Smart lighting panels offer up an array of effects
GE Lighting has revealed that its Cync Smart Hexagon Panels – which were unveiled back in January at CES 2023 – are now available to buy.
Panel-based smart lighting, championed originally by Nanoleaf, is a massively growing area; with gamers and home theatre enthusiasts targeted.
Cync’s option, which comes in 7 or 10 packs, are 180mm wide and 17.5mm thick and offer 16 million colors and white tones.
You can also buy additional 5-pack extender kits and a single controller can handle up to 20 of the hexagonal panels.
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They are connected to your home network using 2.4GHz Wi-Fi but you can also just pair them to your phone via Bluetooth.
Within the Cync app you’ll get control of stuff like fade width, color width and color duration and there’s also a color-wheel and layout templates, plus the ability to create your own designs.
Like Nanoleaf’s panels, they have a music sync feature and include a range of light and music show presets. You can add in voice controls using Alexa or the Google Assistant.
Cync Smart Hexagon Panels are available now in 7-pack ($149.99) and 10-pack ($189.99) versions with a 5-pack extend kit ($89.99) also available.
What I think
In the same way that the smart light market has become flooded in recent years, with seemingly every tech brand on the planet offering up an array of bulbs, lamps and lightstrips, it’s only natural that panel lighting becomes awash with options for consumers too.
Nanoleaf has the brand name and the prestige in the area at present but brands like Cync and Govee (not to mention an absolute plethora of Chinese companies selling panels on Amazon) are now coming in at lower price points, so it’s going to be hard for Nanoleaf to maintain its dominance and will need to continue to innovate with additional functions, as it has with the Sync+ features of the new Nanoleaf 4D.
