Black Friday Smart Home Deals 2026: What Is Worth Buying, and What We Would Skip

Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026. The smart home kit worth buying when it is discounted: a mesh WiFi system, Philips Hue, smart plugs with energy monitoring, a soundbar with HDMI eARC, a robot vacuum, and a video doorbell if you accept the subscription. Skip WiFi extenders, no-name cameras and anything that only works through its own app.

Worth buying when the price drops

The question we ask of every deal is not "is it cheaper" but "would we fit this in our own house".

A mesh WiFi system. The upgrade most houses actually need, with the most honest discounts: the Deco X50 three-pack and the Eero range routinely drop 25 to 40%. Buy a three-pack for a three or four-bed house, and buy WiFi 6. Our best mesh WiFi systems in the UK guide says which we fit and why.

Philips Hue. Starter kits and bulb multipacks are often a third off. Hue costs more all year, works with every ecosystem, and Philips has kept old bulbs working on new bridges. See best smart lighting in the UK for which bulbs and switches to pick.

Smart plugs with energy monitoring. The cheapest useful smart home purchase. Buy ones that show watts in the app, and within a week you will know which appliance is costing you money. Matter versions are £10 to £15 a plug at the time of writing.

A video doorbell, with eyes open. Ring and its rivals discount hard this week. The catch is that clip history needs a subscription, about £5 a month for one Ring device at the time of writing; without it you have live video and nothing else. Read why Ring doorbells keep going offline before choosing where it goes.

A soundbar with HDMI eARC. One cable to the TV, every source through it, and a big step up from TV speakers. Spend the discount on eARC and a separate subwoofer rather than a bigger brand name. Our soundbar vs surround sound post explains when a soundbar is enough.

A robot vacuum. Not glamorous, but mid-range models with proper mapping drop a long way this week and get used every day.

What we would skip, even at half price

WiFi range extenders. An extender halves the speed of whatever it repeats and gives your phone a second network to get confused by. Put the money toward one more mesh node; we explain why in mesh WiFi vs extenders.

No-name cameras that only store to a cloud you do not control. If the brand goes quiet the app stops working and the camera becomes a plastic ornament, and you have no idea where the footage goes. Buy a camera that also records locally, or do not buy it.

A WiFi 7 router on 70 Mbps broadband. The line is the limit, not the router, and a £300 router will not make a 70 Mbps line faster. Read is WiFi 7 worth it in the UK first.

A projector for a bright lounge. Projectors look wonderful in the shop and washed out in a sunny room. Unless the room can be darkened, a bigger TV is the better buy; our best projectors for home cinema guide says which rooms suit one.

Bundles with devices you will never use. Four plugs, two bulbs, a hub and a button for £99 is only a bargain if you wanted all seven things. Usually you wanted two.

Anything that only works through its own app. If the box does not mention Matter, Google Home, Apple Home or Alexa, the device cannot join the rest of the house, and it dies the day its maker loses interest.

Buy or skip, by category

Category	Buy or skip	What to look for
Mesh WiFi kit	Buy	WiFi 6, three-pack for 3 to 4 beds, Ethernet ports on each node
Smart lighting	Buy	Philips Hue at about a third off, in your fittings (B22, E27, GU10)
Smart plugs	Buy	Energy monitoring in the app, Matter, UK three-pin
Video doorbell	Buy, with the subscription	Current generation, about £5 a month, strong WiFi at the door
Soundbar	Buy	HDMI eARC, separate subwoofer, fits under the TV
WiFi range extender	Skip	A mesh node instead
No-name cloud camera	Skip	Local recording or nothing
WiFi 7 router	Skip below gigabit broadband	Check your line speed first
Projector for a bright room	Skip	A bigger TV unless the room goes dark
Single-app devices	Skip	Matter, Google, Apple or Alexa on the box

The install trap: the box is not the job

A £300 camera kit at £180 still needs a drill, a cable route, a ladder and somebody comfortable on it in December. None of that is in the box, and it is where sale purchases go wrong: the kit sits in the hall until February and then turns out to be wrong for the house.

If you are paying someone to fit it, tell them before you buy. We are happy to fit kit you have bought yourself, and would rather spend ten minutes on the phone saying "get the wired version" than arrive to find a battery doorbell for a porch with no WiFi. See our smart home installation and smart lighting installation pages.

Four checks before you press buy

1. Check the price history. CamelCamelCamel shows an Amazon item's price over the past year; for other retailers, ask whether the "was" price was ever really charged.
2. Check the returns window. Many retailers extend returns into January over Black Friday; some do not. Check before the box sits shut until Christmas.
3. Check it is the current generation. The deepest discounts are often on the model being replaced. Fine for a bulb; not for a router or camera, which stops getting security updates sooner.
4. Check the plug and the support. A grey import with a European plug is not a bargain, and a UK retailer who answers the phone in March is worth £20 on the price.

What we would buy ourselves this year

A mesh three-pack if the house still runs on the broadband router's own WiFi. A Hue starter kit for the lounge. Energy-monitoring plugs for the tumble dryer and the dehumidifier. A soundbar with eARC for the main TV. A smart thermostat (see our smart thermostat installation cost post). Nothing with a camera unless we already knew where it was going, how it was getting power, and who was paying the subscription.