a big thumbs up. Once you are ready to place your child in their car seat, it spins in a 180 degrees rotation to the vehicle door. To rotate the seat, use the recline button to put it into its most upright position and the indicator at the front turns red. Then you can spin to the car door of your choice and have great access to place or remove your child.

The five point harness is simple to fasten into the buckle and we love that there are magnetic points at each side to attach the clip to - everything is held out of the way ready to place your child in the seat again.

To adjust the headrest and harness in one movement, there is a button at the back of the headrest. It lifts smoothly through the 12 positions to sit perfectly level with your child's shoulders.

For nap times or to keep small babies in a better position, there are five recline positions to choose from. With our two-year-old tester in the seat, we have used all of the positions and found the most reclined perfect while he slept.

Things to look out for…

During the testing, there were times when we needed three car seats along the back seat of the vehicle. Because of the shape of the Sirona Z i-Size R, we were unable to spin the seat to the door with a seat in the middle. If, for any reason you can't spin the Sirona Z i-Size R to the car door when you are fastening the child in the harness, we did find it tricky to pull the harness tight enough kept in the rear-facing position. If you use the seat, as intended with the rotation feature, then there's no problem at all!

We also found it slightly annoying that the crotch pad comes away from the seat easily.

Our verdict

A from birth seat that lasts your child right up to 105 cm, or around 4 years old, we love that the Sirona Z i-Size R is a seat that keeps your child rear-facing throughout. There's then no temptation to try your child forward-facing before it's safe to do so.

There's lots of safety features integrated in the seat, helping to achieve the 1.9 ADAC score and meaning that you can be sure that your child is in a great car seat. The swivel feature makes day to day use so much easier, and even larger toddlers can be placed in the seat quickly and without extra back strain.