Best California King Mattresses for 2023 – CNET
Best California King Mattresses for 2023 - CNET
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Ever since Rihanna sang California King Bed, we’ve been dreaming of a good night’s sleep on a California king size mattress.
Perhaps you’re an extra tall individual or you sleep with a partner and you’d both love some extra foot room. If you’re ready to take the plunge on a new dream bed and land yourself in the best California king mattress on the market, stay with us. We took a close look at which mattresses work best in the California king size.
Regardless of what mattress type you’re looking for — a memory foam mattress, gel memory foam mattress, innerspring mattress, hybrid mattress, a soft or firm mattress or some other variation that caters to your preferred sleeping style — here are the best California king mattress options we’ve found. (All prices listed are the regular, nonsale list price.) Once you pick out the perfect mattress, you’ll be able to experience the true comfort of the California King Bed Rihanna couldn’t stop singing about.
Prices below reflect the costs of California king size mattresses.
Video: Best California King Mattresses for 2023
Watch CNET video producer Owen Poole review the best California king size mattresses for 2023.
Read more: Best Bed Sheets for Every Type of Sleeper
Mattress price scale:
$ = Budget: $799 and below
$$ = Average: $800 to $1,699
$$$ = Premium: $1,700 and up
These reflect MSRP or list prices. Sales might make a mattress less expensive, but are always changing.
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When deciding the best California king mattress overall, I wanted to pick a mattress that was suitable for singles, couples, all body types, most sleeping positions and most budgets. The Brooklyn Bedding Signature fits that bill to a tee, and it’s ultracomfortable.
The Brooklyn Bedding Signature is a hybrid mattress that’s more affordable than most of its competitors. Brooklyn Bedding manufactures its own mattresses, eliminating the need for a middle man. That makes it able to sell you your mattress for less than the other big brands. When you catch this mattress during a promo, you can get a quality California king bed for under $1,200.
It’s a comfortable, accommodating hybrid mattress that feels soft and springy. I’d compare it to the foam in your favorite comfy couch, or like memory foam without that dense, “stuck” feel. It’s available in three firmness levels, making the soft and medium models perfect for side and combination sleepers, while the firm model is ideal for back and stomach sleepers. Read more about this mattress in our full Brooklyn Bedding Signature review.
Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid
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The Layla Hybrid tops our list as the best California king mattress, particularly because this king bed is conveniently flippable, with a softer and firmer side to choose from. The soft side is extra plush and pressure relieving, perfect for any side sleeper who wants a cushiony feel.
The firm side isn’t super firm. It’s more around a six out of 10 on the firmness scale, making it great for most sleeping positions. I also think heavy side sleepers will like the firm end because it’ll feel like a soft mattress with a good balance of support.
The Layla Hybrid California king bed consists of layers of gel memory foam, support foam, pocketed coils and a center layer of copper-infused foam. The center foam mattress layer is designed to draw heat away from the sleeper’s body to help cool them off while they sleep, while simultaneously adding antimicrobial properties to prevent bacteria buildup in the mattress. I think the memory foam feels light and airy, compared to a bed like the Nectar that feels more dense and firm.
If you sleep with a partner, there will be sufficient space and the edges will feel properly supportive (for those of you who sleep next to a bed-hot). This thick memory foam mattress has extra strong, 16-gauge coils around the perimeter to strengthen the edges. The memory foam also does a great job at isolating motion. Read more in our full Layla Hybrid mattress review.
The Layla Hybrid California king size bed is available with a 120-night sleep trial, 10-year warranty and free shipping in the contiguous 48 states.
Layla Hybrid
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The Saatva Classic is a supportive mattress with a combination of contouring latex foam, supportive innerspring coils and special lumbar technology that makes it great for back and stomach sleepers. The Luxury Firm model of this mattress is a solid medium-firm and its dual-coil construction is a unique feature that makes the Saatva bed incredibly supportive. As such, it’s one of the best California king mattress models you can buy.
The Saatva Classic hybrid mattress is unique in the direct-to-consumer realm in that it doesn’t arrive in a box (so make sure your doorways and stairs can fit a California king’s dimensions). But that means it can be made to order after you select your preference of firmness level as well as your choice of height: 11.5 inches or 14.5 inches.
Based on my own testing, I found the beds range from medium to firm, depending on the firmness level you choose. Finally, the California king bed mattress reaches new levels of coziness with a three-inch Euro pillow top. All of this also works well for larger mattresses like the Cal king.
With your purchase at Saatva, you get a 180-night sleep trial, a 15-year warranty and free delivery with in-room setup and old mattress removal. Read more for our full Saatva mattress review.
Saatva Classic
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The new Nectar Hybrid mattress
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The new Nectar Hybrid mattress
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The new Nectar Hybrid mattress
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The new Nectar Hybrid mattress
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Nectar is a reputable bed-in-a-box brand that helped popularize the movement along with mattress bigwigs like Casper and Purple. The brand recently came out with its hybrid models, taking what people loved about the original Nectar memory foam mattress and making it more durable and supportive.
The Nectar Hybrid mattress is 12 inches thick and will suit a range of body types, from petite to plus-size. It’s made with memory foam but feels different from the flagship Nectar model. It’s more of a neutralized memory foam feel in that it doesn’t have that dense, contouring profile that’s slow to respond to pressure. I chalk that up to the pocketed coils in the bottom layer that give it more bounce. However it’s still great at isolating motion if you’re looking for the best California king mattress for couples.
I’d rate the Nectar Hybrid around a medium to medium-firm, so it’s a little softer than the original Nectar and better suited for people who like to sleep on their side.
Nectar is known for its good prices and big bundles. If you wait until this mattress goes on sale, (which is pretty often, not just big holidays) you can snag a California king bed for around $1,100.
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Having enjoyed a hands-on test of the Avocado Green mattress, I can say from experience that it’s a joy to sleep on. And on top of being highly comfy, especially for back, stomach and heavy sleepers, this Cal king mattress is also eco-friendly — Avocado’s mattresses are made of organic wool, cotton and latex.
In addition to using organic materials, Avocado sources its wool from its own co-owned Indian wool farm, where more than 200,000 sheep roam freely across 40 organic hectares. If you’d prefer a vegan mattress without wool of any kind, Avocado also makes the same mattress in a vegan variety, which also comes in a California king. The company also grows and processes its own organic Dunlop latex. Each mattress is handcrafted in its California factory, where the company bypasses the use of toxic glues by implementing a traditional hand-tufting technique. And if that’s not enough, their mattresses are all tested to ensure low emissions, guaranteeing that they meet air quality standards.
If you need a firm mattress to support a larger or taller body, the Avocado Green in California king size is a great choice. You can also buy the pillow-topper for $500 which softens up the feel to a medium-firm. It’s an ideal firmer mattress for back and stomach sleepers, as well as those with back pain. A little extra space lengthwise gives the healing body plenty of room to do its thing.
Avocado’s US-made mattresses come with free shipping, a one-year sleep trial and a 25-year warranty. Read more at our full Avocado mattress review.
