We were provided by the manufacturer with the seat shown below, to facilitate our review. As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own (and those of my family).

We’ve been using an Evenflo convertible carseat for a long time.  We bought an Evenflo Triumph when Ariel was a baby (she just turned 12) and liked it so much we replaced it when it expired and used it for her sisters, too.  So when we were offered the opportunity to try this new Evenflo ProComfort Symphony DLX, I was very interested.  (Pretty soon the combination of seats we had for the two little ones would have been insufficient.)

The awesome thing about this seat is that it converts from rear-facing infant seat (at 5 lbs.) to forward-facing baby/toddler seat to booster seat.  For kids all the way up to 110 lbs.  That means I can ride in this thing.  Seriously, it’s huge.  That’s a good thing and a bad thing.  It will definitely accommodate bigger kids needing a booster.  But the insert enables it to accommodate even a tiny baby.  (Although, honestly, I kinda can’t imagine putting a 5-lb. newborn in there.  The seat is just SO. BIG.)  On the other hand, it makes it a challenge for fitting into the car.

I can’t use it for my little guy, because it literally won’t fit rear-facing in our car’s seat.  So he’s still in his infant seat and I put my preschooler in this one.  Even at that, although it fits in the backseat now that it’s in there, I had a heck of a time trying to wrangle it in through the back hatch.  (It wouldn’t go in from the front.  The seat in front of it was in the way.)  I had to turn it just right to get it over the back of the seat, like when you bring a sofa through a doorway.

It’s really nice, though, that it’s large enough my 3-year-old not only fits comfortably, but we can buckle her into the 5-point harness pretty easily.  She doesn’t seem to be in danger of outgrowing it and having to transition to the booster “setting” any time real soon.

Another thing I love about it is that all of the adjustments are made from the front.  (Converting it to a booster or something wouldn’t be, but anything you’d need to adjust from day to day or week to week is.)  Belt snugness?  From the front.  Harness height?  From the front.  Headrest height?  You can reach it from the front.  Also, there’s a place on the back to clip the tether strap to when it’s not in use.  (On a couple of our old seats, there was no way to contain it.  I was always afraid that in an accident someone would get decked with a flying tether harness clip.

The chest buckle says right on it that it should go at armpit level.   That’s helpful for those who can’t remember (or when someone is helping put your child in who isn’t usually the one to buckle him).  We have mixed thoughts about the chest buckle itself, though.  We’re accustomed to the traditional pinch-style clip (similar to what you find on supermarket shopping cart buckles).  My husband says he can open those with one hand.  (I can’t.  I guess my hands are too small.)  This one has a little button on the front that releases it, and it annoys him a little because now he needs two hands to open it.  But I think maybe it’s meant to discourage little people from unbuckling themselves.  (This has never been a problem with my kids.  They all go completely berserk if they discover they’re not buckled up just right.)  And there’s little-to-no question of what you’re supposed to do with it to get it unfastened.

As a result of the “GelMatrix technology,” the seat seems to be very squishy and cushiony and just generally comfortable.  This is especially important on a long trip, as we discovered when we took one, once, with a borrowed seat that wasn’t very comfy.  Happy kids make for a less distracted driver!

It has some pretty cool little buckle storage “pockets,” too.  They’re labeled really clearly – you can’t miss where they’re located.  However, you can miss them.  They’re little slits you tuck just the metal parts of the buckles into (and they face kind of “backward” from what you might expect based on the labels).  These are pretty cool because then the kid isn’t sitting on the buckle when you try to buckle him in, and you can keep them from getting too hot, too.

I like all of the features, but set aside a little bit of time to look over the manual and the seat when you first get it.  There are so many features/options that I found it a little overwhelming and confusing.  Once you get it adjusted to whatever current state and settings you need, it’s pretty simple.  But all of the adjustment options are kinda confusing.  And I found this recline indicator pretty unclear at first.  I think I just stared at it for about three minutes before I finally realized what I was supposed to be looking at.

You’re probably quicker than I am, but in case you’re not, these little arrows on the labels are (I think) supposed to line up with each other.  So this is in position 3.  If it were in position 2, that arrow would be pointing at the one on the bottom, and likewise with number 1.  I had a hard time figuring that out amidst all of the other things printed on the labels.

But we like it and, like I said, once you get it set to what you need, it’s not complicated anymore.  So if you can get it set to the setup you need, and fit it into your car, you’re good to go!  From there it’s super-easy to use – even this time of year when we’re approaching the “coat one day, t-shirt the next” weather that can make carseat straps maddening.

It’s kind of a pricey seat, but if you buy it when your baby’s tiny (or even before he’s born) and use it ’til he’s outgrown a booster seat, that’s a pretty good per-use price!