Simmons Onyx Stroller Review

Lightweight, Compact Travel Stroller At A Budget Price

Simmons is more known for mattresses than strollers, but after the release of the Simmons Onyx stroller, perhaps they should branch out more often. The Onyx is a fairly basic stroller with a few upscale features. It steers nicely, has reasonable suspension, accepts a Graco Snugride infant car seat, folds very compactly and weighs only about 15 lbs. It doesn't look too shabby, either. The best part? The Simmons Onyx stroller costs about $150, which is an outstanding price in a $500 stroller world. There are a few drawbacks to this stroller, but none are total dealbreakers.

There's a lot to like about the Simmons Onyx stroller, formerly known as the Simmons Voyager Elite. It's a fairly basic, easy to use stroller, which is nice if you've ever felt like you needed an advanced degree to open and close a stroller. The Onyx was out of the box and assembled in minutes. To open the stroller, you just grab the two handles and pull up until the whole thing locks into place, then pull up on a little bar at the top to secure it. To fold it, you push a button on that top bar to let it fold a bit, then grab the stroller handles and hold the release button on each while pushing forward. It took far longer to read that sentence than it does to accomplish the folding process.

The compact fold is great. You can actually put this stroller in an overhead bin on an airplane when it's folded. Since it's also lightweight and folds/unfolds quickly, it could make a good travel stroller for some families.

The suspension feels sturdy and handles suburban and city terrain pretty well. The Simmons Onyx is not really an off-road stroller. You can navigate some grass in the park with it easily, but its smaller, hard tires are primarily made for smoother surfaces. The front swivel wheels work nicely and make one-hand steering possible, even easy on some surfaces.

Though the design looked unstable to me initially, it doesn't feel that way upon use. It's actually a very solid stroller, particularly for a lightweight and for a budget model. Hanging a 10 lb. diaper bag on the handles didn't tip it over, either.

The Simmons Onyx works as a travel system with the Graco Snugride infant car seat. I'd love to see more car seats work with this stroller, but Snugride is a very popular choice, and the options for decent travel system strollers for that car seat are limited. Most are bulky, flimsy or just plain inconvenient. This stroller is a vast improvement over most travel system type strollers.

The brake is on the right rear wheel, and you just have to step down on the pedal to engage the brake. To release it, you step on the pedal on the left rear wheel. I prefer this to models where you have to stick your toe under the brake and push up to release. No more scratched shoes or chipped pedicures if the brake gets finicky!

The Simmons Onyx stroller has a 5-point harness system with padded covers. It's pretty plush for an inexpensive stroller, and not too difficult to adjust. The seat is deep enough to accommodate a toddler comfortably.

The 35 lb. weight limit is a bit low.

The basket on this stroller is small. There's no way you can fit a full diaper bag in it, though you might fit a small purse or diaper case and some extras in there. The basket is reinforced nicely, though, so whatever you stash in it will be quite secure.

No cupholders anywhere, for the parent or the child. This is a pretty minor complaint, really. If you're using it as a travel stroller, the cupholders would likely be the first things that broke off in flight. Cupholders are easy to add on when you need them.

The swivel locks on the front wheels feel cheap and are hard to engage. The wheels must be in just the right position to get them to work, so you have to touch the wheels, which could be gross depending on where you are. My fingers were sore after working with the locks. However, this is not a stroller that I would use swivel locks on often. It's not a jogger or all-terrain stroller.

The footrest isn't adjustable. It's a bit small for a toddler's feet to be really useful.

I like that the Simmons Onyx stroller has a sunshade included, but it could be a bit wider or have the ability to come further forward for better coverage. When you extend or retract the sunshade, it's pretty noisy, which surprised me.

The clip to hold the stroller closed when folded is flimsy. It gets my vote as the first thing on the stroller that will break. It's also easy to mis-align the clip so that it's not all the way engaged. Make sure you get it hooked all the way over the peg or the stroller could easily come unfolded when you pick it up.

If you're looking for a basic stroller that costs less than $200, the Simmons Onyx may be worth a try, particularly if you were considering a travel system with the Graco Snugride infant car seat. This stroller might also be a good choice if you travel a lot and don't want to gate check a stroller, since it fits in an overhead bin. The lack of accessories and the sturdy frame would also make the Simmons Onyx a solid choice for a gate check stroller, though.

If you're looking for a lot of bells and whistles, a stroller that fully reclines for an infant (you'll need to use the infant car seat with this one until baby has a bit of head control), or a stroller that can be used for heavy off-roading or jogging, bypass the Simmons Onyx. Otherwise, it's a very nice, basic stroller at a really good price.