Purple Mattress  Mattress Review

The Purple Mattress is 9 inches tall, so standard fitted sheets easily fit. Its lack of grab handles isn't uncommon, but handles would be especially useful here as it's quite heavy and floppy, making it particularly hard to move.

This medium-firm mattress is a good option for lighter back and stomach sleepers. While medium-firm mattresses can also be suitable for average and heavier side sleepers, this one's unusual construction means it quickly becomes less supportive for people in the average weight category and above. Meanwhile, lighter side sleepers will find it puts a lot of pressure on the shoulder area, so it's not ideal for side sleeping in general.

When you lie on the mattress, the GelFlex grid collapses into a layer of folded elastomeric material, which behaves differently from foams. This unique behavior is evident in the Comfort Layer IPD graph collected for this layer. The GelFlex grid's behavior, along with the quite firm transition and support layers below, means that the perceived firmness of this mattress will be greatly dependent on the sleeper's weight. This is reflected in the shape of the stiffness curves and the wide difference in tangent values.

While the grid will collapse a bit with little pressure, once it's fully collapsed, it behaves differently and becomes much stiffer. Lighter people who aren't heavy enough to compress it further won't interact with the polyfoam layer below, which has a medium firmness. While it's normal for lighter individuals to perceive mattresses as firmer, the effect is more pronounced due to the way the GelFlex Grid behaves. Heavier people will still perceive it as softer than average people.

This 'Medium-Firm' mattress offers excellent body conformity for people in the heavier weight category. Your shoulder will sink in enough to keep your body aligned and relieve pressure. It's a decent option for people in the average weight category as well; however, side sleepers may prefer a more conforming mattress. However, lighter people's shoulders will hardly sink into the mattress at all, creating uncomfortable pressure, so it's not a good option for smaller side sleepers.

It's supportive enough to keep your hips aligned with your lower back, which is particularly beneficial for lighter individuals, making it a decent option for lighter back/stomach sleepers. However, it quickly becomes less supportive at higher weights. If you're in the average weight category (80kg) or heavier, your hips will sink in further relative to the lighter parts of your body, which isn't ideal for back/stomach sleeping. Sleepers in these weight categories who prefer an all-foam mattress can check out the Casper Cooling Select, which is more supportive, especially for heavier individuals.

It's decently bouncy, so it avoids the lifeless feel of some all-foam mattresses, and has some 'push back', which makes it feel easier to move around in your sleep. That said, many mattresses with springs have a livelier feel.

The mattress's 'Gel-Flex Grid' upper comfort layer collapses easily when you lie on it, creating a very contouring feel. The lighter parts of your body won't sink in much further because of the firmer polyfoam layers below. Overall, it's not an enveloping mattress, but its high contouring creates a slight hugging feel that helps with pressure relief.

It's extremely responsive. The GelFlex material recovers its shape almost instantly after being compressed. Unlike with some all-foam mattresses like the  Novaform ComfortGrande Plus, it feels very easy to move around in your sleep.

It has good motion isolation. When your partner rolls over, you'll feel the initial movement in the lumbar area, but it dissipates quickly, so you won't feel like you're bouncing around. Much less movement is felt around your feet or head. If you're a light sleeper and motion isolation is a priority, you might prefer the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid (Canadian Version), which has a similar medium-firm feel.

The Purple Mattress has decent edge support. The edges are reinforced with polyfoam, which helps it hold up when you sit or sleep on the edge of the bed. If you sleep near the edge, you still feel somewhat at risk of slipping off the side, although it's not as pronounced as with some mattresses like the Zinus Original Green Tea 2024.

This mattress is a fantastic option if cooling is a big priority for you. It's a relatively low-profile (10"/25.4 cm) mattress with a grid-like comfort layer instead of solid foam, so it doesn't hold onto a lot of heat and helps keep hot sleepers comfortable, especially compared with other foam mattresses, like the Nectar Classic. It's worth noting that the Purple RestorePlus Hybrid's cooling performance is even better, likely because it uses springs for support instead of polyfoam.

There's nothing built into the edge of the mattress for extra support. However, its edge support is decent overall.

Purple's proprietary GelFlex Grid makes up the comfort layer. This layer is just what it sounds like: a grid made of flexible, springy plastic. It's easily compressed, and you'll also feel the medium-firm polyfoam below. The very firm support layer helps add support by preventing the heavier parts of your body from sinking further.

The transition and support layers are both made of good-quality polyfoam, especially the support layer, which is the denser and more durable of the two. While they won't be as durable as high-quality foam, these layers will resist sagging for longer compared to low-quality foams.

While the comfort layer grid is very dense, this alone isn't a good indicator of the durability of elastomeric polymers. Chemical composition, cross-linking, and the fillers used are much more important in determining how long such a material will last with real-world use.

The elastic polymer grid is about 2 inches thick. It's easy to compress a bit, but it becomes much stiffer once compressed. Heavier people will also interact with the polyfoam transition layer, while lighter people may not, and the mattress feels firmer as a result. There's also four inches of firmer support foam, which adds support for the heavier parts of your body.

The GelFlex Grid is quite firm by our measurements, but because of its unique shape, it doesn't behave like foam of a similar firmness—it collapses under you without much force and becomes much stiffer with more pressure. The second layer of foam has a medium firmness, which helps avoid feeling like you're hitting a solid surface under the grid, assuming you're heavy enough to interact with it. The support layer is much firmer and adds support for the heavier parts of your body if they compress the upper layers.

Both foam layers are quite resilient, which contributes to the mattress's overall bouncy feel and makes it easy to move around on. Because of the shape of the elastic polymer grid, we can't test its resilience the way we can with foams. However, based on our observations, it's quite resilient, meaning it has a springy feel.