For most of my life, I've generally preferred a firmer mattress but as the years take their toll, I'm finding myself leaning towards something just a little less solid that'll be kinder to my ageing joints. However my partner's tastes still veer pretty firm, so the best mattress for us would be one that keeps us both happy in terms of firmness, which is a bit of a tall order.
Consequently I was delighted when the opportunity to review the Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress came up. Its big selling point is that it has a firmer side and a softer side, and I figured that if one side wasn't right for us both, the other might be.
The Premium Hybrid is the second most expensive option in Eve's new range of six Wunderflip mattresses. Equal cheapest are the Wunderflip Memory Foam and Lighter Hybrid, then in ascending order of RRP there's the Hybrid, the Premium Memory Foam, the Premium Hybrid and the Ultimate Hybrid.
I've been covering the mattress industry for the past couple of years and I reviewed the Eve mattress topper for T3 back in 2022. It's been ages since Eve launched a new mattress – I know because for quite a while I was checking its site and pricing on a weekly basis – so the Wunderflip is a welcome arrival. Is it worth your money, though? I've been sleeping on it for over a month, so let's find out.
Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress review: price and availability
The Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress comes in three sizes: the UK double comes in at £749, a king size is £849, and a super king will cost you £999. If you're set on this mattress, however, I'd advise you to think twice about paying full price. At the time of writing it's reduced by 40%, bringing the price of a double down to a very reasonable £449, but if it's back to full price when you read this, there's also the option to haggle with an AI chatbot on the Eve site (I'd suggest you lowball it with a half-price offer then try to get it down to around that 40% off level).
However much you pay for it, the Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid comes with free delivery directly to the room of your choice (which is a very good thing, as I'll come to in a bit). There's also a 200-night sleep trial to give you plenty of time to decide whether this is the right mattress for you, as well as a 10-year warranty. And if you can't be bothered with the hassle of disposing of your old mattress, Eve will take it away for a £45 fee.
Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress review: unboxing and set-up
I can't fault the Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress's delivery, which was done through Eve's parent company, Bensons for Beds. A text message on the morning of delivery gave me a two-hour delivery window and a promise that the driver would call me approximately half an hour before delivery, and that's just what happened.
The incredibly chirpy driver and his more taciturn colleague (who, to be fair, was tasked with actually carrying the mattress) showed up right on schedule and deposited the mattress in the hall outside my bedroom, as I hadn't yet got around to taking my old mattress off the bed. In retrospect, I wish I'd sorted myself out better and got them to put the mattress straight on the bed because this thing's incredibly heavy.
The Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress doesn't come in a box; it's folded, rolled and vacuum packed, and encased in plastic with cardboard at each end for a bit of extra protection. A box would have been nice, because then I'd have had some corners to grip; as it was I had to get it up onto one end, walk it to the edge of the bed and then hoist it roughly into position before I started to open it.
Eve doesn't supply a cutting tool to unpack the mattress, and instead recommends using scissors (not a knife) to get it open. Thanks to an enthusiastic application of packing tape this proved to be quite a challenge, and while my plan was to remove the outer wrapping and get the mattress unfolded, unrolled and well-positioned before breaking the vacuum seal, inevitably I accidentally pierced the inner wrap while working through all that tape and had to remove the rest of the wrapping with a rapidly decompressing mattress working against me.
However I got it into place and left it to do its thing while I gathered and disposed of all the packaging. It decompressed reasonably quickly; it looked a little sad for the first half hour or so, after a couple of hours it looked pretty much done, and it was entirely ready to sleep on by bedtime. My only concern was that off-gassing (that distinct chemical smell you tend to get from freshly opened vacuum-packed mattresses) might make it unpleasant to sleep on, however I kept a window open and in any case, the off-gassing smell was mild, had largely faded by the time I went to bed, and was completely gone within a couple of days.
Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress review: design
The Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress's USP is its flippable design; one side is firmer and the other is softer, and there's a label on each edge to let you know which is which. At the Wunderflip's core is a layer of 1,000 reactive pocket springs that are built to be firmer at one end and softer at the other, which is a smart innovation, and they're surrounded by foam rails that provide plenty of edge support.
Alongside the pocket springs, on the firmer side there's a top layer of pressure-relieving memory foam, followed by a layer of 1,500 micro pocket springs for added support. Beneath that is another layer memory foam, and between that and the sprung core is a layer of firmer foam to boost support even more.
The softer side is a lot less complex, consisting of simply a layer of softer foam that sits on top of the pocket spring core. But if that sounds a bit basic, that's because there's an extra layer: the Wunderflip's cover, which you zip off then back on again when you flip the mattress, itself features thick foam layer that's 100% natural and treated with Purotex+, a technology certified by Allergy UK that reduces dust mites and other allergens by up to 96.6%.
Bear in mind though that this adds quite a bit to the mattress's depth, and at 28cm this is one that may require deeper sheets than you currently have. And one final touch: the Wunderflip features a pair of fabric handles on both sides, which you'll definitely need when you want to flip the mattress over.
Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress review: performance
The Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress was delivered firmer side up, so that was the side I tested first. Because Eve's previous mattresses have had a tendency to skew firm, I expected a similar sort of feel from this one, but actually the feel is more towards the medium end of medium-firm. And that's absolutely fine for me; I came to the Wunderflip from an Emma NextGen Premium mattress, which Emma rates as medium but which I've found to be a lot firmer. Meanwhile my partner found that the firmer side to be almost, but not quite, too soft for her liking (which meant that testing the softer side would be interesting to say the least).
Thanks to the foam layer in the cover, and the layers of foam and microcoils before you even get to the pocket sprung core, there's quite a bit of cushioning to the firmer side of the Wunderflip; not so much that you sink deeply into it, but enough to mean that I felt gently supported in all sleeping positions. I tend to change position a lot in the night, and I know about it in my shoulders and hips if I spend too long sleeping on my side on a too-firm mattress, but for me the firmer side was just right.
The firmer side proved to be pretty good at motion isolation; it's not the best I've encountered as there was a definite awareness of my partner's movements, but not enough to disturb my sleep. And in terms of temperature regulation it did really well; during my testing period temperatures at night ranged between surprisingly nippy and really rather warm, and at no time did I end up overheating in the night.
Before I could move on to testing the softer side of the Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress, I of course had to flip it over. Eve suggests that this is a two-person job but I, as quite a tall person with plenty of reach, figured that I could manage it single-handed and I was right. Unzipping the cover was an easy job and I could then slide it off the bed and onto the floor before lifting one edge of the mattress until it was vertical, walking around to the other side of the bed while holding it in place, then carefully lowering it again and nudging it into position.
The only really fiddly aspect of the process was zipping the cover back on; it meant sliding it into place so that the zip ends lined up almost exactly, and even then the zip snagged quite a few times on its way around and I had to keep adjusting the cover's position and pulling the edges taut to give the zip a clear run. I also noticed that once the fastener had reached the end on the mattress edge, there were still a few inches of teeth left on the top edge; this feels like a manufacturing flaw on this particular mattress, and while it was mildly annoying to spot it made no difference to the mattress's performance.
Right, on to the softer side. My expectation was that it wouldn't feel hugely more soft than the firmer side, and while this proved to be the case, it was still quite noticeably softer, to the extent that my partner swiftly checked out of the review process because it was too soft for her liking.
I mostly enjoyed the feel on this side; because there's no enveloping memory foam on this side I didn't sink into it too deeply, and I'd rate it as just on the softer side of medium. The softer foam on this side, combined with the softer end of the springs, delivers gentle support without the memory foam 'hug' that I'm not a fan of. The softer side provided plenty of pressure relief for sleeping on my sides and back, however it wasn't very good for comfortable stomach sleeping as my midsection didn't get enough support and had a tendency to sink in a little too far, putting noticeable strain on my lower back.
While I sunk into this side more than on the firmer side, the lack of memory foam meant that the mattress still didn't trap heat, even in warmer weather, and I was able to sleep comfortably cool. However I found that there was a lot more motion transfer on this side of the mattress, which I put down to the increased softness in the springs making the bed more responsive and making me much more aware of my partner's movements.
Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress review: verdict
Although Eve describes the Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress as having a firmer side and a softer side, these are relative descriptors and you really shouldn't expect this bed to feel particularly soft or firm. If your tastes run to either rock-hard or marshmallow-soft, the Wunderflip's going to leave you feeling disappointed (in my partner's case she found the firmer side to be right on the edge of her firmness preference).
While there's not a massive distinction between sides in terms of firmness, it's definitely noticeable, although the well-cushioned cover plays a large part in softening up the feel on both sides. I think if your preferences aren't too extreme, this mattress is an interesting option, although once you've settled on a particular I do rather question whether you'll ever bother to actually flip it. And while I largely enjoyed sleeping on the softer side, its lack of support for stomach sleeping and its more noticeable motion transfer meant that I was perfectly happy to flip it back to the firmer side.
I feel that where the Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress would work best is on a spare bed, if you're a particularly accommodating host, as it'll mean that your guest will be able to sleep comfortably whatever their firmness preferences.
Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress review: alternatives to consider
The Eve Wunderflip Premium Hybrid mattress's big selling point is its flippable design, and there really aren't any alternatives I can recommend if you're after that sort of versatility. However if you're in the market for a comfortable mattress with a slightly more solid feel than the Wunderflip's firmer side, I'd recommend the Emma NextGen Premium, which comes in at a similar price and is better at motion isolation, although I find the edge support to be less impressive.
If you prefer something on the softer side, the Zoma Mattress might be a good option for you. It's a memory foam mattress that has a medium-firm feel with quite a bit of bounce to it, but like the softer side of the Wunderflip, stomach sleepers will probably find that it doesn't offer enough support.
