The R650 Adjustable Power Base Makes a Great Mattress Even Better

The key to a good night’s sleep is a good pillow and a great mattress. But, if you want to make something great even better, you might consider an adjustable power base that lifts your head or feet. The $2,000 R650 Adjustable Power Base does precisely that, and tilts, and includes massage features, and you can control it by voice or app. But you’ll probably reach for the remote instead.

If you’re not familiar with power base bed frames, they’re a pretty easy concept to grasp. While a traditional bed frame consists of a rectangular structure and crossbeams to hold the mattress, a power base usually looks like a platform with pneumatic pistons underneath.

The pistons raise your head or feet (or both), and some even grant independent controls of each side. They’re typically expensive, but they can add comfort to your sleeping position or TV watching and reading experience (if you use your bed for those things).

The R650 stands out by adding a few whiz-bang features: whole-body tilt (independent of head and feet), a night light, a massaging vibration setting, and app or voice control.

A Bed Frame That Lifts and Tilts

As someone who likes to read and watch TV in bed, the head and feet lifting features of a power base are very welcome. Usually, I’d stack a bunch of pillows behind my back, which left me uncomfortable. Now one pillow will suffice. The power base also has a few pre-programmed positions: flat, anti-snore, and zero gravity.

Flat is self-explanatory, but anti-snore and zero gravity are helpful positions. Anti-snore lifts your head slightly to keep your neck in a good position and hopefully prevent snoring. Zero Gravity lifts both your head and feet to a point you feel like you’re floating in the air.

I really like sleeping in the Zero Gravity position; however, as my wife is a stomach sleeper, it doesn’t work for her. I don’t imagine it’d be comfortable for side sleepers either, but for back sleepers, it’s an excellent position.

In addition to standard head and feet lifting, the base tilts. The platform remains flat relative to itself, but the entire surface tilts forward or backward. Just to be clear, that’s independent of raising your head and feet (and can be used in conjunction with those options). Tilting the bed can make getting onto it easier, but there are side benefits too.

During the testing period, I developed a nasty cold, and laying flat made it hard to breathe. Since my wife is a stomach sleeper, leaving my head tilted up wouldn’t work either (in Queen size, there are no split lift options). So we tilted the bed instead. I was able to breathe and sleep, and she was able to sleep in her usual position—everyone wins.

Massage and Night Lights Are Great Additions

The single feature that did the most for making my aging body feel better was the massage function. It’s a lot like the Magic Fingers technology that hotels used to have. Except no quarters needed.

The frame has a vibrating motor at your feet and head, and you can either control them separately, together or turn on one of several wave options. The wave options pulse up and down your body in various patterns, and to be honest, I just found them distracting. But laying in the bed with a straight massage at head and feet was glorious.

Because I’m getting old, I managed to wrench my back by just walking across the house one day. A half-hour on the bed helped immensely. You choose between a level 1 intensity and level 10—I seldom went above a four. It’s worth noting that the massage feature has an automatic shut-off timer for 30 minutes, and you can’t lengthen it.

Reverie buried LED lights under the platform of the power base, and I have to say they’re just the right amount of light. As a night owl, I typically stay up later than my wife. And the hardest part about going to bed is avoiding tripping over the dog or a random laundry basket in the dark. But I can turn the bed’s night light on to see where I’m going, without waking my wife up. It’s too bright to fall asleep with but dim enough not to wake people up. That’s perfect.

The Apps Need Work

The power base comes with one remote control. It’s black, features an OLED screen, and connects via Bluetooth. You’ll find buttons to raise and lower the head, control the massage functions, and switch to the preset positions. In the past thirty days, I’ve only had to charge it twice, which is good because, sadly, it charges over MicroUSB instead of USB-C.

In theory, one remote should be enough because you can also control the bed with the Reverie Nightstand app (for iOS and Android) or with voice through Alexa or Google Home.

I say in theory because, in practice, that doesn’t work out very well. The first problem is one of disparity: the iOS app is miles ahead of the Android app. That’s rather frustrating, as I use an Android phone. On Android, the navigation buttons don’t even fit on the screen properly. Instead, you’ll find two squashed buttons that you’ll have to tap just right to navigate.

That’s a pity because a few features seem useful. You can create a schedule that lifts the head of the bed to help you wake up, for instance. Or you can put a shorter timer on the massage feature (say 15 minutes). I asked Reverie about the situation, and they say updates are coming but didn’t specify when.

The other problem comes from the nature of Bluetooth. Only one “remote” can connect at a time. If you’re using the app, then the physical remote won’t connect. That doesn’t sound bad, but the app doesn’t want to let go of its connection. So I’ve adjusted the bed with the app, forgotten about it, come back later, and tried to use the remote only to find it won’t connect. I have to close out the app manually on my phones to clear up the problem.

Voice Controls Are Shaky and Difficult to Set Up

Voice control is equally problematic. To get set up, you’ll need to create an account with Reverie. The apps have a spot for that, but every time I tried on iOS, it failed. I managed to create an account on the second try through Android, but from then on, it told me the password was incorrect. Finally, I managed to clear the problem up at Reverie’s website with a password reset.

After that, it’s a simple matter of adding the skills to Alexa and Google Home. But much like the apps situation, the voice experience isn’t equal either.

On Alexa, you need to use cumbersome voice commands like, “open reverie connect and set the smart bed to flat.” I never remembered what to say and always fumbled enough that the command failed.

Google Assistant is better; you can use natural voice commands like, “set the bed to flat.” And when it worked, it was convenient if I couldn’t find the remote or my phone was out of reach. Unfortunately, at one point during testing, the voice command stopped working. My Google home would acknowledge the command, but nothing happened. I had to unplug the bed, wait thirty seconds, and plug it back in to get voice commands to work. That was frustrating because unplugging the bed wipes saved positions.

The voice controls are fairly limited, though. You can only tell your assistant to move the bed to a pre-set position. That can be one of Reverie’s options or one you saved to the app. It’d be nice to be able to say something like, “lift the bed’s head to 30” or something.

However, you can add the bed to Google’s routines (but not Alexa’s). If you’re a fan of using a “good night” routine, you’ll like Reverie Connect. I set up a routine that fired when I said, “Hey Google, good night” that shut off my lights, locked my doors, and put the bed into the anti-snore position. That was really convenient—when I remembered to use it.

A Standard No Return Policy

When I reviewed Reverie’s Dream Supreme II mattress, I pointed out that the return policy had a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, Reverie has a strict “No Returns” policy for its power bases. You can’t even pay for the option over the phone.

But I’m going to give that a pass here. As much I don’t like the policy, it’s somewhat common. Purple and Sleep Number also don’t allow returns, for instance. But some other companies like Casper and Lucid do, so I wish Reverie would step up in that area.

We’d Buy it—Eventually

Given that the R650 Adjustable Power Base costs anywhere between $1,800 (for a Twin XL size) and $3,600 (for a Split California King Size) and you still need to purchase a mattress, you’re probably wondering if it’s worth the cost.

My wife and I have had the same discussion; this is a review unit after all—we don’t own it. We’ve already decided we will absolutely buy the Dream Supreme Hybrid II mattress, will we buy the $2,000 Queen sized power base to match?

Yes. Eventually. But not right away.

As a function of the bed, it doesn’t feel necessary for a good night’s sleep—until it was. When I was sick and couldn’t breathe without tilting or when I hurt myself, and the massage functions melted the pain away, suddenly it felt like a necessity. But those features are luxuries, and so they can wait until we have room in the budget for luxury purchases. But, I’ve discovered that luxury can be worth the price of admission.

Reverie does sell other power bases that sometimes cost less, but you give up a few features like tilting, retainer bars in all four corners, and the nicer wooden tapered legs. As it is, this is the nicest (and therefore most expensive) option.

Power bases aren’t for everyone, and they’re not even remotely a necessity. But if you can afford it and you’ve been considering adding one to your sleep system, the R650 Adjustable Power Base warrants your consideration.