Axkid UP car seat review

Swedish company Axkid is well-known for its extended rear-facing car seats, but with the Axkid Up, the brand turns its focus to the next stage of travel: high-back boosters for older children.

Suitable from 100cm-150cm and with an RRP of £399, the Axkid Up sits at the very top end of the high-back booster market, priced well above most comparable car seats, such as the Maxi-Cosi Rodifix Pro2 i-Size car seat (£169.99) or the Nuna AACE lx car seat (£220).

However, the Axkid Up is not a typical high-back booster. It’s one of the few models to feature both a patented adjustable seat base and an integrated support leg designed to improve stability and belt positioning during travel.

How easy is it to install the Axkid Up?

The Axkid Up was pleasantly simple to install.

Thanks to the ability of the seat to fold in half, it’s easy to grab and extremely simple to click into the ISOFIX points in the car, taking just a few seconds. There are instructions on the seat with yellow numbers, which help to reduce margin for error during installation.

To install the seat, it remains folded right up until the ISOFIX connectors have reassuringly clicked into place, meaning there's far more space to see and manoeuvre the seat in the car during the installation process. This also meant that it was easier to fit the seat into smaller cars, and cars with compact rear doors.

Once the seat was clicked into place, it felt super sturdy with virtually no movement.

How secure is your child in the seat?

As a parent, it always feels like such a big jump when moving your child up from a harnessed seat to a high backed booster using the car's seat belt. Getting the belt positioning right plays a huge part in how safe your child is whilst travelling in the seat, so we were relieved to see the belt tracks clearly marked in green.

The innovative adjustable seat height of the Axkid Up also contributes to how well the car's seat belt fits your child and helps to ensure correct positioning of the belt over your child's lap and shoulder.

For Tiggy, the adjustable seat height was in its middle position and the lap belt secured across her thighs — helping ensure the belt sat securely across her thighs rather than her abdomen.

Even better still, the belt guides made sure that Tiggy could buckle the seatbelt of the Axkid Up herself, with us just checking it was positioned correctly before we set off. This gave her a great feeling of independence whilst still giving us peace of mind that she was safe and secure in her seat.

What are the main safety features of the Axkid Up?

Safety is clearly a central focus of the Axkid Up's design.

The base of the seat has a steel frame and a support leg. When installed, the seat felt solid and sturdy and Axkid says the support leg can reduce movement in a collision by up to 25%, giving us great peace of mind.

The adjustable headrest serves a dual purpose. In terms of safety, it is height adjustable to ensure that the belt fits the child’s shoulder correctly, helping reduce head movement while also providing good support when Tiggy fell asleep.

Despite its minimal appearance, the Axkid Up includes several safety-focused design features intended to raise and position your child correctly within the vehicle, more like an adult passenger would be positioned in the vehicle.

The HeightControl™ technology was a total game changer for us, highlighting how much difference seat height adjustment can make to belt positioning.

How comfortable is the Axkid Up for your child?

In terms of comfort, Tiggy was always happy to jump into her seat whether it was for a two-minute or two-hour drive.

The headrest supported her head and neck so she could nod off comfortably, and at the base of her spine is a little cushion called an ErgoSupport™ Lumbar Support to help make the seat more comfortable on the spine.

We must admit, the Axkid Up could be a little more padded on the seat bottom, but Tiggy never complained and always felt comfortable travelling in the seat.

How adjustable is the seat as your child grows?

The adjustable headrest moves up and down to be suitable for children from 100cm-150cm. Tiggy was in the middle of this range at 128cm. The headrest was smooth to operate with just the use of a palm button on the rear of the headrest. As the height of the headrest is altered, the belt guides are automatically adjusted to ensure a perfect fit across your children's shoulder and lap.

Our older children have previously complained of feeling restricted in their old high-back boosters, as the fixed side wings squash their growing shoulders, but the SnapGuard™ Removable Side Wings on the Axkid Up are streamlined and broad enough to accommodate our older child comfortably.

We really loved having the option to clip these side wings off to make the seat roomier. As a family of 6, with three car seats in use, we also appreciated the extra space that removing the SnapGuard™ wings gave us, making it easy to fit three across in my husband's standard saloon car.

We were particularly impressed to see that as you adjust the height of the seat bottom, the depth of the seat and angle of the calf rest alters automatically to accommodate for taller children as their legs grow longer. This is such a clever hidden feature that really showed thoughtful attention to detail.

Is it easy to use on a daily basis?

We’re a large family and we won’t sugar coat it… car seats have been the bane of our life for quite a few years now. Our previous high back boosters have been bulky and a pain to get in and out of cars. But the Axkid Up made day-to-day switching between vehicles much easier.

The slimline, sleek design means that the Axkid Up blends seamlessly with our car's interior making the car look and feel more spacious inside.

It was quick and simple to move between vehicles when needed. We often popped the Axkid Up from one car to another whilst running children to and from various clubs and parties.

How portable is the Axkid UP?

After a decade of professionally reviewing car seats, I can safely say that this is one of the easiest high-back boosters I’ve used to move between vehicles.

As parents, storage is always a premium, and the ability to fold the Axkid Up and stand it behind the hall door when it was not in use was game-changing. No more tripping over bulky seats left by the front door!

How does it compare to other high-back boosters?

The Axkid Up felt noticeably more practical than some previous high-back boosters we’ve used, and it quickly became our preferred high-back booster for everyday use.

Our previous Britax Kidfix Pro M seat is heavy, bulky and too wide to fit three seats across comfortably. In comparison, the Axkid Up is light to carry, foldable and provides a safe fit and ride for our children. We have been thoroughly impressed by the practicality and safety of the Axkid Up and will be purchasing a second one for our 9-year-old son.

What’s in the box?

Axkid Up seat complete with SnapGuard™ Removable Side Wing and integrated ProTecBase™ with Support Leg.

Is the Axkid UP worth the money?

The Axkid Up is admittedly at the very top of the market as a high priced high-back booster, costing more than many harnessed rear facing seats.

That being said, the strong safety-focused design makes it likely to feel worth the investment for families prioritising adjustability and long-term use. As a parent of 4 children, I see this seat as an investment in my children’s safety.

It will be used for years to come, no matter what car we are driving. There are very few seats where you can genuinely place three seats across and the Axkid Up truly does facilitate this.

Are there any other features of the car seat you were impressed with?

We must give a special mention to the additional accessories that made Tiggy’s journeys that extra bit luxurious.

The footrest (sold separately) made Tiggy feel like a queen and made such a huge difference to not just her comfort on long journeys but also her positioning in the seat.

She was also a huge fan of the cup holder (sold separately) meaning that she had her water on hand all of the time. From a practical perspective, we found it invaluable not having to pass water bottles back every few minutes!

How sustainable is the Axkid Up?

Purchasing from sustainable brands is always a priority for us as a family.

We were thrilled to read of Axkid’s sustainability programme that includes using recycled fabrics on all of their car seats as standard, using 70% recycled packaging as well as using digital product manuals to reduce paper consumption. All of which contribute positively to reducing packaging and material impact compared with traditional formats.

Where can I buy the Axkid Up car seat?

Is it available from John Lewis, Kiddies Kingdom, Natural Baby Shower and Axkid

MadeForMums verdict:

I’m hard to impress when it comes to car seats, especially after having used so many, but the Axkid Up truly has stopped me in my tracks — and for all of the right reasons.

Yes, it is undoubtedly expensive, but given the potential seven years of use, in addition to its safety-focused design and unusual features for this category, it’s one of the most thoughtfully designed high-back boosters we’ve used so far.

Read more:

• 10 of the best car seats for children from 4 years
• Cybex Solution T i-Fix car seat review
• Silver Cross Discover i-Size car seat review
• Maxi-Cosi Rodifix Pro2 i-Size car seat review
• Nuna AACE lx car seat review