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Get a Philips Hue 3-bulb starter kit for $119.99

One hub, three LED bulbs, unlimited color options, full compatibility with all your smart-home gear. Plus: A shockingly good deal on a 65-inch TV and three, count 'em, three giveaways!

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
3 min read

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philips-hue-3-bulb-white-color-starter-kit
Philips

Let's see: You've got the smart speaker, smart TV, smart electrical outlets, but you're still using dim bulbs? (See what I did there? DIM bulbs?)

When it comes to smart-home lighting (or, I guess, smart home-lighting), Philips is arguably the best-known and most popular brand. Check the product reviews on Amazon and elsewhere and you'll see that the company's Hue line scores high ratings almost across the board -- including right here at CNET.

Ready to jump in? For a limited time, and while supplies last, TechRabbit has the refurbished Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance 3rd Generation A19 Dimmable LED Smart 3-Bulb Starter Kit for $119.99 shipped when you apply promo code CNETHUE40 at checkout. It lists for $200 and typically runs at least $160 new.

Concerned about buying refurbished bulbs? Don't be: TechRabbit backs the kit with a full one-year warranty. And for what it's worth, I'll vouch for this vendor. If there's a problem, they'll make it right.

The package includes three white/color ambiance LED bulbs and the Hue Bridge, which allows you to manage up to 50 bulbs.

The bulbs are A19-standard, meaning they can screw into pretty much any lamp or fixture. Because they're ambiance-minded, however, they're best suited for the likes of nightstands, reading lamps and so on.

They're roughly equivalent to 60-watt incandescent bulbs, and each one can be tuned to just about any color you like. Seriously, there are about 16 million to choose from.

In addition to all the usual app controls afforded to most other smart bulbs (such as scheduling or away-from-home control), the kit supports all the major smart-home hubs: Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant. And you can expand with not only other bulbs, but also other Hue smart-home stuff, like lamps, switches or motion sensors.

I'll admit I've been slow to smarten my home. To date I have exactly one smart outlet, which is used to turn a lamp on or off at scheduled times. But I know a few folks who have smart bulbs in every room and absolutely love them.

If you think you're ready to start down this road, this is a good kit for a good price.

sceptre-65-inch-4k-tv

65 inches of TV goodness for $450. Woo-hoo!

Sceptre

Bonus deal: I'll cop to it: I love TV. Right now I'm mowing my way through "Travelers," "Love," "A.P. Bio," "Bob's Burgers" and "Crashing," to name a few.

I also think that the bigger your TV, the better your viewing experience. So here's a deal that's just kind of nuts: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Walmart has the Sceptre U650CV-U 65-inch 4K TV for $449.99 shipped (plus tax). That's a full $150 off the regular price and definitely one of the cheapest 65-inch TVs I can recall seeing.

It's not "smart," so you'll have to BYO Fire TV , Roku or whatever. But it has four HDMI inputs, so you can BYO pretty much everything you want.

It has a 4.3-star average rating from over 200 buyers, so it's pretty safe to say you'll dig this baby. Time to start your "Travelers" binge. You will not be disappointed.

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Next, head over to Roadshow for your chance to win a backup camera for your car. (Seven lucky folks will walk away with that one.) And, finally, here's your shot at an Xbox One and some other great loot. Prizes, prizes, everywhere, and all it takes is a minute or two to submit your entries. Good luck!