Hi needabed,
Just a few comments before I get to your specific questions at the end of your post.
There is more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here that can help you make more meaningful comparisons between mattresses.
The most important part of a mattress purchase is always PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) and since your own personal testing or sleeping experience is the only reliable way to know or certain whether any mattress is a good match for you so I can’t speak to this part of the “value” of each of your choices (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).
If you can’t test a mattress in person then your more detailed conversations with an online manufacturer or retailer will be the most reliable way to choose a mattress that has the best chance of success and in this case the options you have after a purchase may also become a more important part of the “value” of your purchase just in case your choice doesn’t turn out to be as suitable as you hoped for in spite of the "best efforts of both you and the manufacturer. PPP is all about how well you will sleep on a mattress.
Latex is very “point elastic” material which contours very well to the shape of the body and it would be very unusual that a 3" top layer of “soft” latex wouldn’t provide someone with your weight with good secondary support and fill in the gaps in your sleeping profile so this may just be an preference issue that is connected with “feel” and whether you “feel like” you are sleeping “in” a mattress (which would be more of a memory foam feel) or “on” a mattress (which would be the feel of a more resilient material such as latex). Either way you can confirm whether a mattress is “filling in the gaps” by sliding your hand under the small of your back (if you are sleeping on your back) or under your waist (if you are sleeping on your side) and confirm that there is good resistance and that your hand doesn’t slide underneath your body too easily.
Outside of PPP … the quality and durability of the materials inside your mattress are the next most important part of its value and this is something that I can certainly help with.
Outside of the cover … this mattress uses latex from top to bottom (either Talalay or Dunlop) so there would be no weak links in this mattress in terms of the quality of the materials.
While I would want to confirm that these were all the layers in this mattress and that there were no other “missing” layers (you would need to know the thickness of all the layers so you can confirm that they add up to the thickness of the mattress or check the cutouts they have to make sure there are no other layers). If the mattress only contains latex layers and the pocket coil along with the 1" in the quilting then there would be no weak links in this mattress either and if it was a good match for you in terms of PPP it would be well worth considering. If the pocket coil was foam encased … I would also want to know the density of the foam encasement … particularly if you tend to sit on the side of your mattress on a regular basis.
Again … this mattress uses 100% natural Talalay and a wool quilted cotton cover so there would be no weak links in this mattress either.
This mattress has a pocket coil and latex as the two materials in this mattress along with the wool quilted cotton cover so there would be no weak links in this mattress either.
This mattress also contains blended Talalay latex from top to bottom along with an unquilted stretch cover. Once again … there are no weak links in this mattress either.
While the Somnigel and the latex layers are both good quality and durable materials … there are also 2" of (unknown density) foam in the top layers (the two 1" layers of supersoft Easy Flow Breathe foam). One of the layers is deeper in the mattress so it would be a little more durable but with 2" or more of possibly lower density polyoam in the top layers this could be “on the edge” of being a weak link in the mattress although it’s “not too bad” and would be a much less risky choice than many other mainstream mattresses that use thicker layers of unknown or low quality materials in the upper layers. Once again … I would also want to know the density of the foam surround around the pocket coil.
This also uses high quality materials (a pocket coil with 3" of either all natural Talalay or Dunlop) with a wool quilted cotton cover as well. The edge support in this mattress is steel (narrow diameter coils on the outside two rows) so there would be no potential durability issues in the edge support system.
You can’t test this mattress in person (unless you live in Phoenix) so you would need to call and talk with them so they can help “talk you through” the comfort choice that would have the best chance of success but it does have the option of a layer exchange option (for the cost of shipping) where you can exchange the comfort layer you chose for a firmer or softer version if your sleeping experience indicates that you need it so this would help to mitigate the risk of an online purchase that you can’t test in person.
No … with a suitable tight fitting cover there shouldn’t be any issues with the latex shifting in normal use or with an adjustable bed underneath it. If for some reason they were to shift because of moving or transporting the mattress or or any other reason then it would be a simple matter to unzip the cover and “wave” the latex back into position again but this would be unusual.
No … with a higher coil count encased coil this isn’t necessary because the encased coils provide a suitable support surface for the latex on top of them. Having said that … if you look at the video you will see a thin fabric layer above the coils.
The Talalay GL slow response made by Latex International is no longer available but other latex manufacturers also make slow response latex and in this case they are using a slow response latex made by Latexco so it is an option you can choose for your comfort layer.
I don’t have any personal experience with the mattress and it’s very new so there isn’t any forum feedback yet and there may not be any forum members that see your post that have purchased it so if you were to choose it then you would be among the first. It’s certainly a great quality/value choice in terms of the quality of the materials relative to other similar mattresses.
Phoenix