Manduka X vs Yoga Design Lab Combo: Which One Should You Buy?

Manduka sells the X as a hybrid fitness mat: 5 mm of dense TPE, textured on both faces, meant to take shoes, dumbbells and jumping. Yoga Design Lab sells the Combo as a mat and towel in one: recycled PET microfiber bonded to a 3.5 mm natural rubber base, printed, and machine washable.

They cost $72 and $110. Almost nobody is genuinely torn between them, because they are built for opposite rooms, so this page is mostly about making sure you are in the right one.

OutdoorGearLab scored the Combo 4 out of 10 dry and 4 wet, the lowest pair of any full size mat in its nineteen mat test, and gave it 52 overall, seventeenth. Slippery for dry and wet grip is the first item in its cons.

Owners of the Combo describe something different, and both can be true. A microfiber top is slippery until it dampens and grippy once it does, which means it works well for someone dripping in a heated class and poorly for someone doing a dry room flow. GearLab’s standardised test does not reward a surface that needs conditions to be right.

So the Combo is a hot yoga mat specifically. If your practice is not hot, its main feature does not switch on.

GearLab has not tested the Manduka X, so there is no score for it. What is not in question is the mechanism: closed cell TPE seals moisture out, so sweat sits on the surface with nowhere to go.

The textured faces give competent traction with dry hands and give up once your palms are damp, which is how every mat in this material behaves. For a cool room the X is fine. For a heated one it needs a towel on top, at which point you have assembled the Combo the hard way.

This is the Combo’s genuinely unusual feature and GearLab counted it as a pro alongside easy to clean and absorbs sweat. A mat that has soaked up an hour of sweat can go through a cold gentle cycle and hang to dry. Nothing else in this price range does that.

It comes with a cost. Collects lint is in its cons, the microfiber picks up hair and dust off any floor, and it takes hours to dry properly. Wash it too hot or tumble it and the rubber backing will not forgive you.

The X wipes clean with a damp cloth in thirty seconds and dries immediately. Different kind of easy, and the one that suits someone who does not want a laundry step in their practice.

Dense TPE handles point loads, shoes, dragging across concrete, and being folded into a car boot and left there. Both faces are textured, so there is no wrong side up when a mat gets flipped during a circuit. That is what the X is for and it is very good at it.

The Combo is a fabric surface on thin rubber. Trainers will ruin the microfiber, weights will mark it, and at 3.5 mm there is not much between your knee and the floor to begin with. It is a yoga mat and only a yoga mat.

The X is 5 mm and the Combo is 3.5 mm. GearLab scored the Combo 6 out of 10 for comfort and support, which is below average for the test, and 1.5 mm is a noticeable difference at this end of the range.

Neither is a cushioned mat. On a hardwood or tile floor both will have you folding a blanket under a knee for kneeling work. If padding is what you are after, look at 5 or 6 mm rubber or the thicker foam mats instead, and accept the weight that comes with them.

The X is 3.4 pounds and the Combo is 4.9, measured at 4.6 by GearLab. Rubber is heavy for its thickness, which is why the thinner mat is the heavier one. Both are carryable and the X is the easier carry.

Sizes are 71″ × 24″ and 70″ × 24″. Narrow is in the Combo’s cons, and at 24 inches both of them are. Yoga Design Lab also sells the Combo in 5.5 mm and 1.5 mm versions if the thickness is the sticking point.

One clean disqualifier: the Combo’s base is natural rubber, so a latex allergy rules it out. The X is TPE with no rubber content.

Yoga Design Lab prints the Combo in something like nineteen designs in the 3.5 mm alone, and beautiful patterns turned up in GearLab’s pros for the brand’s mats. They are properly printed rather than screened on, so they do not wear off under hands and feet.

The X comes in seven plain colorways and looks like gym equipment, which is what it is. If a mat living in the corner of a living room needs to look like something, that is a fair reason to pay the difference, and it is worth being honest that it is what you are paying for.

Get the Manduka X if the mat has a job beyond yoga, or if you want a tough, easy, latex free surface for a cool room practice and would rather keep $38. It is on Amazon in seven colorways.

Get the Yoga Design Lab Combo only if you practise hot and want to stop buying separate towels. It is on Amazon and at yogadesignlab.com. If you practise hot and want a mat that grips without needing to be wet first, the mats that scored on that are the Manduka GRP Adapt 2.0 at 8.5 wet and the Liforme Classic at 7.