Elite by name, elite by nature. This winning combination of luxurious foam with thousands of pocket-springs ensures a fantastic night's sleep

Elite by name, elite by nature. This hybrid mattress from Brook + Wilde packs 3,000 pocket springs to create a supportive, breathable design. And you can pick your exact level of firmness at checkout!

Brook + Wilde has crafted a luxurious mattress that lives up to its namesake. Yes, everything about this hybrid mattress design is elite – thousands of pocket-springs provide a pleasant amount of bounce, while the memory foam moulds to your body to cushion pressure points. No matter what sleeping position you favour, The Elite by Brook + Wilde will provide oodles of support and comfort throughout the night.

The removable (and washable) top cover should keep everything looking fresh for years to come, while the 200-night no-quibble returns period means you can thoroughly test The Elite during the warmest summer nights and chilly depths of winter to make sure this is the best mattress for you.

Unlike its closest competition, Brook + Wilde lets customers pick the exact firmness level, with each Elite mattress custom-made by the British brand within a fortnight. For this Elite review, we selected the medium-firm option, which strikes a superb balance between support and comfort. However, if you know that you prefer something suppler, or with a little less give, then you can tailor your mattress to your tastes.

Whatever firmness you decide upon, The Elite by Brook + Wilde comes highly recommended.

Elite by name, elite by nature. This hybrid mattress from Brook + Wilde packs 3,000 pocket springs to create a supportive, breathable design. And you can pick your exact level of firmness at checkout!

Brook + Wilde is a relative newcomer to the competitive "Bed In A Box" scene, but has immediately set itself apart from more established rivals by offering customers the opportunity to pick their preferred level of firmness.

While brands like SIMBA, Eve, Emma, and Otty offer a one-size-fits-all approach, Brook + Wilde lets you pick between three levels of firmness at checkout. If you know you like sleeping on a particularly firm or soft mattress, Brook + Wilde will build the best mattress for you.

Brook + Wilde ticks all of the boxes we'd expect from a Bed In A Box brand – except one.

While the firm offers a generous 200-night trial period with a no-quibbles refund policy if the mattress doesn't live up to your expectations, a steady stream of mattress deals to discount the cost of an upgrade, and the option to recycle your existing mattress when the new one is delivered ...there wasn't a box in sight when the Elite arrived at our door.

The Elite mattress arrived rolled and vacuum-packed, making it a pretty manageable package for the friendly delivery team. The outside was secured with durable plastic to guard against scuffs and damage during shipping.

Like an onion or Ogre, the tough outer layer was peeled back to reveal a softer covering. This second plastic wrapping is what ensures the mattress remains vacuum-packed from the factory to your bedframe (dramatically reducing the overall footprint of the parcel and cutting delivery costs for you ...as well as Brook + Wilde).

Cutting the plastic (being careful to avoid piercing both at once, or damaging the mattress with the scissors) is easy enough and the dual-layer approach means you can ditch the grubby outside layer that has been rolling around the floor of the delivery van without compromising the vacuum-seal, so moving the mattress around your house isn't too cumbersome.

Of course, the cardboard boxes used by rival brands like Emma and SIMBA achieve the same result ...but cut the amount of plastic required. It'd be good to see Bed In A Box brand Brook + Wilde look into using cardboard as part of its shipping process in the future.

Stripped of its packaging and unfurled like a deconstructed Swiss roll, it only takes a few hours for the Elite mattress to breath back to life and reinflate to its full 28cm depth. That's no time at all. Even if your order is delivered towards the end of the day, you're guaranteed to be able to fall asleep on a fully reinvigorated mattress that night.

Unfortunately, the same speediness does not apply to the time needed for the skin-crawling whiff of plastic to dissipate. This isn't something that specifically plagues Brook + Wilde mattresses, but is an issue with all memory foam and hybrid mattresses. Fresh from the factory, these mattresses tend to have a distinctive whiff that's anything but fresh.

After a few weeks the harsh aroma from the Brook + Wilde Elite hybrid mattress had completely vanished, although this might've been faster if we'd washed the detachable cover with some fabric conditioner as soon as it was delivered.

With a 10-year warranty included on all materials, Brook + Wilde is clearly confident that it's built a mattress to last. That means you could be kipping on this mattress for years to come ...so, what's it like to sleep on? In a word: brilliant.

Before the Elite mattress arrived at our door, we were sleeping (very happily) on an all-memory foam mattress. In contrast to that mattress, this hybrid design feels much livelier, thanks to the thousands of pocket-springs squeezed into the design.

These provide the Elite with plenty of bounce. It's not an unpleasant sensation – and it never threatens to undermine the support and low motion transfer provided by the memory foam layers within the design. But it means you can bounce yourself from under the covers into your slippers in the morning ...something that's impossible with an all-foam design, which can be a little quicksand-like, forcing you to really rely on your abs to heave yourself out of bed.

If you're upgrading from a traditional coiled spring mattress, the Elite will likely feel pretty firm in comparison. However, those who have adjusted to sleeping on an all-memory foam design might find it takes a week or so to adjust to the amount of bounce in the springs.

For the record, we selected a medium firmness for our review unit, so Brook + Wilde does offer a softer, bouncier version and a firmer mattress.

Fortunately, it doesn't take long to adjust. After one month of sleeping on the Elite mattress, we're convinced this hybrid design strikes a winning balance that unlocks the benefits of both memory foam and pocket-springs. And we're not planning to switch back to an all-foam design anytime soon.

In total, Brook + Wilde has packed over 3,000 pocket springs into its design. There are 1,000 full-size pocket springs (measuring 135mm tall) and 2,500 smaller pocket springs, which are separated within the mattress by a layer of foam. The full-size springs are designed to ensure stability across the mattress, while the diddy springs – which are located much closer to the surface – provide the bounce when you collapse onto the mattress after a long day.

High-density foam sits at the top of the Elite mattress, which provides cushioning for your body. This is designed to support pressure points on your body – like your shoulders and hips, which dig into the surface of the mattress when you sleep on your side. We have no complaints about the foam used in this part of the design, with the Elite providing plenty of cushioning no matter what position we decided to sleep in.

We're convinced Brook + Wilde's hybrid design strikes a winning balance that unlocks the benefits of both memory foam and pocket-springs 

Brook + Wilde has concocted such a complex pick 'n' mix of foams that there's a right and wrong way to position the mattress. Yes, really. Brook + Wilde has included a label with their brand name that should be positioned at the foot of the bed. This exact construction also means you won't be able to flip the Elite – an old trick with coiled spring mattresses to try to revive them after a few years, not to mention hide suspicious stains for guests.

That might seem a little unnecessary, but for our money, it's well worth the payoff.

Since Brook + Wilde isn't planning for a future flip, the bottom layer of the mattress is a sturdy (and surprisingly rigid) base with an anti-slip coating. The Elite holds its position like an Olympian with washboard abs whenever you're moving it around the house, thanks to that supportive base. It also means you'd probably still have a very good night's sleep forgoing the bedframe entirely and placing the Elite directly onto the floor, although we didn't want to test that particular theory ourselves.

The fact that Brook + Wilde knows exactly how its mattress will be positioned on the bed also means it can use different zones of foam, with slightly different properties, for the areas where you'll be resting your head, compared to the torso and feet. This is all in an effort to ensure your spine remains aligned throughout the night.

We found the Elite kept us our body well supported throughout the night, there was no unwanted sag in the middle (like you'll get with older coiled spring and lesser memory foam mattresses) that leaves you with a sore back in the morning.

Brook + Wilde has opted for a hybrid design, which is great at promoting airflow throughout the mattress. We slept on the Elite during the hottest summer since records began and while the mattress certainly didn't serve as a self-contained air-conditioning unit, the mattress didn't hold onto the heat either.

In cooler temperatures, the hybrid design ensures a pleasant sleep – without leaving you overheated, no matter how tightly you've wrapped yourself in a duvet. While memory foam often has a bad reputation when it comes to overheating, the Elite swerves that pitfall.

Since Brook + Wilde make their mattresses to order, then it's not the fastest Bed In A Box brand. If you need a new mattress for tomorrow night, you're going to need to look elsewhere. But if you're planning on keeping your mattress for the next five to 10 years, you'll make to ensure it's just right – and the ability to customise the level of firmness to your personal tastes means the Elite is well worth the wait. Brook + Wilde says it aims to deliver within four weeks.

Keep an eye out for discounts and sales to ensure you secure one of the best mattress deals. Without that, the Elite can be a little pricey. A single mattress costs £949, with prices rising to £1,449 for a super king. Brook + Wilde offers interest-free payment plans, so you can take delivery of your new mattress for as little as £79 per month.

Elite by name, elite by nature. This hybrid mattress from Brook + Wilde packs 3,000 pocket springs to create a supportive, breathable design. And you can pick your exact level of firmness at checkout!

By naming their mattress "The Elite," Brook + Wilde could've easily set themselves up for a fall.

But against the odds, this stellar hybrid mattress manages to live up to its lofty branding. Solid and supportive, the Elite avoids feeling austere thanks to the thousands of lively pocket-springs and layers of luxurious foam that cushions as you stink in for the night. Its a perfect blend that benefits from the positives of both pocket-springs and memory foam.

If you're upgrading from an all-foam mattress, it takes a few nights to get used to the bounce from the springs – you won't have the quicksand sensation when heaving yourself up in the morning that plagues some memory foam designs. The thousands of pocket-springs also guarantee airflow through the mattress, so overheating isn't an issue either. 

Sure, the Elite is a little over-engineered with its eight-layer design and strict instructions when it comes to placement on your bedframe.

However, when Brook + Wilde's mattress offers such a supreme night's sleep, that quibble is easily forgiven.

The Elite is a little over-engineered with its eight-layer design and strict instructions when it comes to placement on your bedframe

Unlike many of its closest rivals – and some pricier options too! – the Elite has a detachable and washable top cover, which will dramatically extend the lifespan of the mattress. The fabric handles, coupled with the surprisingly solid base layer means that moving the mattress around the house is a cinch.

While there are a dizzying number of Bed In A Box brands all promising the ultimate kip, Brook + Wilde stands above the competition, thanks to its made-to-order approach. The ability to adjust the firmness of the mattress at checkout is ingenious. And means that fans of firmner mattresses won't be left out in the cold, a market that few other brands cater to.

And of course, you don't need to take our word on this.

Brook + Wilde doesn't have a presence in showrooms, which might initially sound a little off-putting, but instead offers a mammoth 200-night trial of its mattresses. At any point during that period, you can return the Elite for a full refund. Yes, despite being custom-made to your specifications, Brook + Wilde will collect any mattresses that doesn't meet your expectations and return your money.

If you're intrigued about a hybrid mattress design, the Elite is a brilliant place to start. It's offers a comfortable, luxurious rest. We ordered a medium-firm option, which strikes a brilliant balance between some liveliness and oodles of support and keeps your spine aligned – no matter what position you sleep in.

It turns out Brook + Wilde picked the correct brand name after all, this hybrid mattress truly is elite.

Elite by name, elite by nature. This hybrid mattress from Brook + Wilde packs 3,000 pocket springs to create a supportive, breathable design. And you can pick your exact level of firmness at checkout!

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