Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress review 2025: Back pain relief for those with smaller budgets

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress review in brief

The Panda Hybrid Bamboo mattress is the cheaper of two mattresses made by Panda. Offering many of the features found in the brand’s more expensive mattress, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Pro mattress (which we reviewed in 2023), the Hybrid Bamboo comes in considerably cheaper than its older sibling but lacks some of its advanced orthopaedic materials. The Hybrid Bamboo Pro is our best mattress pick for hot sleepers, but how does the Hybrid Bamboo compare in this and other crucial categories?

Our main tester is a combination lightweight sleeper who often experiences lower back pain and is constantly on the hunt for the perfect mattress to both ease aches and pains and provide enough cushioning for her pressure points.

She was initially concerned that the Panda Hybrid Bamboo would be a little soft, as the brand rates it at 6.5 out of 10. However, she found the mattress firmer than this, rating it 7.5 out of 10 and her light to average weight husband agreed that the Panda was firmer than advertised.

The mattress immediately impressed when it came to lumbar support, particularly for back sleepers who will find their lumbar regions well-supported and spines kept aligned. But, despite the foams softening up a little bit over time, the Hybrid Bamboo mattress is a little on the firm side for lightweight side sleepers, who aren’t going to find enough cushioning for their pressure points.

On the flip side, it’s likely that heavier weight stomach sleepers in particular won’t feel well enough supported by the Panda, with hips dipping too far into the mattress for support.

For most sleepers, though, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo is a mattress that’s pretty comfortable from the off, delivering a great combination of support and comfort from the first night. The other big selling point of the Panda is its excellent temperature regulation.

Like many hybrid mattresses, the Hybrid Bamboo is made from a combination of foams and coils, which helps with breathability. But Panda also utilises bamboo, which is naturally breathable (as well as hypoallergenic and antibacterial).

The mattress has a bamboo cover along with the brand’s patented BioCell foam: open-cell memory foam infused with bamboo to help keep air flowing through the bed and stop heat being trapped in the foams. There’s also a layer of springs that enhance airflow within the mattress.

Edge support is fair, and motion isolation isn’t bad, although we did notice a little touch of motion transfer when the more restless of our testers turned from side to side on the mattress. Overall though, this is an impressive mattress for its price.

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: price & trial

• Good range of UK and EU sizes on offer
• Panda sales aren’t common
• Free white glove delivery and old mattress recycling

Panda mattress sales aren’t as common as with many other brands, although we think the Hybrid Bamboo is competitively priced even at full RRP. It’s at the top end of the mid-range price bracket at full price.

We do occasionally see 25% discounts on the mattress, generally around major sales events, and you may also find a 10% saving applied from time to time. It’s not always easy to predict these sales, though, so make sure you bookmark our mattress sales page if you’re looking to grab a bargain.

The Panda is available in a range of UK sizes, but you’ll also get EU options as well, including an Emperor for those seeking maximum bed space. Here’s the pricing for all sizes of the Panda Hybrid Bamboo as of May 2025:

• Single: £649
• Small Double: £789
• Double: £799
• King: £889
• Super King: £959
• EU Single: £659
• EU Double: £829
• EU King: £899
• EU Emperor: £1,050

Extras-wise, you’ll get a fairly standard 100-night trial and 10-year warranty with the mattress. Still, this is plenty of time to try the bed out and, as 10 years is around the maximum lifespan of most mattresses, the warranty should cover any problems. Panda does offer a very generous white glove delivery, with free delivery to a room of your choosing, along with a free old mattress removal service if required. You’ll also get free returns if you decide that the mattress isn’t a great fit.

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: from £649 at Panda London
The Panda Hybrid Bamboo mattress is the cheaper of the two mattresses from the brand, offering a firmer feel than expected, along with BioCell foam that’s designed to keep sleepers cool and comfortable. Alongside the mattress you’ll also get a 100-night trial, 10-year warranty and free white glove delivery.

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Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: materials & design

• A 25cm high mattress with four layers and a top and bottom cover
• Bamboo-infused foam for comfort and temperature regulation
• Hypoallergenic bamboo cover

Like the best hybrid mattresses, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo is crafted from coils and high-quality foams. The Hybrid Bamboo is also a great choice for the ethically conscious — it's made with only ethically sourced organic bamboo that’s been grown pesticide-free, and at the end of its life, Panda will collect the mattress and recycle or repurpose it.

All foams in the mattress are CertiPUR Certified, meaning they’re free from heavy metals, harmful dyes and ozone depleters. And the packaging is recyclable and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified.

Starting at the top of the mattress you’ll find a bamboo cover that’s hypoallergenic, antibacterial and naturally breathable. It’s also removable for washing at 30C, although do be warned that it’s a bit of a faff to get on and off.

The cover feels soft and smooth to the touch — you almost want to lie directly on it. Directly underneath this is the brand’s patented BioCell foam — an open cell foam infused with bamboo that’s both odour-resistant and extremely breathable.

Next up is a double layer of Panda’s DualFlex foam. This patented orthopaedic memory foam is designed to be extra-resilient, so it can offer plenty of support without sinkage. Underneath this are up to 800 individual pocket springs to add more support and minimise motion transfer, and there's a high-density memory foam base underneath to keep the mattress supported and distribute your body weight.

The whole thing is finished off with an anti-slip layer that, as the name suggests, prevents your mattress from sliding around on your bed base.

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: comfort & support

• Panda rates it as 6.5 out of 10 on the firmness scale
• We rate the mattress at 7.5 out of 10
• Fantastic lumbar support for back sleepers

Panda suggests that the Hybrid Bamboo is slightly softer than its Hybrid Bamboo Pro mattress, but our main tester disagreed with this assessment. Having tested both mattresses, she felt that they were both of a similar firmness.

Our tester is of a lighter weight, which can influence how firm a mattress feels. So she asked some heavier sleepers for their opinion. Most also rated the mattress at 7.5 out of 10, although a few felt it was nearer to a 7. What does this mean in more practical terms? As a true medium firm mattress, we felt that the Panda Hybrid Bamboo was suitable for most sleepers, barring very lightweight side sleepers and heavier stomach sleepers.

The Panda excels when it comes to providing decent lumbar support for back and stomach sleepers. The slightly firmer feel of the top layers means that you don’t sink into the mattress but rather feel it contouring gently around you.

This means that the lumbar region is fantastically supported, with the spine kept aligned and the hips lifted. Our main tester had recently slept on the DreamCloud Hybrid mattress, rating it highly for easing lower back pain, but after sleeping on the Hybrid Bamboo, she felt that this was an even better choice for those suffering with aches and pains. As a combination sleeper, our main tester felt comfortable sleeping on her back from day one.

When it comes to side sleeping, the Panda is a mattress that rewards a little patience. If you’re a heavier sleeper, it’s likely you’ll enjoy side sleeping from day one. However, it may take a little time for average weight sleepers to adjust.

Once the Panda foams had softened up, our secondary light to average weight sleeper found sleeping on his side extremely comfortable. However, we did feel that the mattress was a little too firm for lightweight side sleepers — our main tester occasionally woke up with a little discomfort in her hip.

Although the mattress is firmer than you might expect, we still don’t think it will be supportive enough for heavier stomach sleepers in particular, who are likely to end up sinking onto the coils. Instead, we’d recommend a firmer option, such as the Otty Firm mattress that will keep the hips lifted and supported.

We also conducted a sinkage test, placing a 20kg weight in the middle and seeing how much it sank in. Sinkage was 9cm, exactly the same as the aforementioned DreamCloud and around what we’d expect for a medium firm mattress. Remember, of course, that firmness is subjective – that’s why it’s so important to buy a mattress with a lengthy trial period.

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: performance

• Good motion isolation, but very light sleepers could be disturbed by a restless partner
• Excellent temperature regulation thanks to the bamboo and open cell foam
• Edge support is fair, with a little bit of sinkage when sitting on the bed

Our main and secondary tester slept on a UK Panda Hybrid Bamboo mattress for a month, inviting other adults of varying body types and sleeping styles to try it out to get a wider view of how the mattress feels. As well as recording our own personal experiences, we also carried out a number of tests to gauge motion isolation, temperature regulation and edge support.

Motion isolation

If you share your bed with a restless sleeper or are a light sleeper yourself, you’ll know the importance of buying a mattress with decent motion isolation. Motion transfer can reverberate across the whole mattress and disturb sleep.

Fortunately, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo has pretty good motion isolation that should suit most sleepers. However, we did notice a small amount of motion transfer when our more restless sleeper turned from side to side, but this is only likely to disturb the lighter sleepers among us.

We also carried out an objective drop test, using an empty wine glass and dropping a 4kg weight from a low height to simulate a sleeper’s movement at night. There was no movement at 60cm, but we did see a very slight wobble at 25cm, followed by the glass falling over at 10cm.

Score: 4.5 out of 5

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Temperature regulation

We tested the Panda Hybrid Bamboo in spring with a breathable wool winter duvet (10 tog) over the course of a month. Overnight temperatures were changeable, varying from 2C up to 10C.

Our main tester always sleeps cold, but her husband is a hot sleeper who is used as the guinea pig for these tests. He was impressed with the temperature regulation on the mattress, never overheating or feeling too warm.

The Panda mattress utilises bamboo, which is naturally breathable as well as being hypoallergenic and antibacterial. Alongside a bamboo cover, there’s also a layer of the brands’ patented BioCell foam – a unique open cell structure that’s infused with organic bamboo.

This does an excellent job of keeping sleepers cool overnight. Finally, you also have a layer of individually wrapped springs to help with airflow.

Score: 5 out of 5

Edge support

Edge support on a mattress is important as it helps us get in and out of bed, increases the sleeping area of the mattress, helps prevent premature sagging around the perimeters and allows you to sit comfortably on the edge of the bed.

The edge support on the Panda was a bit of a mixed bag. When we were lying on the mattress, it felt stable at the edges and our testers felt able to use the full width of the mattress.

However, when sitting on the edges, sinkage was more noticeable – a fact backed up by measuring this with our 20kg weight. Whilst sinkage in the middle of the mattress was 9cm, it increased to 11cm around the edges. It’s still easy to sit on the bed, but you will notice a little dipping.

Score: 4 out of 5

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: delivery & setup

• Free white glove delivery
• Free old mattress removal
• Takes around six hours for the mattress to inflate enough to sleep on

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The Panda delivery experience was seamless for us and one of the best we’ve come across in the UK market. Once you’ve purchased the mattress, you’ll be given a delivery date (don’t worry, you can reschedule if that doesn’t suit.)

On the morning of my delivery we were given a two-hour time slot for delivery and once the mattress arrived, it was carried straight to our bedroom. Do note that the mattress arrives rolled and in a box. Delivery takes between three to seven days from purchase.

Once the mattress has arrived, the delivery team will take away all the packaging, along with your old mattress if required. But, in the name of fully testing the mattress process from beginning to end, we unpacked the mattress ourselves.

As with all rolled mattresses, it’s just a case of carefully cutting through the plastic packaging and waiting for the bed to inflate. We did notice that this took a little longer than with some mattress in a box options, with the mattress being inflated enough to sleep on after six hours.

When we tested this mattress’ big brother, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Pro, a few years ago, off-gassing was an issue, taking a while to fade. But things have improved since then and the fairly faint off-gassing smell was gone within 24 hours.

Just a note on Panda’s excellent eco credentials here when it comes to packaging – the mattress boxes are made from a minimum of 80% recycled materials and are themselves 100% recyclable. And the plastic packaging contains 40% recycled material from post-consumer waste and is also 100% recyclable.

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: customer reviews

• Panda has a 4.7 out of 5-star rating on TrustPilot
• The Hybrid Bamboo averages 4.68 out of 5 on the Panda website, based on 22 reviews
• The mattress is praised for instant comfort

As well as sleeping on a mattress ourselves, we also look at customer reviews to get a broader picture of the brand. Panda has a mainly positive rating as a brand, with an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5. However, this is for all products, not just the mattress. On Panda’s own website, there are 22 specific reviews for the mattress, with an overall rating of 4.68 out of 5.

Searching through all the reviews, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo is constantly praised for its temperature regulation and instant comfort, with many customers also praising its ability to help with aches and pains. There are some customers who praise the firmness of the mattress, while a few also complained that it was too firm (which is as we would expect.)

On a wider note, the only niggles with Panda seem to be some people finding the mattress cover a little slippery (which isn’t something we noticed) or having issues with the delivery service. But, overall, the Panda is an extremely popular mattress.

Should you buy the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress?

If you’re looking for a high-quality mattress that will keep you cool and refreshed at night, the Panda is an excellent choice. The bamboo does a fantastic job of keeping sleepers cool and comfortable throughout the night as well as wicking away any moisture build-up.

The Panda is one of those mattresses that feels pretty comfortable from the off, although lighter sleepers like our main tester may find it takes a little while to soften up sufficiently. Lumbar support is particularly good, and we’d recommend this mattress to those who suffer with aches and pains.

However, it is likely to be a little too firm for lightweight side sleepers and, conversely, heavier weight sleepers probably won’t find it quite supportive enough. Its big brother, the Panda Hybrid Bamboo Pro, does offer a little more overall support for back pain with its seven zoned spring layer and orthopaedic foam but, if you’re on a tighter budget, this is a fantastic mattress to invest in.

Panda Hybrid Bamboo Mattress: alternatives