[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I was given this swing to try as part of the Stellar Product Testing Panel and I was very excited to try it, as I've used one of GRACO's other swings a lot, but this one included a smaller footprint and a different kind of motion which I've heard is great for babies who like the car. Unfortunately my daughter was not impressed.
However my daughters preferences aside there was a lot to love! I allowed my sister to use it as well with her son who loved it so I think it just depends on the baby. From my experience using it with both my nephew and daughter here's what I loved:
-first of all the footprint is fantastic and my favorite feature by far! I love my older GRACO swing but this one takes up so much less space! And because it's so compact it's also extremely easy to move from room to room.
-which brings us to my second thought; it's very convenient to have the easy lift off rocker. I will say, I don't use it that often which I'll explain in the cons.
-thirdly the padding on this is far more sturdy and thick than some of the other swings I've used or seen and definitely an upgrade even within the GRACO brand. The whole thing from pedestal to rocker to padding was all well built and sturdy and extremely easy to assemble.
-the toys and color pallet are so cute and fit a more stylish nursery well!
-last but not least I tried every motion setting and the unique wide range of options was fabulous which my nephew enjoyed. It's also really nice that the seat can be face forward or sideways so it doubles the motion options to 16. My daughter wouldn't sleep long in it but I've come to believe it's because she needs the G-force you get when in a traditional swing which is not present in this pedestal style rocker.
Okay now for the cons and I'm bummed about this but there's quite a few:
-the biggest problem is the cord is quite short. It really has to be right next to the plug in to reach without an extension cord so my behind the couch outlet was not an option by itself.
-the rocker motion must be off to put your baby in and when you turn it on it takes a few seconds of adjustments before it begins moving. For me that's a big problem because I have to put my daughter into an immediately rocking swing or she wakes up and the adjustment motion is not soothing it's rather jarring. Also some of the motions themselves have jarring transitions. It also started making more noise after a while because when I tried to put her in while it was in motion it jammed it up and I think caused some noisiness while in motion that wasn't there to begin with. It started off rather quiet.
-the most disappointing feature to me was the nature sounds. You can choose which one to start with by scrolling though but then it just cycles through all the sounds so if your baby likes one and not the other you can't just use that one unless you sit next to it and skip all the other sounds every time they come on. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a swing to occupy or keep you baby asleep.
-also the swing shuts itself off after I believe 4 hours of continuous motion which if you have a baby that otherwise would sleep 5 to 8 hours is not great because when it does she wakes up after a few minutes.
-the display was also extremely bright which is great except that it lights up the room so baby or anyone else have trouble sleeping unless it's covered up.
-lastly I don't use the removable rocker often because I can't always be rocking her on my own and the vibration feature built into it is rather violent and didn't help sooth my baby or nephew at all.
In the end I was able to find ways around most of the cons and liked the GRACO Sooth My Way Swing, but my baby did not and her opinion was the one that really mattered.