The Zoma Start is a reasonably priced mattress from the athlete-focused brand. But is it the ideal foam bed for you?
Score Breakdown
Pros and Cons
Zoma is an online mattress brand marketed toward athletes — it even sponsors quite a few of them — and designed for improving recovery. The company makes three different mattresses: the luxurious Zoma Boost Hybrid, the Zoma Hybrid and the Zoma Start mattress. The beds go with a «good, better, best» model, and the Zoma Start is an entry-level mattress that could make for the perfect holiday shopping material for yourself.
The biggest thing that jumps out to me about the Zoma Start is how affordable it is — coming in well below many of its competitors, like the Casper One, Leesa Studio and even competing with the Bear Original on price. Also, like many of its competitors, it is an accommodating three-layer all-foam mattress that I would describe as «basic», but that is not meant to be a knock against the mattress because lots of shoppers are looking for a mattress exactly like this.Video: Zoma Start mattress review
Watch me review the Zoma Start mattress.First impressions of the Zoma Start mattress
The first thing I noticed after unboxing the Zoma Start mattress was the look of the cover. Most mattresses we test use stark white fabric for the cover to give it a luxurious look or a beige cover to denote organic materials. The Zoma Start opts for a sleek-looking gray cover with a triangular pattern on the sides.
The Zoma brand is geared toward younger people who lead an athletic lifestyle, and the design fits. The mattress took a while, about 48 hours, to fully firm up after we unboxed it, and once we started testing it, the bed felt very familiar in a good way. There is a popular mattress category that we describe as «soft or neutral foam», and it was clear to me from the start that the Zoma Start fit into this category.
Overall, I wasn’t blown away by the Zoma Start mattress but after seeing the price I thought it was a much more compelling pick.Is the Zoma Start mattress right for you?
For anyone looking for an affordable, generally comfortable and accommodating foam mattress I think the Zoma Start is an excellent choice. It has a classic three-layer, all-foam design that is similar to lots of other popular beds like the Bear Original, Leesa Original, Leesa Studio and Casper One while also being very budget friendly.
Zoma markets itself toward athletes and hypes a lot of «tech» in the mattress that is supposed to improve athletic performance. Nothing in our testing could really confirm those claims, but the best thing athletes can do is get the best quality sleep and the Zoma Start could provide that for you for a low price.Zoma Start mattress firmness and feelZoma Start feel
The feel of the Zoma Start mattress is generally comfortable and accommodating. This type of mattress feel is what we usually describe as «neutral.» That means the bed doesn’t lean too strongly into the slow to respond, dense, sink-in memory foam sensation or an ultra-responsive, bouncy latex feel. A neutral feel like this strikes a nice balance between being responsive enough to not ever feel like you are «stuck» in the mattress without having too much bounce.
Most people who try out a mattress like the Zoma Start usually think it’s pretty comfortable — although it may not be exactly what everyone wants. I think a mattress feel like this is for someone who doesn’t have a specific preference and for couples who can’t agree on a specialized mattress feel.Zoma Start firmness and sleeper types
In our testing, we found the Zoma Start to be a flat medium on our firmness scale (4-6 out of 10), which means it will work ok for all sleeping positions: back, stomach, side and combination.
This firmness profile works especially well for combination sleepers who split time between their back and side and for couples who can’t agree on an especially soft or firm mattress.
One thing all the Zoma mattresses have in common is this medium firmness profile, so if you want something different you’ll have to check out a different brand.Zoma Start mattress construction
Like I mentioned earlier, the Zoma Start mattress is a three-layer mattress composed entirely of foam. The bottom layer is dense, responsive support foam. Every single foam mattress we have tested features a support layer like this because without it you would most likely sink all the way down onto your foundation.
