We were recently sent a Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress by Panda. We’ve already written a detailed guide to Panda’s mattresses – but this guide is going to include a few more photos and more information about our experiences.

The Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress competes in a busy marketplace of modern mattresses. Back in the day, a trial period of a mattress was almost unheard of. From what I recall, Tempur offered one, but their mattresses cost about three times as much as this Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress.
The business model used by these modern brands is a clever one – they don’t tend to provide expensive showrooms, and the mattresses are stored in compact vacuum sealed boxes. Delivery is easier as it can be carried out by day-to-day delivery men and women rather than mattress specialists.
Once it arrives, you can get it up the stairs without having to do awkward pivoting around corners.

Unpacking the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress
The Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress had a lot of spare space in the box. We were sent a single model, so I’m guessing the same box is also used for the double size version.
It took two of us to get it upstairs, as it’s a bulky size and relatively heavy. As it doesn’t use up all of the space in the box, it also moves around a little.
Unpacking these mattresses is great fun but there are a couple of things to consider.
Firstly, don’t use a ‘Stanley’ knife to cut open the packaging. You probably would have worked this out for yourself, but there’s a severe risk of damaging the mattress through the thin plastic covering.
You can use a ‘box cutter’ with a concealed blade (if you have one) but we managed to do it by hand by finding the edge and unpeeling it.
The second thing to consider is that mattresses such as the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress are not instantly useable. This one says that it needs six hours to fully expand, but some take a little longer.




Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress – unpacked and ready for testing
We left the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress overnight to allow it to fully expand. As with all new mattresses, we also expected a bit of an odour that needed to ‘offgas’.
In the case of the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress, I didn’t find the odour to be particularly strong. I’ve certainly tried out mattresses with a much stronger smell.


Comfort and feel of the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress
We won’t go into too much detail about the design of the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress, as we’ve already covered that in our main guide to Panda mattresses.
However, we will go over the basics.
The ‘hybrid’ word within the title of the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress refers to the fact that it combines memory foam and springs. You’ll see the ‘hybrid’ word used differently from time to time, but this combination is the most common meaning.
Traditionally, all high-quality mattresses were pocket spring. This design gives less wibble-wobble than you get with the other main spring design (open-coil) and tends to be more supportive.
100% foam mattresses came along more recently and provided competition.
We’ve seen an explosion in these in the last decade or so, with lots of brands offering 100% foam models (e.g. Emma, Eve Sleep etc). Interestingly, nearly all of these brands have subsequently offered ‘hybrid’ models that combine springs and foam. Some have discontinued their foam mattresses altogether whilst others still sell them alongside the hybrid models.



The firmness of the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress
Firmness is something of a curiosity in the mattress world. Long time readers will have heard this explanation several times (Ed: trust me, this site is too boring to have ‘long term readers’)
There is no universally agreed system for measuring firmness, which is a particular problem if you go for one of these mattresses that you can’t test out in person.
Most mattress brands have moved towards a system where 1 is soft and 10 is firm. This is pretty useful, but – as far as I’m aware – manufacturers haven’t agreed what each number means. For example, we can’t say that if you weigh 12 stone and are 5 foot 11 inches tall then you should look for a ‘number 5’ mattress, regardless of who has made it. It’s similar to clothes that are ‘small’ ‘medium’ and ‘large’. It gives an indication but not consistency between brands.
Anyway, with that caveat out the way I’ll explain that the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress is given a rating of 6.5/10 by the manufacturer. I weigh 13 stone and am six foot tall and found it to be about right for me. I mostly sleep on my front. If I was being fussy then I would probably go for one that was about 5% softer, but it wasn’t far off my ideal firmness.
Personal preference also comes into this, but those are my thoughts on firmness!


What’s going on inside the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress?
As mentioned earlier, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress uses memory foam and pocket springs to try and get the best of both worlds.
We peeled back the cover to take a closer look at how it’s designed.
The Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress uses what we call a ‘sandwich’ design. The idea is that the memory foam layer (yellow on the pictures below) is used below a different type of foam. Memory foam was nearly always used as the top layer on foam mattresses for many years, as it gave that hugging feeling and also bounced back slower.
However, the main complaint that people have about memory foam is that it can make you feel a little warmer in bed. By using a different type of foam on top (one containing bamboo), the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress aims to offer you the benefits of memory foam without the overheating issue.
It’s a little hard to give personal experience on heat without spending summer and winter using a mattress but my initial impressions are that the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress does a good job of keeping you at a suitable temperature at night.



Want to know more about the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress?
Take a look at our main guide to Panda mattresses, which contains a lot more detail about what you’re getting for your money – including the warranty and trial period.
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