GE Cync Smart Lighting Review: A Qualified Philips Hugh Contestant | Digital trends

As smart homes become more reliable and powerful, more brands are making inroads into this space. While products like Ring and Philips Huey are well known, there are certainly less popular brands that are making waves. One of these is GE Sync. The company’s smart home lineup includes a variety of gadgets, from lights to thermostats to cameras. You could say the Cync system (formerly C by GE) is the dark horse of the smart home world.

GE Sync Smart Lighting Review

I’ve had the opportunity to try some of GE’s lighting gadgets over the last few weeks. In this review, learn how the system works as a whole and look in more detail at these products:

• Sync wire-free dimmer switch
• Smart motion sensor
• Direct Connect Color Smart Bulb
• Direct connect light strip
• Outdoor smart plug

Although many smart home and lighting systems use hubs or bridges to connect these devices to your home Wi-Fi, GE Cync has chosen to directly-connect its devices. That means there are no extra (and expensive) ingredients to buy; Lights are able to interact with the sync app itself, which makes for a more streamlined system

Setting up GE Sync using the Sync app

Smart Lighting: GE Sync Direct Connect Color Smart Bulb and Sync Wire-Free Dimmer Switch

I set up the GE Cync Direct Connect Color Smart Bulb to use with it Sync wire-free dimmer switch In the bedroom, it makes it easy to turn on the bedside lamp across the room. Setting up both the lightbulb and the switch using the GE app was extremely easy, requiring just a few taps on the screen. I created a room called Bedroom, then added each device to it. A few more clicks, and I can assign a wire-free dimmer switch to control the light bulb.

Light bulbs are an easy alternative to getting into the system – especially if you are just starting to build a smart home. It changes color, and white light also has different temperatures; Perfect for setting the mood. The dimmer switch works great with it and gives extra control because it didn’t have such a switch before.

It is also possible to set the timer for the light bulb using the sync app Scene. I set the lighting scene just before bedtime, then I’ll turn it off before I go to sleep. Intuitive and works well for using visual features.

GE Sync Direct Connect Light Strip

Next, I set up Direct connect light strip Behind the sofa, so it can act as a kind of background lighting in the living room. I wanted to set up a motion sensor to turn on the light when I entered the room, but I had some problems.

The motion sensor doesn’t seem to be working, it won’t trip the strip lights at all. To solve my problem, I reconnected it to the bedroom light bulb, and found that it would turn on that light, but it took about 20 seconds for the light to illuminate after walking into the room. Not ideal. My guess is that there is a bug in the app or the firmware of this sensor (which I believe can be fixed at any time), so I put it aside.

GE Sync Outdoor Smart Plug

In the end, I tried GE Sync Outdoor Smart Plug, And it’s a great device for automating things like old patios or string lights, or water fountains or bug zappers. An outdoor smart plug is a large oval block attached to a small cord. Although the case is quite large, it looks well made and has two plugs under the rubberized flap that keep things airtight. You can turn the plug on and off by pressing the button at the top of the unit or use the app as a remote control. You can set each timer to plug in. The back has a mounting hook, giving it a clean look.

My husband found the button feature easy to control these lights, while I like to give our patio string lights and put a fountain on an automatic schedule so that its lights are on every evening and turn off at bedtime.

The GE Cync Outdoor Smart Plug worked like a dream and was very easy to set up and use; Plus it seems durable enough to withstand the weather.

One thing I didn’t understand was how to link devices together to create more complex scenes. For example, when the motion sensor trips, I can’t create a scene to turn on the lights With A GE Cync camera to start recording (for example, the ring can do this). It seems that this type of interconnection is not yet available in the app.

Another feature I like in a smart lighting system is a sunrise / sunset automatic schedule that automatically turns on the lights at sunset and adjusts to the solar cycle throughout the year during sunrise. I haven’t seen that option in the Sync app, but I hope it will be an option in future firmware updates.

Control with Siri, Google or Alexa

Another positive feature of GE Cync is that it will work with the digital assistant of your choice: it is compatible with Siri and Apple HomeKit, Google and Alexa. I chose to connect my light to Google Home and was able to easily turn the light on or off or adjust the color – all without the need for a phone.

Our acceptance

Overall, the GE Sync smart lighting system is quite impressive. There are different types of lighting devices, the ecosystem is easy to set up and use, whether with an app or your voice.

When it comes to the aspects of GE Cync smart lighting that can be improved, it comes down to the glitchy motion detector, which we want support for sunrise / sunset schedules. In fact, these factors are not isolated from the system as a whole. For those who want to start a smart home and smart lighting, GE Cync Smart Light is a must.

Is there a better option?

Perhaps a better question would be, is there a different option? Phillips Hugh is the grandfather of smart lighting, along with other producers LIFX and Sengled also create capable smart home lighting. The Philips Hugh is definitely a great system (I have a lot of Hugh lights in my house) but I would say the Cync brand stands well against it.