GE Cync

9.50 / 10
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You might think that you'd be losing out on a lot by choosing the budget option, but except for a few relatively minor differences with software and syncing integrations, the experiences will largely be the same.

Key Features
  • Control lights remotely
  • Wide range of smart bulbs, fixtures, light strips
  • Set light schedules & routines
  • Control with your voice
  • WiFi and Bluetooth direct connections
  • New lighting effects
Specifications
  • Brand: GE
  • Integrations: Alexa, Google Home, Siri (HomeKit)
  • Hub Required: No
  • Multicolor Capable: Yes
  • Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth
Pros
  • No Hub required
  • Quick and easy setup
  • Reliable connectivity
  • Intuitive app
  • Frequent software/feature updates
Cons
  • Limited integrations (no Spotify or gaming sync)
Buy This Product

Formerly called C by GE, Cync is a relatively new smart lighting system (still by GE), that offers a wide selection of smart bulbs, fixtures, light strips, sensors, switches, and remotes—and now even security cameras and thermostats too. While Philips Hue might still dominate in sheer variety of lighting fixtures on offer, Cync stands out as a more affordable choice that doesn't compromise much on features.

GE Cync - Kitchen wafer lights & led strip

In fact, in my three months of installing and using Cync's products, they've already released two major firmware and app updates which have added several new lighting and programmable modes, to add even more value to their lineup. If your goal is to add smart light bulbs that can be reliably controlled via voice, app, or automation with minimal setup required, then Cync is an excellent choice that won't disappoint (nor break the bank).

The Cync System

Most of Cync's lights have these key features:

  • Simple setup. Works right out of the box using the Cync app—no additional hardware needed.
  • Add smart control to any fixture. These globe bulbs work in vanity and decorative fixture to add smart benefits like out-of-home and voice control, scheduling, scenes, and more.
  • Voice control with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Directly connect to your Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa for voice control of your lights.
  • Out-of-home control. Get lighting control away from home through the Cync app; no hub or bridge is needed.
  • Sleep/wake cycle. Adjust your white light to any color between warm, amber light tones (2000K) and cool, bluish tones (7000K), including optimized settings to support your sleep/wake cycle.
  • Create custom schedules. Automations allow you to schedule when lights are on and off, including customized schedules for different days of the week.
  • Set scenes for every occasion. Set scenes like warm dimmed lights for movie time or cool bright lights when you wake up in the morning.
  • Whole-room control. Pair your Full-Color Smart Bulbs with other Cync by GE devices to get whole-room lighting control.

Connectivity and The Cync App

Unlike one of its biggest competitors, Philips Hue, Cync lights do not require a hub to get the most out of its smart features. Cync's bulbs offer Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity which will pair each light and device directly to your existing network. On one hand, this means if your Wi-Fi network goes down or is weak, you'll lose control over your lights. However, provided you have a strong connection throughout your space, this shouldn't be an issue. In contrast, Philips Hue lighting is significantly hindered without a hub as you’re limited to only being able to operate your smart lights within Bluetooth range (about 30 feet or 10 meters), and you can only connect up to 10 lights in one room. One of the biggest limitations is that you won’t be able to control your lights while away from home, set ongoing automation, or create custom scenes without a hub.

The Cync lights are quick and easy to set up. Aside from its Wafer lights which understandably will require additional hardware and steps to physically install and connect to power, most just need to be screwed or plugged in order to connect. The lights should automatically enter their pairing mode and be found in the refreshed Cync app.

After creating a Cync account, devices can be found using the Add device, ‘+’ sign at the bottom of the app where you'll then select the type of product you’re trying to connect. The only tedious part of this process (and I'm not sure if any other smart lighting brands offer a more streamlined approach) is needing to set up each light individually. This can be annoying if you're setting up several lights at once, and I would have liked the possibility to add several lights to a group/room at once and then simply naming the individual lights in the last step. Instead, you have to identify each light, name it, connect it to your network, and then add it to your room/group. Granted, this only needs to be done once, but I imagine there could be a faster way to add multiple lights at once and save a few steps. On the bright side, the app remembers your Wi-Fi password so you at least don't need to enter that every time you add a device.

Once the lights are connected you can control them individually or as part of their groups. You can create additional subgroups for further organization. For example, I have several types of lights in my studio; four Cync wafer lights in my ceiling, two smart bulbs in each of my lamps, and one light strip. I can easily group the ceiling lights together, and do the same for each lamp.

GE Cync - App - Chaning room colors

This allows me to adjust settings for each of these groups individually, but as they are also still part of the larger "studio" room, they can also then all be controlled together. Furthermore, each light has its own name (Ex. Studio Ceiling Light 1), which allows you to still control specific fixtures if needed. You can set each light to a specific brightness, color, and mode. You have quick options from each group to turn all the lights on/off, change their color and brightness, and as part of a recent update, you can now create light shows/effects. Within a few seconds, you can get some really creative looks.

Smart Integration

Cync can be connected to Google, Alexa, and Siri / Apple HomeKit. By linking my Cync account to my Alexa integrations, I am quickly able to add my lights to the rest of my smart home controls. Once you've connected your account, each new light you add via Cync will automatically be detected by Alexa, and you'll be prompted to add it to your home.

Your main controls like brightness, color, and temperature are available via the smart assistants, however, light shows or effects as well as changing or creating routines are not. The Alexa app has recently added support for changing your light shows or effects via your phone, however, voice commands still don't seem to work for them. As such, for advanced customization, you'll still need to use the Cync app. I didn't use these settings much, except for testing, so I didn't feel like this was much of a burden.

GE Cync - Living room & stairway lights

Another limitation I found is that the rooms/groups you create within Cync do not transfer over, only the individual names of the lights. As such, these groups need to be recreated within Alexa if you want to control them as such. Again, this is a little tedious when you're adding several lights at first, but only needs to be done once.

Smart home devices tend to be very finicky with combo 2.4GHz/5GHz networks that share the same SSID, yet Cync seems to handle it just fine. In my months of using these various lights and devices, I have never had any issues with the lights disconnecting, being unreachable, or any other pairing/connectivity problems.

Voice commands haven't been as reliable for me, but that could have been Alexa's fault. Sometimes only a few of the grouped lights would be changed, and other times nothing would. Usually repeating the command a second time would give me the desired result, so it wasn't a major annoyance. I seem to notice these occurrences far less frequently now, so perhaps their Alexa integrations have been improved over the past few months.

My Smart Home Setup

While my home is only a few years old and actually came with a few smart features including a Wi-Fi garage door, Wi-Fi front door lock, and Ring doorbell, I made it a priority to add smart lighting and other integrations to all the main rooms.

Over the past month, I've been gradually upgrading my home with new smart features from Cync's new lineup of smart bulbs, wafer lights, strips, thermostats, and plugs. I now have a total of 12 Cync 6" Wafers, several 60W Direct Connect Color Smart Bulbs, a variety of their decorative style smart bulbs, a few indoor light strips, a thermostat, and one outdoor plug. I'll provide an overview of the installation, smart-home integration process, and my general experience using these products for the past few months.

GE Cync - Colored bulb in fan

Living Room

With my living room being my most used space, I first started by adding smart features here.

GE Cync - Kitchen & Living room lights

I'm actually not a huge fan of standing lamps and try to use ceiling or fixture lighting as much as possible. My house came with recessed 6" LED lighting installed in most of the rooms. I began by swapping the four in my living room out for the Cync 6" Wafer Smart LED Downlight.

GE Cync - Wafer lights cut out

These lights include remote junction boxes which make the installation process easier, yet you'll still likely need to refer to their video tutorials if you don't have much electrical or handyman experience. These were the most time-consuming to install as they required a number of steps to remove my old lights and then fit in the new ones properly, however, it wasn't especially difficult for my upgrade. Normally, if you don't already have recessed lighting, you'll need to cut out holes in your ceiling for your new lights to fit in, as well as mess with the electrical cabling to create a new connection. In my case, I already had recessed cans from my old lights, which I ended up loosening and placing off to the side above the ceiling in order for the new junction box to fit. I didn't completely remove the old cans as they fed the electrical wiring which was needed for the new connection.

GE Cync - Installing wafer lights

The Wafer lights have two spring clips on their sides which help push the lights flush to your ceiling cut-out. Although my previous cut-outs were also for 6" recessed lights, it appears that the holes were ever so slightly larger than I needed them for the new Cync wafer lights.

GE Cync - Wafer lights expansion rings

With the lights installed, I could see small gaps as well as shadows caused by where the lights weren't covering the entire cutout. I found several cheap wafer light trim ring kits on Amazon which retail for about $9 for a pack of 5. Installing these rings is as simple as placing them against the top of your ceiling before the lights. I actually preferred the look with these installed as it made the lights look even more premium.

GE Cync - Wafer lights installed

Kitchen

Having good lights in my kitchen was crucial. I have four of Cync 6" Wafer Smart LED Downlight as well as a smart plug controlling an old LED light strip beneath my cabinets.

GE Cync - Kitchen wafer lights & led strip

Having control over my ceiling light brightness and warmth is incredible as I can quickly go from a bright scene for when I'm cooking to a more relaxed experience by dimming and warming the lights when it's time to eat. With my kitchen being attached to my living room, I can set its light to a dark blue or yellow color to create a moodier theme for when I'm watching tv without worrying about lights above the tv causing glare.

GE Cync - Kitchen lights set to purple

Studio

Most important to this entire upgrade is my studio's lighting. I previously was using a mix of different smart bulb brands for my various lamps and outlets.

GE Cync - Wafer lights & colored bulbs

It was confusing keeping track of which app controlled each light. Switching over to Cync, I now have four Cync 6" Wafer Smart LED Downlights in my ceiling, one LED light strip for my gaming PC desk, an LED strip behind my unboxing/review table with two 60W Direct Connect Color Smart Bulbs in each of the lamps on either side, two more for the lamp behind my editing desk, and lastly, a smart plug for an Ikea desk light.

With more unique bulbs and lamps like these, you can easily add smart controls for turning them on or off using smart switches. If you'd prefer full control over brightness and color, Cync also offers decorative bulbs in a variety of styles and sizes. They currently don't have anything quite as large as the Ikea bulb I would need to replace, however, for other lamps or light fixtures where the bulb is more exposed or prominent, these are a great way to add some extra character to your lighting.

GE Cync - Decorational lights

As I do much of my filming and commercial work in this space, these new studio lights play an essential part in my production process. While they are not my key lights, they allow me to quickly add pops of color to my photos and videos with just a few quick commands. One of the biggest advantages has been with the ceiling and lamp lights next to my unboxing/review desk which I can now match the warmth to my 5500k key lights and minimize my shadows when filming against a green screen.

GE Cync - LED light strip on baseboard

Stairways/Hallways

Surprisingly, one of the most frequently used lights are the ones in my stairway, which uses two 60W Direct Connect Color Smart Bulbs.

GE Cync - Colored bulb for stairway lights

I love being able to voice activate these lights when I come home, especially when my hands are full of groceries and I normally wouldn't be able to reach a light switch easily to see where I'm going. Similarly, I also often use these as night lights by setting them to 1% brightness and a warm yellow color. Similarly, for other lights which don't have easy access to their switch, smart bulbs can make a huge difference.

GE Cync - Stairway lights set to blue

Outdoors

Using Cync's outdoor Smart Plug, I can now voice control the cafe lights on my roof deck.

GE Cync - Outdoor plug

This is extremely heavy duty and it has two plugs, each with its own button above to manually turn them on or off. There is a rubber weatherproof cover for each plug. The back of the case of the plug has a hole for wall mounting if needed.

GE Cync - Outdoor plug for lights

For all-weather safety, the Outdoor Smart Plug includes:

  • Weatherproofing outlet cover
  • 3-prong compatibility
  • Durability that withstands weather and debris

Add to exterior lights and devices for smart control from inside your home—or anywhere. These can also be a great way to control outdoor holiday lights and decorations on a schedule or via voice command.

GE Cync - Outdoor smart plug in hand

Does Cync Have Any Compromises?

I haven't experienced any issues or felt that the Cync system lacked the key features that I wanted with my smart lighting. That said, there are a few ways that Philips takes lighting to the next level with third-party software integration such as Razer Chroma and Spotify, as well as Philips Ambilight sync for compatible TVs. While fairly niche, these could make it worth the significant cost over Cync for some users.

GE Cync - LED Strip for gaming desk

When synced with Razer Chroma accessories, you can have complementary or matching lighting effects to your computer, peripherals, and during gaming. Supported games allow your lights to react in real-time to your in-game experiences. Similarly, you can also connect Philips Hue lights to Corsair iCUE. This can be programmed with your PC hardware to alert you when the temperatures are running high. I could see this maybe being a worthy upgrade if you want the "ultimate" immersive lighting setup for a game room.

Cync doesn't offer any similar integrations, however, I felt that their customizable lighting effects and presets were more than enough to set the mood. I typically like to set my lights to a gradual rainbow, or manually set a few lights to specific colors like blue and purple.

GE Cync - Gaming Desk 2

With Spotify, Philips Hue generates light scripts to reflect the beat of the music. The demos look very impressive, and it even showcases how well the lights react to different genres of music. Cync has recently added "music sync shows" to their app which help your lights react to the tempo and beat of your music. I wasn't a big fan of Cync's music features, and although it was better than most other lighting music syncing I've tried before, it still largely felt like a gimmick. Sure it could be good for a party or to quickly show off your smart home lighting to someone, but it still falls short of Hue. Whereas the Cync lights react to the music, with the right tracks, Hue can feel like a perfectly orchestrated light show.

Having integrations with my games or Spotify would certainly be cool, and I see how it gives the Hue series a unique edge over the completion. That said, I personally don't think it's worth paying twice as much for over Cync for the extra. On one hand, I would really love to have that music experience in my studio or living room, but I wouldn't need or want it in other parts of my home like my kitchen, entrance, or library. While you could just these more "premium" bulbs for the specific rooms you wanted and opt for the cheaper Cync for everywhere else, that kind of defeats the purpose of a simplified smart home experience.

Time to Upgrade Your Smart Home With GE Cync?

Overall, the GE Cync smart lighting system has been a great addition and upgrade to my home. With reliable Wi-Fi connectivity and no requirements for a hub, their ecosystem is simple to set up and use, whether with their app or when connected to a smart assistant. While Cync currently doesn't have as extensive of a lineup of bulbs and fixtures as Philips Hue, nor does it have the advanced music and gaming integrations, at its core, you are getting a very reliable smart lighting system for a fraction of the cost.