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Bahamas, Nassau
1 Level
715 Review
90 Karma

Review on 🌈 GE CYNC Smart Full Color LED Light Strip 80-Inches: Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Enabled, Google Home + Alexa Compatible: No Hub Needed! (Packaging May Vary) by Ryan Chaplain

Revainrating 1 out of 5

The lighting is great, the application is terrible

One strip of these bulbs is enough to illuminate a 10' x 10' room like a doctor's office, but they can also be dimmed and muted to suit to create a great atmosphere in a huge variety of colors. There is a wide range of shades of white and they all look great. I particularly like the "Early Morning" setting. Colors are fun, and if you have two devices, you can use contrasting colors on different sides of the room for a really cool effect. These are great little lights and I wish I could give a good overview of them, but the app undercuts them badly. They recently updated it and I don't know if the old one was better, but this one is better. miserable. Devices are constantly losing connection, causing in-app controls to become unresponsive or simply reload after input. Do you enjoy flipping a switch 15 times before the lights come on? Because that's the game you play with it. The color picker screen is great when it works, but keeps going gray with "Unavailable" or just not doing anything. This is really disappointing and makes it impossible to recommend these things despite the fact that they are supposed to look good and be very easy to use (the hub is no good!). For what it's worth I have an outdoor smart plug and remote from the same range that work great but don't require an app after the initial setup. A few other minor things: - The physical power button is attached to the end of the strap with a 5" cable, meaning it can be difficult to reach or hide depending on where you place the thing. You wouldn't need it if the app worked, but as it is it might pose a problem for some. - The tape on the back is listed by 3M as permanent (a suggested use is for attaching architectural panels) and the instructions warn that removal can damage surfaces. I didn't want a permanent install as I suspect many won't so I painstakingly removed this by rolling it up with my some 3M velcro command strips spaced every 8 inches or so, worked great in place and place. In my opinion, a more moderate out-of-the-box mounting option would be significantly better. Aside from simply not working most of the time, the app doesn't resize its interface for small screens. There is a workaround if you've zoomed in on a large phone, but if your screen is physically smaller (e.g. iPhone SE), the controls on the right side of the screen will not be available. This means that on some devices you won't be able to change backlight colors, customize scenes, etc. I'll be happy to update my review if and when the app gets fixed.

Pros
  • Absolute legend
Cons
  • Almost everything is fine