Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus Review 2024: A Luxurious Pillow-Top Mattress for Heavy People

Choosing the best mattress for heavier people can be a bit tricky. It’s important to find a mattress with the right firmness to keep you comfortable all night long and that fits your sleep style and unique support needs. Thankfully, Nolah has an option specifically designed to meet the needs of plus size sleepers. The Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus takes everything we like about the Nolan Evolution Hybrid and modifies it with changes that make it ideal for heavy people or those who prefer sleeping on a firm mattress. Here is everything you need to know about the Evolution Comfort Plus from Nolah.

First impressions of the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus

Upon unboxing this mattress I was actually a bit confused, thinking it was just the original Nolah Evolution Hybrid with a new, rebranded name because both mattresses look nearly identical. It took a bit of digging on Nolah’s website and double-checking with a Nolah representative to figure out it was actually a different mattress. 

Like the vast majority of online beds, it was shipped in a large box. For thinner beds made entirely of foam layers, you can often get away with unboxing them by yourself, depending on your strength, but thick hybrid beds like these are generally quite heavy, so I recommend having a friend there to help you.

The bed had a short off-gassing process, in large part because it’s a hybrid that doesn’t use memory foam. It should be its intended firmness on night one, or close to it. Off-gassing typically happens right after you unbox a mattress. A new bed is often softer than intended and has an odor in the first 24 to 48 hours.

The Evolution Comfort Plus has a luxurious looking pillow-top design that really invites you to lie down on it. I found it comfortable right off the bat. I also noticed almost immediately that the Evolution Comfort Plus was quite a bit firmer than the Nolah Evolution Hybrid in the Luxury-Firm Option.

The Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus: Video review

Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus policies

Free shipping

The Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus is a big, burly and heavy mattress roughly 15 inches thick, but it still ships in a box right to your front door, and shipping is always free in the contiguous United States. Because of its size and weight, you’ll almost certainly need someone else to help you unbox this one, especially if you get a larger size. 

120-night trial

Nolah offers an in-home sleep trial of 120 nights, which is longer than standard. So you get roughly four months to test out the bed and see if it’s comfortable and supportive enough for you. 

Nolah does do something interesting though: If you waive the trial period when you order any of its beds, you save $100. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this because the trial period makes buying a mattress virtually risk free, but if you’re confident you’ll love the mattress, the option exists with Nolah and no other brand the CNET sleep team’s seen so far. 

Return policy

Within the 120-night trial period you can return the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus and get a refund. There’s no upfront fee to initiate a return, but Nolah will deduct $99 from your refund, which helps facilitate the mattress pickup process. 

Like most brands, Nolah will ask you to sleep on the bed for at least 30 nights before initiating a return. That’s because no matter how nice and well-suited your new mattress is to your sleep type, your body needs time to adjust to it.

Warranty

All Nolah mattresses are backed by a lifetime warranty, which is above and beyond the usual online mattress standard of 10 years. With this warranty and almost every lifetime warranty, however, the protection is tiered with the most protection in the first 10 years.

Construction and feel

The construction of the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus starts with a 1-inch layer of base foam. That layer is there so the 8-inch layer of extra-thick gauge-pocketed coils has something stable to rest on. 

This support layer is the biggest difference between this mattress and the Nolah Evolution Hybrid. The coils are intended to be more supportive and durable over the life of the mattress because it’s designed to support heavier body types. According to Nolah, this bed can support up to 1,000 pounds, which is the minimum advertised amount of weight we typically see for beds like this, which are engineered for heavy people. 

From everything we can tell, the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus should remain durable for a long time. This bed looks and feels high quality, and Nolah does back it with a lifetime warranty so I would feel good about the long term comfort and support you’ll experience on this bed. 

Above the coils there’s a thin layer of transition foam. Above that there’s a layer of what Nolah calls “supportive, high-resilience foam” which provides some extra pressure relief. The final top is a comfort layer that Nolah calls Cooling Air-Foam HD.

Air-foam is proprietary to Nolah and is found in the majority of its beds. It behaves in a unique way as it almost combines the body conforming quality of a traditional memory foam, but with the responsiveness of a neutral foam or even a latex foam. 

Instead of getting a blended foam feel like the Nolah Original 10-inch and the Signature 12-inch beds, however, you get more of a fluffy, pillow-top feel on the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus. I’d compare the feel of this bed to ones you might find at a nice hotel. 

Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus firmness and sleeper types

Determining firmness is a challenge with any mattress because it can be so subjective based on a person’s size, so it’s especially tricky on a bed like this that’s designed for heavy people.

For an average-sized person, I found it to be around a medium-firm on CNET’s scale (6 to 8 out of 10) after testing. This firmness makes it a great option for back, stomach and combination sleepers. But for a heavier person, it should feel noticeably softer than that — probably closer to a flat medium, which would make it a more appropriate option for side sleepers. 

You don’t need to be a heavier person to be interested in the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus, but you’ll have to be OK with a firmer mattress. 

Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus performance

Edge support

The Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus has excellent edge support, which is great news for couples. The coils along the outer edges of the bed are even more reinforced than the rest of the coils in the mattress. I observed no roll-off sensation when testing the edge support, so that’s not something you should worry about on this bed. 

Motion isolation

The Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus can isolate cross-mattress motion but it doesn’t do a standout job. Since it’s a hybrid bed that isn’t made with dense memory foam, this makes sense. I don’t see it being a deal breaker for the vast majority of sleepers, but if you’re light sleeper who wakes up easily when your partner tosses and turns, it could happen more on this bed than others. 

Temperature regulation

The Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus just barely misses out on being what I’d describe as an active cooling mattress, but it should do a great job at helping you sleep more temperature neutral. 

The coils and the nature of the foams used in this bed means it’ll be solidly breathable, and the cover is slightly cool to the touch. It doesn’t compete with other cooling beds, such as the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe, but I think you’ll notice it.

This is a solid option for hot sleepers. If you sleep hot and are looking for CNET’s expert picks, check out our Best Cooling Beds List.

Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus mattress pricing

As a brand, Nolah tends to set its prices high and then offer heavy discounts on its beds. Spending $2,500 on a quality hybrid bed that’s designed to be extra supportive and durable is not exorbitant. We typically see sales throughout the year, so expect that price to be discounted significantly, by upwards of 35% off depending on the time of year.

The Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus is similar in price to the Nolah Evolution Hybrid — unlike most brands, which typically charge more for a mattress designed for heavy people. Maybe that will change in the future, but right now this is something we don’t usually see from mattress companies.

Make sure you check out our mattress deals page for the most up to date pricing and discounts.

Final verdict

There’s a lot to like about the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus. It’s similar in design and feel to the Nolah Evolution Hybrid, making an already likeable mattress into a more appealing option for heavy people and anyone seeking a bed with a firmer profile. I can’t imagine many people trying this out and thinking it’s uncomfortable thanks to its quilted pillow top, which provides a hotel-style feel. 

It also performs well in other categories like edge support, motion isolation and temperature regulation so it should be a great choice for both individuals or couples too. 

If you’re not a heavier person, and you’re not looking for a firmer mattress, the Nolah Evolution Hybrid could make more sense because you can get it in a softer model. But having a firmer and more supportive option specifically made for heavy people is a welcome addition to Nolah’s lineup.

You might like the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus mattress if:

• You’re looking for a pillow-top style mattress
• You’re a heavy person wanting an extra supportive mattress
• You’re looking for a hybrid, coil mattress
• You enjoy a firmer mattress

You might not like the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus bed if:

• You want to be able to choose your firmness level
• You prefer a memory foam feel
• You don’t have a large budget 

Other mattresses from Nolah

Nolah Original Hybrid: The newest mattress from Nolah and the most affordable hybrid in its lineup. It uses pocketed coils as its main support layer and a layer of Nolah’s proprietary AirFoam as the primary comfort layer. It’s about a medium on the firmness scale, so it should work for most people well enough. It has a neutral hybrid feel that’s also accommodating.

Nolah Evolution Hybrid: I’ve talked about this bed quite a bit in this review because the Comfort Plus is essentially an extra-supportive version of the Evolution Hybrid. This mattress lets you pick and choose between three firmness levels, which is a nice feature for someone wanting a specialized firmness. 

Nolah Original 10: The first mattress Nolah ever released is a three-layer foam mattress that’s also affordable. It includes the proprietary Nolah AirFoam that gives this mattress a unique feel. It feels like a cross between a memory foam and a responsive neutral foam. You’ll get some of the sink-in, body-conforming quality of a memory foam with none of the “stuck” feeling some people experience.

How does the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus compare to similar mattresses?

Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus vs. WinkBed Plus

There isn’t a whole lot to differentiate between these two mattresses designed for heavy people. The WinkBed Plus is $49 cheaper when factoring discounts and the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus has some active cooling elements in the cover so it gets a slight temperature regulation edge. However, the WinkBed Plus mattress features latex foam in its construction which is very durable and WinkBed performs intense durability tests on their beds. 

Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus vs. Saatva Classic

These are two supportive pillow-top mattresses that most people find comfortable. The Saatva Classic has two layers of coils for added durability, but it’s not explicitly designed for heavy people like the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus is. Saatva does make the Saatva HD which is meant for heavy people, but it is significantly more expensive than the Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus.