With flex-head options, only the top portions of the bed have independent range of motion. The foot of the bed is still attached on both sides. With split options, both the head and foot of the bed can move independently. Either option makes a lot of sense for couples who want to pick individual firmness levels and the angle at which they sleep or relax. In the spirit of understanding the full scope of offerings for couples (and having never tested a flex-head option before), I ended up going for the flex-head king.

I don’t think I would do it again, as I found I preferred the flex-head more in my waking hours than for sleeping. I would use my side to sit up and read while my husband slept. However, if I wanted my feet up for zero-gravity mode and he wanted everything level, we had to be on the same page, since the bottom of the bed was still connected. Having the split only at the top of the bed took some getting used to, because it was very easy to roll over and feel like we were diving headfirst into a chasm. Not to mention, with the flex-head you’ll need specialty bedsheets to accommodate the cleft in the mattress. Making this bed will take practice, as it nearly drove me to tears several times, wrestling each fitted portion to the separate topmost sides. Because of this, I recommend that couples stick with the fully split sizes if going for a king size.

Back It Up

Where people often get confused when it comes to smart beds is envisioning the whole setup with an adjustable base. A smart mattress and smart base are actually two separate purchases meant to be used together. So, let’s clear this up: The range of motion you see with smart beds can only be achieved by using an adjustable base. Because adjustable bases can be controlled via remotes and apps, they are part of the smart bed experience. That being said, believe it or not, they’re not included in your purchase—so if you’ve envisioned your new smart bed being able to adjust firmness, move up and down, and act as your personal masseuse, you’re only going to be able to pull that off with an adjustable base.

ScreenshotPersonal Comfort App via Julia Forbes

I opted to test the Rejuvenate with Personal Comfort’s Power-Flex 4 base, which is the most feature-rich base the brand offers. You don’t have to buy an adjustable base from Personal Comfort, but the brand often runs bundle promotions. The Power-Flex 4 has the standard head and foot movement, zero gravity, anti-snore head lift, head tilt to adjust your pillow’s angle, three massage settings, underbed lighting, and lumbar support enhancement. Massage was something that jumped out at me, because that’s the epitome of a luxury enhancement in my book. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up caring for it. These three settings vibrated the entire bed in increasingly stronger velocities. It felt more like an extra-large vibrational plate than a gentle rocking to sleep. Underbed lights were convenient, and the remote had a built-in flashlight. Make sure you grab the right remote, though, because the base and mattress have different ones. And each side has its own set of remotes, meaning you could have a total of four if you don’t sync both sides to one set.

The Personal Comfort app can help bypass all this clutter and fumbling in the dark. My husband and I had downloaded the app on each of our devices so that we could set up our respective sides of the bed—he had no issues getting his set up, but my side was a bit more cumbersome, as the app seemed to mix up which sleeper was which. Even if I chalk that up to likely user error, the user interface of the app is simple and easy to use but much less flashy than that of other smart beds I’ve come across. This is partly because this smart bed isn’t outfitted to track your sleep data. It lets you modify firmness and the angle of the adjustable base and enable massage features if you’d like. But many of the options in the left-hand drop-down are hyperlinked articles that take you away from the app, such as the user manual and troubleshooting pages

Ready, Set, Go

One of the big marketing points of Personal Comfort as a brand is affordability, which of course ultimately depends on if you’re getting a base with your Rejuvenate or not. Still, comparing apples to apples with a competitor I tested, the Sleep Number P6 and the FlexFit 3 base, Personal Comfort and its Power-Flex 4 base were actually more expensive by around $1,400. Personal Comfort is currently running a promotion in which you can get a free BedJet 3 cooling system with your purchase. You also get the flex-head specialty sizing option with the Rejuvenate, including queen size. I haven’t seen that anywhere else.

Photograph: Julia Forbes

Would I buy the Rejuvenate if I had the choice? If I were in the market for a good starter smart bed and didn’t need sleep tracking, sure. But I would be partaking in the frame first and mattress second. The more time I spend testing smart beds, the more I understand that it’s a package deal with adjustable frames and smart mattresses—for the full experience, you really need both. I also find that smart mattresses can also have an air (no pun intended) of feeling like an inflatable mattress at times, making me yearn for something that has a more traditional feel to it. The Rejuvenate pulls that off well, feeling more like a traditional memory foam mattress with the option to increase your firmness level. Like I said, however, it still won’t be as firm as a truly firm traditional mattress.

So if you’re all about a foam-first, softer bed without any sleep tracking, the Rejuvenate would make sense. But with the premise of a smart bed being an all-in-one approach to sleep tracking, flexibility when it comes to firmness, and luxury you just can’t achieve with a regular mattress (the zero gravity setting’s weightlessness, for example), this smart bed is just not quite there.