Joe: Layla versus Purple.
They're both great mattresses.
Which one should you get?
Stay tuned to find out.
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Joe: Let's talk about what's similar between these two mattresses.
Not a whole lot.
They both have this pretty similar base layer.
They're both wildly popular.
They both have a top layer that relieves pressure quite well.
Now, let's talk about the key differences between these two mattresses.
Number one is price.
If you include discounts and all that, it's about a couple hundred dollars cheaper for
the Layla than is for the Purple.
The Layla is also flippable.
They have a firm side and a soft side.
Purple is not.
There are material differences.
Purple has this unique, very squishy, pretty interesting firm yet pressure relieving hyper-elastic
polymer gel material.
Layla is more of a traditional memory foam feel even though it's the both memory foam
on both sides.
Because of that, the feel is going to be quite different.
You're going to really sink into the Layla and have that true memory foam feel versus
the unique feel that you get from the Purple where, again, it's firm and supportive yet
pressure relieving at the same time.
There's also going to be firmness differences.
I think that the most people are going to want to get for the soft side of the Layla.
I think that's going to be a good bit softer than the Purple is.
I think the firm side of the Layla's going to be some tiny bit firmer than the Purple
is, as well.
Let's talk about the construction of both mattresses and what the differences are.
If you really want to get into details, I encourage you to check out our written and
video reviews for each individual mattress.
Starting with the covers, very similar covers here.
There's actually something called Thermogel-infused into the Layla cover which makes it cool to
the touch.
Very similar textures, so it's not going to really affect the feel too much.
Let's talk about how the Purple works.
Normal foam mattress works, if you compress with your hand a little bit, pull a little
bit of pressure, the foam compresses a little bit.
Put more pressure, it's going to compress even more.
The way the Purple gel works is that if you put pressure on to it, it's going to stay
flat but once it reaches a certain threshold, it's going to collapse.
It's going to be firm until it collapses.
It's both firm yet pressure relieving at the same time.
That's why this mattress is a good fit for all three sleeping positions.
If you're on your side, this gel's going to collapse underneath your shoulders and your
hips.
It's very pressure relieving, but it's going to stay flat and supportive, if you're on
your back and stomach, in the right areas.
It's very good for spinal alignment and be a pretty good fit for all three sleeping positions.
The feel is going to be quite different as well from the Layla just because of the way
that that gel works.
It can be very, very squishy, but very responsive and bouncy at the same time.
Moving on to the Layla, we have the flippable mattress.
We have three inches of memory foam on top.
It's copper-infused which can make for a cooler sleeping surface.
Got an inch of memory foam on the firm side.
It's actually the same material.
We have a transition foam underneath that three inches on the soft side from the Layla.
That's going to be about five inches of pretty soft material.
If you sleep on your side, this can be a very good fit.
This can be a very good pressure relieving, soft experience.
I actually like side sleeping better for Layla as a result.
As far as durability is concerned, I would give the advantage to Purple.
This gel material will not sag like foam does.
I think it's going to last a little bit longer.
As far as breathability is concerned, I would also give the advantage to Purple.
Layla has done a nice job of addressing the sleeping hot issue with the copper infusion
and the Thermogel-infused cover, but there's this so much air that can flow through the
Purple.
It's really just a temperature neutral mattress, so I would give the advantage there.
There's the main differences overall.
Let's talk about differences in firmness and feel.
As far as firmness is concerned, I put the Purple at a 7 out of 10, 10 being the firmest.
Layla's soft side, put it at 5.5 out of 10 and the firm side, an 8 out of 10.
I think most people are going to get for the soft side of the Layla's.
Let's just say it's definitely softer than the Purple is.
As far as feel is concerned, Purple is going to have pretty good bounce.
If you drop a lacrosse ball, you'll see that the ball bounced right up.
It will not bounce at all with the Layla.
It's really just going to die there, no bounce at all.
As far as feel is concerned, you really just get that classic memory foam, sinking in,
quicksandy feel from the Layla, where you're going to sleep in the mattress, versus sleeping
on the Purple.
The Purple is going to be pretty bouncy.
You can have a very responsive sleeping surface.
It can be a little bit easier to move around.
There's definitely feel differences here.
I'm going to talk through now how I feel in different sleeping positions.
Starting on my back, on the Purple, it's very good match for me.
The gel works very well.
It collapses where it needs to collapse and also stays supportive where it needs to stay
supportive.
Very good fit for me.
On the Layla, it's pretty good match for me on the soft side.
On the firm side as well, it's a pretty good match but probably prefer the Purple on my
back.
Switching on to my side now, I do feel a little bit of pressure on the Purple.
Overall, it's pretty good pressure relief.
The Layla really shines here on the soft side, just very good pressure relief.
I don't really feel any pressure on my shoulders and hips.
I probably prefer the Layla for side sleeping.
Switching on to my stomach, now, on the firm's side of the Layla, it's a pretty good match
but I think I prefer the Purple.
It's just very supportive.
The gel material works really well there.
I would say side sleeping, Layla I prefer.
Back and stomach sleeping, I'll prefer the Purple.
I've talked about construction differences and I've given my subjective opinion about
firmness and feel.
Now, I want to give you a very objective test that shows exactly how well each mattress
relieves pressure.
We do that with the pressure map test.
I get on a pressure map.
I lie down on my back, side, and stomach.
What's really most important is the side sleeping results.
We throw up the results here.
You'll see that the Layla has less red -- does perform a little bit better overall.
I would say the pressure relief advantage goes to Layla.
That's because it's just a little bit softer.
That memory foam melts that pressure away.
That makes sense to me.
Martin: Hey, guys, Martin here to offer different perspective.
Joe's 5'9'', 160.
I'm 6'7'', 230.
I have a different body type.
Want to give my experience of these two mattresses.
Today, we have the Layla and we have the original Purple mattress.
For firmness, I said the Layla was a 6 out of 10, the Purple here just 6.5 out of 10.
Joe and I had different scores.
We did both agree the Purple was the firmer of the two mattresses.
We also had very similar experience in terms of what was best for sleeping positions for
us.
On the Layla, I felt really nice pressure relief when I was on my side, barely any pressure
on my shoulders and my hips.
Didn't feel quite enough support on my back or my stomach though.
Over on the Purple, I did feel good pressure relief on my side but not quite as good as
I did on the Layla.
I felt a lot better support on my back and my stomach.
I thought that gel collapsed around butt and keep me supported when I was on my back, and
also my stomach, my hips didn't sink in too far.
I felt really good and in alignment on that position.
If you're a heavier sleeper and you sleep on your side, I would lean towards the Layla.
If you're a heavier sleeper and you're more of a back or stomach sleeper, I would lean
towards the Purple here.
Joe: If you sleep with a partner, there's two additional things you may want to consider
when looking at a mattress.
That's motion transfer and edge support.
Motion transfer is, basically, if your partner's moving around that side of the bed, is that
motion be isolated or is it going to transfer over to you and potentially wake you up at
night?
Edge support is, basically, can you sit on the edge of the bed?
Can you sleep towards the edge of the bed without feeling like you're going to fall
off?
As far as motion transfer is concerned, I'll give the advantage to Layla.
It has memory foam and lots of it in this mattress, which has a very good job of isolating
motion.
As far as edge support is concerned, I would give the advantage to Purple.
It just seems to do a little bit better job of preventing that rolling-off-the-bed feel.
Now, the moment you've all been waiting for.
Which one of these two should you get?
As far as who should get the Layla, it's definitely the softer of the two on the soft side.
If you're looking for something a little bit softer, it could be the right choice for you.
It's also more appropriate for side sleepers.
It did quite well on our pressure map testing and just relieved pressure very well on my
shoulders and hips.
It has that memory foam feel so if you had success with that in the past and you very
liked that kind of quicksand, sleeping in the mattress feel, that's more what you get
with the Layla.
As far as who should get the Purple, that's completely temperature neutral mattress.
If you are worried about sleeping hot, this might be the choice for you.
If you want something that's a little bit firmer -- I put it at about a 7 out of 10
-- this is my choice for you.
If you switch positions at night or you're some back and stomach sleeper, I think this
is the more appropriate choice of the two.
Hopefully, I've given you a good overview of which one you should select.
The differences are pretty clear but if that's not the case, you can just leave a comment
below and I can give you a personal recommendation.
If you're just getting started with your research, definitely check out mattressclarity.com.
If you want to see a list of our top picks, you can simply Google Mattress Clarity plus
best mattress.
Once again, let me know if you have any questions.