King size mattresses

A standard queen mattress is 60 by 80 inches. Viscosoft makes the Edge and Edge Signature in Twin XL, Queen and King, which are 38, 60 and 76 inches wide and all 80 inches long, so the three sizes differ only in width. A queen is 16 inches narrower than a king and 22 inches wider than a twin XL, which matters most when two people share it.

A queen gives each of two sleepers 30 inches of width and a king gives 38. For most couples a queen bed mattress is comfortable, and it fits bedrooms where a 76 inch wide king leaves no room to walk around. If either of you is broad-shouldered, sleeps with arms spread, or shares the bed with a child or a pet, those extra 8 inches each are worth having. Measure the room before you decide.

They will both get the same feel, because a queen mattress has a single comfort layer across the whole bed. With a modular mattress that choice is not final, though. The Edge ships with a medium-firm layer, the Edge Signature comes in plush or medium-firm, and if the first pick suits one of you better than the other, you can order a replacement layer in the other firmness instead of returning the whole bed. Only a split king gives each side its own feel.

The Edge Signature is taller, has a thicker comfort layer and lets you choose the base. The Edge is 12 inches tall with a 3 inch removable high-density memory foam layer. The Edge Signature is 14 inches tall with a 3.5 inch removable layer over either a hybrid base with pocketed coils or an all-foam base with a memory foam core. Both come in queen with a 120 night trial and a 10 year warranty.

The Edge is medium-firm as standard, which is the firmer of the two feels Viscosoft offers. That makes it the one to start with if you want a firm queen mattress, and because the comfort layer is removable you can switch to plush later without replacing the mattress. Plush and medium-firm are the only two options, so if you need a very hard sleeping surface, neither is going to feel that way.

Regular fitted sheets are usually cut for mattresses up to about 12 inches deep, so they will be a tight fit on the 12 inch Edge and will not stay on the 14 inch Edge Signature, especially once a mattress protector adds a little height. Look for sheets labeled deep pocket, 15 inches or more, and check the pocket depth on the package, because a queen label only tells you the width and length.

No. A memory foam queen mattress needs a flat, firm surface that supports it evenly, so a platform bed, a solid foundation or a slatted base with the slats close together all work, while an old box spring with actual springs inside gives too much. Queen and larger frames also need a center support beam, not just side rails, because a 60 inch wide mattress will dip in the middle without one.

Unzip the cover, lift out the old comfort layer, drop in the new one and zip the cover back up. The Edge takes a 3 inch replacement layer and the Edge Signature takes a 3.5 inch one, both sold separately. Since the comfort layer is where a mattress wears first, swapping it is usually enough to make the bed feel new again without touching the base.

For a couple, the best queen mattress is usually one that limits motion transfer and lets you change the firmness, because those are the two complaints a shared bed produces. All-foam absorbs more movement than coils, so it suits light sleepers, while a queen hybrid mattress moves more air and suits a couple where one of you sleeps warm. A replaceable comfort layer is what lets you revisit firmness after you have slept on it. Our guide to memory foam and hybrid construction goes deeper on the motion and heat trade-off.

Usually not for long, because the saving almost always comes out of the comfort foam, which ends up thin, low density or both. A cheap queen size mattress cuts cost in the one layer that takes all the wear, so the money you save tends to turn into a hollow where you sleep. A topper can hide a shallow dip, but a deeper one means a new mattress. Our guide on whether a topper can rescue a worn mattress explains where that line is.