Simba has just launched an Amazon-exclusive mattress that only costs £349 – it's nearly half the price of its normal 5-star rated range

Simba, one of the UK's best-known sleep retailers, has just launched an Amazon-exclusive mattress that costs only £349. That's nearly half the price of the brand's usual entry-level mattress.

The Simba Simbatex Cool Mattress went on sale for the first time this week and will be sold exclusively through Amazon's online marketplace.

As Simba puts it, it's a mattress developed 'for those seeking Simba’s signature cool comfort at an accessible price point', and its budget-friendly price tag is certainly very appealing.

As Ideal Home's Sleep Editor, I've put plenty of Simba mattresses through our testing process to see how they rank against the best mattresses on the market, and I've always been impressed.

In fact, our review team has ranked the brand's original mattress, the Simba Hybrid Mattress, as the winner of Ideal Home's 'best mattress overall' category for the past five years running.

That's a big accolade, and makes it one of the few mattresses that have scored 5 out of 5 stars in our testing process. Overall, it offers a great combination of comfort, support, and value for money, with the cherry on top being Simba's excellent customer service.

However, whilst I think the Hybrid offers great value for money, it still couldn't be described as cheap. A double of the Simba Hybrid Mattress costs £799.

In contrast, the Amazon-exclusive Simba Simbatex Cool Mattress costs £399 for a double and £349 for a single. That's a £400 saving if you have a double bed.

It's also considerably cheaper than what *was* Simba's most affordable mattress, the Simba Hybrid Essential Mattress, which retails at £649 for a double.

We put the Simba Hybrid Essential Mattress through Ideal Home's mattress testing process last year, and it's a good mattress, but due to its price point, I didn't feel we could crown it the best budget mattress you can buy. That accolade went to the DreamCloud Hybrid Mattress instead, which costs £499 for a double.

However, now that Simba has launched a mattress that's nearly half the price of its pre-existing range, all of this may change. We'll be testing this new Amazon-exclusive as soon as we can, but in the meantime, how does it differ from Simba's standard mattress range?

Well, according to the small print, this is Simba's only mattress that doesn't include springs. The rest of the brand's range consists of hybrid mattresses, which means that they're a mixture of micro or pocket springs paired with various combinations of the brand's Simbatex foam and other comfort and breathability layers.

In contrast, the new Simba Simbatex Cool Mattress is a foam-only mattress. In practical terms, that may mean that, minus the springs, it could offer a little less support than the brand's usual range, and potentially a little less breathability.

That said, Simba's 'Simbatex' foam does sleep cooler than most. That's because it's graphite-infused. Simba says this foam 'delivers over 5x more airflow than traditional memory foam, helping reduce heat build-up for cooler sleep,' and we've always found this to be true during testing.

Unlike many other mattresses at this price point, Simba also makes sure to use CertiPUR® approved foams, which means all its foams have been tested to ensure they meet environmental and health standards. This means they emit low levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and are made without heavy metals such as mercury, lead, or cadmium, for example.

Plus, it looks like this mattress also benefits from Simba's standard 200-night sleep trial, which is a really useful feature that allows you to test the mattress out in your own home before you commit to keeping it.

I've included doubles in Simba's next two most affordable mattresses below for comparison, but as you can see, the new Amazon launch offers by far the most budget-friendly investment, and I think it looks like it could be a great buy.