Saatva RX vs Saatva Solaire: Which mattress for back pain should you buy this Black Friday?
How to choose between the Saatva's top-rated mattresses for back pain in the Black Friday sales
Saatva RX
Type: Hybrid
Firmness option: Supportive Plush
Height: 15”
Sizes: 7
Sleep trial: 365 nights
Warranty: Lifetime
Price (MSRP): from $1,995 at Saatva
Saatva Solaire
Type: Hybrid
Firmness option: Adjustable
Height: 13”
Sizes: 9
Sleep trial: 365 nights
Warranty: Lifetime
Price (MSRP): from $3,295 at Saatva
In this Saatva RX vs Saatva Solaire comparison, we’re looking at two mattresses from one of our favorite mattress brands to see which will do the best job of easing back pain. Saatva produce high-quality mattresses that recreate the hotel experience in your own home and, if you’re looking for a luxury mattress, the brand is hard to beat.
Saatva make some of the best mattresses in the world, and the Saatva RX and Saatva Solaire are two of the brand’s more specialized offerings, with both having features that are designed to help soothe away aches and pains. The Saatva RX came out the winner in our best mattresses for back pain round up, but the Solaire also has much to recommend it.
With just over a week to go until the Black Friday mattress sales, Saatva has already starting discounting its mattresses. The Saatva RX currently has a tiered discount, with money-off increasing with size, which means a queen is reduced to $2,945 (MSRP $3,295). Likewise, the Saatva Solaire also has tiered discounts, reducing a queen to $4,095 (MSRP $4,495). There’s quite a price difference between the two mattresses, so which one should you invest your money in? Let’s look under the covers to find out more…
Saatva RX vs Saatva Solaire Mattress: Price & Trial
- Saatva regularly offer 12-15% off MSRP, or a tiered money-off system
- Saatva’s extras are excellent, with a 365-night trial and lifetime warranty
- At full MSRP, the Solaire is over $1,000 more than the RX
Saatva mattress sales happen throughout the year, with only the summer months occasionally seeing no discounts at all. You’ll generally see 12-15% off MSRP, or tiered money-off discounts. As you’d expect, the biggest discounts are saved for major sales events.
With Black Friday just over a week away, both mattresses currently have tiered money-off discounts that increase with the size of a mattress. This means a Saatva RX queen size is reduced by $350 to $2,945 (MSRP $3,295), which is the same price we saw on Memorial Day, for example. However, we have previously seen a queen go as low as $2,801, so it may be worth hanging on for Black Friday itself to see if prices drop any further. You can keep an eye on prices by bookmarking our Saatva Black Friday mattress deals page.
The Saatva Solaire has slightly larger discounts, with $400 off a queen mattress. This takes the price down to $4,095 from its MSRP of $4,495. This mattress is, of course, a huge investment and we have seen larger discounts on it in the past. Both mattresses come with Saatva’s excellent set of extras – you’ll get a 365-night trial, lifetime warranty and free white glove delivery along with removal of your old mattress. One small black mark is that you’ll need to pay $99 to return the mattress if it’s not right for you.
Saatva RX Mattress: from $1,995 $1,795 at Saatva
The Saatva RX is a luxury mattress that’s specifically designed for sleepers with chronic or serious back and joint pain. There’s almost always a mattress sale on at Saatva, with between 12-15% off mattresses, and right now the mattress is discounted to $2,945 in a queen size. There’s also a 365-night trial, lifetime warranty and free white glove delivery.
Saatva Solaire Mattress: from $3,295 $2,945 at Saatva
The Saatva Solaire pairs Saatva’s exceptional quality finish with sleep tech that allows you to adjust the firmness of the mattress to your exact specifications. As with the RX above, you’ll nearly always find a discount on the Solaire, although it’s still the brand’s most expensive mattress. A queen is currently discounted to $4,095 from its MSRP of $4,495 and you’ll get the same extras as with the RX.
Saatva RX vs Saatva Solaire Mattress: Materials & Design
- The Saatva RX is an innerspring hybrid standing 15” high
- The Saatva Solaire is an adjustable mattress standing 13” high
- The Saatva Solaire uses a remote to adjust the firmness settings
Both mattresses are made by Saatva, but there are big differences in the design. The Saatva RX is a traditional hybrid design, starting with an organic cover along with the brand’s patented lumbar crown – a 1” strip of gel-infused memory foam situated in the middle third of the mattress. Up next is a layer of micro-coils supported between two slabs of high-density foam for pressure relief and support, followed by individual open cell foam modules to enhance contouring and reduce any motion transfer.
This latex-like foam is also infused with graphite and phase change material to help keep sleepers cool overnight. These layers sit on top of an individually wrapped spring coil layer, with firmer coils around the perimeter for additional edge support. The mattress is finished with a non-woven base layer to stabilize the mattress. You’ll also find Saatva’s Therapeutic Support Core technology, which enables the RX to adjust to your body every time you move. This helps to reduce pressure points and boost circulation.
The Saatva Solaire is made up of a lot of materials that you’ll recognize from many of our best mattress in a box suggestions. The mattress starts with the same cover and lumbar quilting that you’ll find on the Saatva RX. Underneath is a layer of five-zone natural Talalay latex, followed by a layer of CertiPUR-US certified gel-infused memory foam. There’s a moisture barrier under this layer to prevent condensation. Next up is the main event, Saatva’s vulcanized air chambers which deflate and inflate via a remote control.
The air inflator is hidden in a reinforced power edge enclosure. Finally, there’s a base layer of high-density polyfoam. The bedside remote control allows you to change the air chamber setting until it’s right for you, and a memory mode means it will remember your preferred setting. All this means that you can adjust the firmness of the mattress to provide plenty of lumbar support, crucial if you want to ease back pain. We think this is one of the best smart mattresses you can buy.
Saatva RX vs Saatva Solaire Mattress: Comfort & Support
- The Saatva RX is specifically designed for those with chronic back and joint pain
- The Solaire is adjustable to provide tailored support where needed
- Both mattresses offer excellent pressure relief
The Saatva RX is the brand’s specialist mattress for those suffering with chronic back and joint pain, along with conditions such as arthritis and scoliosis. In our Saatva RX mattress review our testers found that the mattress did a superb job of delivering balanced support and pressure relief for most sleepers with back and joint pain. Although Saatva rate the RX as ‘supportive plush’ (4-6/10), our testers all felt it slept as a medium firm (7.5/10) mattress.
Because of this, back and stomach sleepers particularly enjoyed the mattress, with the firmer support doing a great job of keeping the spine aligned and hips raised. However, there was plenty of cushioned support for side sleepers, although it did take them a little longer to feel comfortable on the mattress and lightweight side sleepers may always find it too firm. The RX’s winning tactics when it comes to back pain is the combination of the brand’s patented LumbarZone quilting and Therapeutic Support Core that work together to provide superior lumbar support and react to your body’s movements.
The Saatva Solaire is a very different animal, as it’s a completely adjustable mattress that can cater to a wide range of body types and sleeping positions. The mattress has 50 firmness settings on each side of the bed, which you can set from 3-7/10. The combination of memory foam with a latex layer above it gives this bed a slight bouncier feel than some others.
However, as you can inflate or deflate the air chambers as you choose, this mattress is suitable for all sleeping positions and the latex makes it particularly easy for combination sleepers to change position during the night. Because it’s manually adjustable with a remote, you can tweak it as and when you require. Heavier weight sleepers may find it a little soft though. This ability to adjust the bed means you can ensure that you find a setting that provides adequate support to your lumbar region, which will help to prevent and soothe any back pain.
Saatva RX vs Saatva Solaire Mattress: Temperature Regulation
- The Saatva RX has a breathable cover, gel infused foam and well-spaced coils to promote airflow
- The Saatva Solaire has the same breathable cover and gel infused foam, along with a layer of naturally breathable latex
- Neither mattress has huge amounts of foam, which helps to keep temps down
If you’re a back pain sufferer, the last thing you want to do is overheat at night. Tossing and turning as you try to cool down will just aggravate aches and pain, so it’s important to choose a mattress that will keep your temperature regulated. Fortunately, both Saatva mattresses have very little memory foam, which is notorious for trapping heat and the little that there is has been infused with gel to help with cooling.
Both the Saatva RX and Solaire also have a breathable cotton cover and the Saatva RX has coils that will help with airflow. The Saatva Solaire has a latex layer – latex is naturally breathable, and its air chambers will obviously, as the name suggests, be moving air around the mattress that’ll help with cooling. Of course, neither are specialist cooling mattresses so, if you do sleep particularly hot, consider one of the best cooling mattresses instead.
Saatva RX vs Saatva Solaire Mattress: Which should you buy?
Buy the Saatva RX if...
✅ You suffer with severe and chronic back and joint conditions: The Saatva RX is specifically designed for chronic conditions such as sciatica and arthritis and is designed to give you maximum pressure relief to help alleviate pain.
✅ You want a more traditional innerspring feel: The Saatva RX is an innerspring hybrid, using the modern technologies of hybrid mattresses, whilst providing a traditional innerspring feel to sleepers.
✅ You want a slightly ‘cheaper’ mattress: Okay, neither of these mattresses could be considered anything other than expensive, but the RX is over $1,000 cheaper than the Solaire in a queen size at full MSRP.
Buy the Saatva Solaire if...
✅ You aren’t sure exactly what firmness you need: The adjustable nature of the Saatva Solaire means that you can experiment with different firmness settings to find the one that suits you best.
✅ You share your bed: The adjustable nature of the Solaire means you and your partner can find the right setup for your own sleeping style. Pair the bed with Saatva’s adjustable base and an upper-flex or split mattress and you can independently raise the head and / or head and feet as required.
✅ You want a little more bounce: With its latex layer and air filled chambers, the Solaire is a little bit bouncier and ideal for combination sleepers.
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Jo Plumridge is an experienced mattress reviewer with several years' experience covering all things mattresses and sleep, and who tests memory foam, hybrid and organic mattresses. What Jo doesn't know about a boxed mattress isn't worth knowing, so naturally we tasked her with producing a series of features for Tom's Guide looking at all aspects of mattresses, from how to pick between latex and memory foam (it's a tricky one), to the seven mistakes people make when buying a mattress for the first time. When testing the DreamCloud Luxury Hybrid for Tom's Guide, Jo said: "I loved the back support and pressure relief it offered. Plus, it looks far more expensive than it is." When she isn’t writing about sleep, Jo also writes extensively on interior design, home products and photography.