The Diono - there’s a reason it’s so heavy - solid steel frame. As far as safety is concerned for your newborn the diono wins. We pick car seats based on safety for our kids, not comfort of our passengers.
Perhaps consider a travel system infant seat for the first year for comfort for baby and convenience for mom and dad. Then go with Diono for the years to follow.
I tried this. My kid outgrew the click in infant seat in less than six months. Then we put the diono in full time. The lost leg room sucks but it's a way safer seat than most.
Do you have a video like this but for boosters? Our daughter is almost 8 and we are planning to move her into a high back booster seat but arent quite sure wich one to pick just yet, would love to hear your thoughts on it!
We don't have a video on that yet, but we love these two brands in this video. I would check out Graco TurboBooster Highback Booster Seat as it's probably the one we would go with if our daughter was older.
There is a really slim graco convertible called the Graco Slimfit 3 LX. It's also supposed to do 3 across and could potentially work in combination with a Diono as they're very similar width. In fact the Graco is a touch slimmer width wise than all of the Diono Radians. Front Passenger leg room is also potentially a hair bit better with the Graco Slimfit 3 LX than the Diono Radian.