The Black Friday 2026 sales are around the corner, and there are already deals to be had across the smart home sector, including at Philips Hue.
Philips Hue is the gold standard of smart home lighting, thanks to producing a huge range of bulbs, light strips, switches and other accessories, all controlled from an excellent app, automation, or the voice assistant of your choice.
Ahead of Black Friday this year, there’s 30 per cent off Hue products. The discount is part of a mix-and-match promotion where buying two or more qualifying products from the Hue store saves 30 per cent from the total cost.
Almost 100 Hue products are included in this mix-and-match Black Friday deal. This includes sets of bulbs, garden lighting, LED light strips, floor lamps, festive string lighting and accessories too.
All you have to do is pick the product, put two in your basket, and a 30 per cent discount is automatically applied at the checkout. For example, two three-packs of colour GU10 spotlights are reduced from £280 to £196 (Philips-hue.com). That takes the per-bulb price down from £46.67 to £32.67.
The cost of buying two three-metre Flux light strips falls from £140 to £98 (Philips-hue.com), lowering the per-strip price from £70 to £49. Similarly, two packs of two Hue E14 LED candle bulbs falls from £90 to £63, meaning just £15.75 per bulb (Philips-hue.com)
If you’re getting your house ready for Christmas, the Festavia full-colour string lights are also part of Philips Hue’s Black Friday sale. An eight-metre cord with 100 bulbs is £110 on its own, but if you buy two, the price falls from £220 to £154 (Philips-hue.com). For larger houses, a 40-metre Festavia cord with 500 LEDs costs £330 on its own, or £462 for two (Philips-hue.com).
Hue switches and accessories are part of the Black Friday deal too. The latest model of wireless dimmer switch is normally £20, but if you buy two, the total price falls from £40 to £28 (Philips-hue.com).
The most cost-effective way to bring Hue smart lighting to as many rooms as possible is a four-pack of the A60 B22 white ambience bulb. This normally costs £80, but if you buy two packs, the total is £112, or just £14 per bulb (Philips-hue.com).
A handful of Hue products have been reduced by 30 per cent without the need to buy two. A three-pack of white ambience GU10 spotlights (Philips-hue.com) is down from £60 to £42, while a three-pack of colour E27 Hue bulbs has been reduced from £130 to £91.
Philips hue E27 smart light bulb
This Philips hue is available with E27 screw or B22 bayonet type fittings, and can be bought as a dimmable (£14.99, Philips-hue.com), temperature-adjustable (£24.99, Philips-hue.com), or fully colour-changing bulb (£49.99, Philips-hue.com). The bulb has a maximum brightness of 800 lumens. However, Philips also offers more expensive bulbs that are rated at 1,100 (£54.99, Philips-hue.com) and even 1,600 lumens (£64.99, Philips-hue.com). This might be useful for some customers, but we reckon the majority will be happy with the regular 800 lumens option.
When it comes to connectivity, the latest generation of Philips Hue bulbs have a trick up their sleeve, in the form of Bluetooth. Previously, they worked like Hive bulbs, using Zigbee and requiring a hub, called the Hue Bridge (£28.99, Amazon.co.uk), to operate. Now though, Hue bulbs can be controlled directly from the Hue smartphone app using Bluetooth, saving you the cost of the Hue Bridge.
That said, functionality is reduced over Bluetooth. The bulbs can’t be set to gradually brighten to wake you up in the morning, for example, and they cannot be controlled when out of Bluetooth range. So, unless all you want is a simple lamp that works with a phone app (and you don’t want to install more than 10 bulbs, which is the limit when using Bluetooth) you’ll need to invest in the bridge hub. Buying three bulbs, a bridge and a dimmer switch in a kit makes things slightly cheaper (£169.99, Philips-hue.com), but it’s still a considerable investment compared to regular lighting.
Read more: 8 best smart plugs to save on energy bills and cut your costs
The Hue app is attractive, intuitive and makes it easy to add bulbs to your system, name them, organise them into groups, and create different scenes, several of which are included to get you started. These include a bright white setting called ‘concentrate’ to help you focus on work, and a scene called ‘relax’ which turns the bulbs to a warmer, softer mode. As with other LED bulbs, Hue lights can be set to 16 million different colours, so you’re bound to find the exact look you want (eventually).
Hue lights are quick and easy to set up, just like Hive, although to our eyes the latter’s app is cleaner and simpler. It’ll appeal more to those who are new to smart lighting (and smart home systems generally), while the Hue app offers deeper customisation, and the Hue ecosystem is much larger, thanks to light strips, outdoor lighting, decorative filament-style bulbs (£19.99, Amazon.com), and even lights that change to match whatever you’re watching on TV.
Buy now £49.99, Philips
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance starter kit
Philips is the industry leader when it comes to energy-saving LED smart bulbs. It offers a huge range of bulbs, with white, dimmable and colour-changing lighting solutions designed to fit every room in the home. There are strip lights, sconces, lamps, bathroom lights and even garden lighting to choose from.
Our reviewer was impressed by the versatility of the Hue range, as well as the option to keep using your traditional light switch if you prefer. “The bulbs are capable of 16 million colours, so you can choose exactly the shade you like,” they said. “The kit also comes with a battery-powered light switch that can be mounted on the wall, which is handy if you are away and someone in the house is not so tech-literate. You can expand the range as you are ready, with dozens of bulbs able to talk to the same Hue bridge.”
