• New Hue Play lamps to expand your immersive lighting
• Upgraded candle bulbs with full-spectrum daylight and Matter compatibility
• New smart switches, including dimmer switches

My house is full of Philips Hue smart bulbs, motion detectors and various flavours of lightstrips, but one thing I haven't been able to do is integrate old-fashioned light fixtures into my hue setup – so for example if you've got a ceiling light that doesn't use the kind of bulbs that can be swapped out for Hue ones, you're out of luck. Or at least, you were. Hue now offers smart light switches that you can use to add non-smart lights to your Hue system.

There are two versions, the Hue Wired On/Off and the Hue Wired Dimmer. Simply swap them for the original light switches and you can then control the appropriate lighting with the Hue app or compatible voice assistants.

The big benefit here is that your non-smart lights can now be included in your Hue groups, and in timed or other triggered events – so for example my Hue setup turns on the living room lights when I'm arriving home after dark. And it's a boon for rooms such as kitchens where – and I'm speaking from experience here – swapping out multiple downlighter bulbs for Hue ones is ruinously expensive.

Just make sure that you put the right sort of switch for the kind of lighting you have: for example some older downlighters aren't designed to be dimmed and can start strobing if they don't get enough power, so you'd need the on/off switch rather than the dimmer for those.

More Play lamps to light up your living room

In addition to the smart switches there are three new models of Play lamps: the Hue Play table lamp, the Hue Play floor lamp compact, and the Hue Play floor lamp large.

The USP of these lamps is that they pair with either the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or the Hue Sync TV and PC apps to synchronise your lighting with the on-screen action.

I really like the Hue Play system and use it with a lightstrip for TV, movies and gaming; it makes my TV look like an Ambilight one and it's particularly good fun with things like the sunsets in Horizon: Forbidden West, which filled my entire front room with reds and oranges. By adding floor and table lamps to the collection Hue's expanding the scope of a Hue Play system, with the potential to have immersive lighting across even really big rooms.

Last but not least, there are new versions of the Hue candle bulbs. The new version is 40% more energy efficient and as before they're designed to go into decorative lighting, chandeliers and wall sconces. The 2026 version features full-spectrum daylight that closely mimics natural daylight and can be turned into warm or bright tones depending on the time of day, your preferences and your Hue routines.

The new wall switches will be available in the Europe (including the UK) from June 2026. The Hue Play table and floor lamps and the new candle bulbs will also arrive this month, and will be available in North America and "selected other markets" too.

As ever with Hue there are multiple bundles for the bulbs and the price you pay per bulb gets less the more you buy. The prices for the new lamps and switches are:

• Philips Hue wired switch module 1P/2P: £39.99 / £69.99 (about $50 / $90 or AU$80 / AU$130)
• Philips Hue wired dimmer switch 1C: £52.99 (about $70 / AU$100)
• Philips Hue wired relay switch 1C/2C: £44.99 / £49.99 (about $60 / $70 or AU$90)
• Hue Play Table lamp: £69.99 (about $90 / AU$13).
• Hue Play Floor lamp compact: £124.99 (about $170 / AU$240)
• Hue Play Floor lamp large: GBP £129.99 (about $170 / AU$250)

And the price for the candle bulbs will be (W is white, WA is White Ambience and WCA is White and Colour ambience):

• Philips Hue W B39 1P/2P: £19.99 / £29.99 (about $30 / $40 or AU$40 / AU$60)
• Philips Hue WA B39 E14 1P/2P/3P: £29.99 / £44.99 / £59.99 (about $30 / $60 / $80 or AU$40 / AU$90 / AU$110.
• Philips Hue WCA B39 E14 1P/2P/3P: £54.99 / £94.99 / £139.99 (about $70 / $130 / $190 or AU$100 / AU$180 / AU$270

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Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.