Tom's Guide Verdict
The Emma Elite has a softer feel and adaptive pressure relief that we found perfect for back and side sleepers. Featuring a layer of Emma’s innovative AirGrid technology, the Emma Elite delivers an almost ‘weightless’ feeling, without sacrificing support. It’s also highly breathable, with the (removable and washable) UltraDry cover keeping you fresh. We enjoyed how the bouncy feel made this soft mattress easy to move around on, but stomach sleepers might need a firmer support. And keep an eye out for a sale. At full price, this is an expensive bed.
Pros
- +
Luxurious feel
- +
Even pressure relief
- +
Suits back and side sleepers
- +
Breathable, fresher feel
Cons
- -
Too soft for some front sleepers
- -
Edge and corner support could be better
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Emma Elite Mattress: Review in brief
Emma is one of the most popular mattress brands in the UK market, and it built a reputation as a maker of high-quality, affordable beds. But the Emma Elite is something entirely different, a premium mattress that uses innovative materials to create a new sleep feel. But is it worth the investment? Below, we'll dive into the details of our Emma Elite Mattress review, but for now, here are the highlights.
Read more: Emma mattress Black Friday deals 2024
To determine if the Emma Elite deserves a place in our guide to the best mattresses we've tested this year, we spent three weeks testing it at home. By the end, our review panel was impressed with the comfort and support of this medium-soft hybrid mattress, with the high level of pressure relief a stand-out feature.
Best for: Side and back sleepers
Type: Hybrid
Firmness: Medium-soft
Materials: Memory foam, AirGrid technology, springs, other foams
Depth: 27cm
Weight: 50.7 lbs (single) to 97lbs (superking)
Sizes: 4 (single, double, king, superking)
Trial: 200 nights
Guarantee: 10 years
Price: from £1,389 at Emma
Designed to offer "next-level relaxation and cooling" there are five internal layers to the Emma Elite mattress, including the pièce de résistance: the AirGrid technology layer. This hyper-elastic polymer grid is included for the 'floating' feeling it provides, bending to support every part of the body while retaining a softer feel. With the AirGrid, it never felt like we were sinking or stuck in the mattress.
The quick moving AirGrid also brings some bounce to the mattress, contributing to the 'weightless' feel that is particularly prominent for back sleepers. But it's for side sleepers this mattress really shines, as the AirGrid, paired with Emma's MemoryAdapt foam, distributes weight evenly across the mattress for exceptional pressure relief.
The Emma Elite stayed a comfortable temperature throughout the night, even though we tested during the height of summer. And as the UltraDry moisture wicking cover is removable and washable, the mattress scan be kept fresh. This is also a good choice for couples as, despite the bouncy feel, the motion isolation is excellent.
Overall, we found the Emma Elite offers full-body support that suits a wide range of sleep styles, although stomach sleepers and those with a heavier build should opt for something firmer. And watch out for the price tag. Without a sale, this is a luxury buy.
Emma Elite Mattress: Price & deals
- A premium mattress but sales are semi-frequent
- Comes with 200 night trial and 10 year guarantee
- Free shipping and returns
The Emma Elite Mattress is the brand's most luxurious design and, courtesy of the AirGrid technology, its most advanced. Fittingly, it's also the most expensive. Currently available in the UK, France, Denmark, and Spain (although the EU design may differ slightly due to fire safety regulations), the Emma Elite is a premium bed.
You can expect to pay around the following for the Emma Elite Mattress:
- UK Single RRP: £1,389
- UK Double RRP: £2,049
- UK King RRP: £2,299
- UK Super King RRP: £2,599
The Emma Elite Mattress is discounted semi-frequently, with the best chance for an offer coming during peak sale times, such as the Black Friday mattress deals. Watch out for fluctuating RRPs in the Emma mattress sales — it's the final price that matters, not the discount.
Still, it's worth waiting around for a saving, even though the Elite is discounted less often than other beds in the Emma line-up. Without a deal, the Elite is an expensive bed.
Emma also offers a 200-night sleep trial and a 10-year guarantee with the Emma Elite. These are decent benefits for the price, and comparable to the Simba mattress deals. However, it's not quite the best on the market; Nectar offers a 365-night trial and a forever warranty.
Emma Elite Mattress: materials & design
- A 27cm tall hybrid mattress with five internal layers
- Features an AirGrid hyper-elastic polymer grid for adaptable support
- UltraDry cover wicks away moisture
Five sumptuous internal layers make up the Emma Elite Mattress, and a 27cm tall, it's slightly thicker than your average Emma bed. Featuring springs, foams, and AirGrid technology (more on that below) these layers are designed to team together to provide support, pressure relief, and comfort for a variety of sleep positions.
Topping the mattress is the Emma UltraDry breathable cover, constructed to wick away moisture so you don’t get too hot when you sleep. The cover is both removable and washable, to help keep things clean and fresh.
Sitting under the cover is the AirGrid layer, which is the stand out feature of this hybrid design. Made from hyper-elastic polymer infused with cooling gel, the AirGrid layer has been cut into a distinctive grid shape, to provide superior pressure relief and a quick bounce. With the AirGrid, it should never feel like you're getting stuck in the mattress.
Next is a layer of MemoryAdapt foam. This moulds to your shape and is designed to evenly distribute body weight across the surface. Beneath this is a layer of lower density foam, for added cushioning, followed by a transition layer of SupportBase foam to bring some stability and support.
Finally, a layer of springs enhances the overall support of the mattress, with a pocketed design to limit motion transfer. The base of the cover consists of an anti-slip fabric, for a final stabilizing touch.
Emma Elite Mattress: Firmness & comfort
- A medium-soft mattress with a 7.5 out of 10 rating (10 being the softest)
- Zoned support keeps your spine aligned
- Top foam layer has some give but does not sink
Emma rates the Elite as a 7.5 out of 10 on the firmness scale, but before diving into feel, it's important to note Emma does things a little differently to the rest of us. At Emma, one indicates rock hard, while 10 signals super soft. Other brands, such as competitor Nectar, do things the other way round.
7.5 out of 10 indicates that the Emma Elite is a medium-soft mattress. Mattress firmness is, of course, a personal preference, and when deciding whether a mattress is firm or soft enough for you, a number of factors that come into play including height, weight, and sleep position. To gauge how comfortable the Emma Elite is across the board, we asked a testing panel of varying body types to try it.
Our lead tester, who is 5' 2", was the most impressed with the feel of the mattress. They found it soft but with a responsive feel that keeps the sleeper supported from head to toe. Our tallest tester, who measures 6', thought the mattress was too soft, however, although they did feel "at ease that the mattress was able to take their frame and weight". Overall, we agree with the medium-soft rating from Emma.
At 27cm, this mattress is thicker than the average 25cm design and we were expecting a denser feel. However, it lives up to its "floating" promise, providing a balanced structure that makes the sleeper feel weightless when lying on top. Our testing panel agreed each part of the body was evenly supported when sleeping on the Emma Elite — no sinking or sagging at any section..
We think this mattress is best suited to those who want a supportive hybrid mattress with a softer feel. We particularly liked the way the mattress was able to adapt to the body when moving sleep position (that's the bouncy and responsive AirGrid at work). While it is good for most sleep positions, this softness is likely to best suit side and back sleepers. Stomach sleepers and those with a bigger build might find it too soft.
Overall, we were pleased with how the supportive build kept the spine aligned, and how the bouncy feel made it easy to change position. The AirGrid technology really does make you feel like floating, but there’s also a nice density to the mattress that helps you feel supported from head to toe. This feeling of floating atop the mattress reminds us the Levitex Grativy Defying Mattress.
Emma Elite Mattress: performance
- Enhanced pressure relief for a weightless feeling
- Limited motion transfer from side to side
- Edge support could be better
We tested a double size Emma Elite Mattress for over three weeks. We placed it on a wooden slatted bed frame and dressed it with breathable cotton bed linen. We tested in all key areas of performance: pressure relief, motion isolation, edge support, cooling, and ease of set up. We also took into mind durability and —considering its build — how we think the mattress will last over time.
Set-up
As with all Emma mattresses, the Emma Elite comes rolled up and vacuum packed in plastic. At 70.5lbs (32kg), we did find the double heavy and bulky. As a result, it was hard to haul the mattress up the stairs — this is a two-person job. It does come with handles to make things a little easier, but Emma advises only using the handles to rotate the mattress, not move it.
We’ve unravelled a wide range of bed-in-a-box mattresses, and the Emma unpacked easily. It takes 24 hours for the mattress to fully form and on initial opening the structure felt a little wobbly. Within a day, this had completely transformed as the mattress filled out.
While you won’t need to flip this mattress, Emma does recommend that you rotate it monthly for the first six months to prevent body compressions. After half a year, you can reduce these rotations to every three months.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Off-gassing
You’ll need a well-vented room when opening the Emma Elite. We noticed quite a bit of off-gassing to contend with — that's the smell that occurs when you unwrap a mattress in a box — and it took a few days in a well ventilated room for the odour to clear. Off-gassing is normal, but the smell seemed stronger with the Emma Elite than other hybrid mattresses we've tested.
To accelerate odour removal, Emma suggests washing the cover to clear trapped scents. Luckily, the cover is easily removable as it can be simply be zipped off. Emma mattresses are made from durable and easy-to-clean materials that have fire retardant qualities and are UKFR certified (UK Fire Regulations Compliant).
Score: 3.5 out of 5
Pressure relief
We were mightily impressed with the pressure relief of the Emma Elite. The special feature of this mattress is the unique AirGrid layer, which bounces back the moment you lie on it so it never feels like you're sinking too far. Our testers agreed this is one of the 'bouncier' hybrid mattresses we've experienced.
The AirGrid is combined with a MemoryAdapt foam layer, which contours to the body to evenly distribute weight. An additional lower density foam layer beneath this also cradles the body in key pressure points such as the hips, knees, shoulders, and lower back.
We used an 8kg weight to gain further insight into how good the pressure relief is. We placed the weight in the middle of the mattress to simulate the feel of a person and measured the sinkage. We found it to have a 1.5 inch (3.8cm) sinkage, which indicates contouring without too much sink. This is similar to the Simba Hybrid Ultra Mattress, and the Zoma Memory Foam Mattress.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Motion transfer
It’s not every day we get to take a wine glass to bed, but here we used an empty one to test just how good the motion isolation technology is here. Sharing a bed can have its challenges — especially is that person is a restless sleeper — so choosing a mattress that has good motion isolation technology is key to undisturbed sleep.
We placed the empty wine glass on the Emma Elite Mattress and dropped at 3kg weight four, 10, and 25 inches away from it. This was to simulate a person getting out of bed and changing sleep positions. While the mattress has a bit of bounce, its motion transfer tech is surprisingly stable and the wine glass stood its ground in all our tests. In comparison, the wine glass toppled on the Simba Hybrid Ultra at around 4 inches away.
Score: 5 out of 5
Temperature regulation
We used the Emma Elite Mattress on a slatted bed frame. We wore cotton bed clothes and covered the bed with cotton sheets and a synthetic duvet.
The Emma Elite Mattress has been designed for breathability. The hyper-elastic AirGrid foam structure promotes airflow and contains cooling gel to help regulate temperature, while the Emma UltraDry breathable cover is designed to wick away moisture and can be zipped off for easy removal and washing.
We tested this mattress in the summer months when the temperature averaged around 22 degrees C, and while there was the odd night that got a little too balmy (it did get up to a whopping 29 degrees C outside), we never overheated on the Elite. The cover remained cool to touch and while it’s not made from the smoothest and softest fabric, we found ourselves sleeping comfortably.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Edge support
Having a mattress with good edge support makes it easier to get in and out of bed, and increases the size of your sleeping surface. Good edge support means you can snuggle up right up to the side of your bed too and not worry about the perimeters collapsing.
While testing the Emma Elite, our testers agreed that while the edges are reasonably supportive, they could be better. When sitting on the perimeter the edges collapsed more than we would have liked, but the mattress did cradle our hips to prevent feeling like we were falling off.
To support our subjective tests, we measured the sinkage of the edges and corners using an 8kg weight. At 1.5 inches the test showed sinkage was largely even across the mattress.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
Durability
When we first unravelled this mattress, we were concerned that it wouldn’t rise to the solid form you want from a bed. But over time the mattress has seemed to get sturdier and more comfortable, especially as our bodies adapted to the structure.
Having only tested this mattress for three weeks, it’s hard to tell whether the bed will stand the test of time. But we think you can take comfort in the knowledge that it does have all the qualities of a mindfully crafted design. If you decide it’s not for you — or it’s not performing as you’d like — there’s always the 200-night trial to fall back on.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Emma Elite Mattress: user reviews
Emma is a popular bed-in-a-box brand that consistently features in many top 10 mattress lists. You can read numerous customer reviews on the Emma Elite Mattress direct on the Emma website. The majority of customers have offered up 5-star reviews for the Elite Mattress, stating that it’s made a huge difference to sleep quality and recommend it for both comfort and support.
Click on Trustpilot and Emma also receives lots of positive feedback on its mattress designs. Unfortunately, it’s not clear which mattress reviewers are referring to in their comments.
Should you buy the Emma Elite Mattress?
If you’re looking for a hybrid bed-in-a-box mattress that is filled with premium materials, the Emma Elite is one to consider. Having tested it over the course of three weeks, we think the AirGrid technology really lives up to its lofty claims. It provides support, comfort, and cooling, as well as a surprising 'weightless' feel.
The mattress offers a floating feeling that's particularly pronounced when lying on your back, but we think side sleepers will love the pressure relief. With a removable cover that wicks away moisture, it’s easy to keep cool (and ensure the mattress stays hygienic over time too).
As it’s a softer mattress, we think its best suited to smaller and average frames — bigger builds might find they're lacking the support they need. If you’re keen to compare it to similar designs, you may want to take a look at the Otty Original Hybrid mattress, which is also highly breathable, or the Levitex Gravity Defying Mattress that also does well to offer that relaxing, weightless feeling.
Emma Elite Mattress: alternatives
