GE Lighting this week announced a major expansion of its smart lighting brand Cync’s Dynamic Effects line. The new entertainment-themed products further position Cync as a lower-cost competitor to Philips Hue and Nanoleaf.

New hexagonal wall panels, neon-style rope lights that can be shaped to your liking, and A19 and BR30 bulbs join the color gradient indoor and outdoor light strips that Cync launched late last yearwhich are about $40 cheaper than comparable Hue versions.

All Dynamic Effects products can display 16 million colors, adjustable white light, and preset and custom lighting effects, similar to Hue and Nanoleaf products. The LEDs are addressable, so they can display multiple colors at once – even the A19 and BR30 lamps, which can display up to four colors at once.

According to GE Lighting, the new products all have on-device music synchronization and adjustable white light in addition to full color spectrum. Launching in March 2023, they start at $19.99 for the A19 Aline Bulb and $26.99 for the Indoor Flood Lights, going up to $199.99 for a pack of 10 Hexagon Panel Lights. Those also come in a 7-pack for $169.99, which is about $30 less than Nanoleaf’s starter pack of 7 panels. The Neon Rope lights cost $79.99 for 10 inches and $119.99 for 16 inches.

The company also announced its $12.50 A19 Cync Full Color Direct Connect smart bulb and $15 Cync indoor smart plug will be the first to add support for Matter, allowing them to work with any Matter-compatible smart home platform or device, with more products coming later in 2023.

However, GE Lighting also said previous products will not be updated to the new interoperability smart home standard. Instead, they will release new products with Matter support in the coming year. This means that these newly announced Dynamic Effects products will not work with Matter.

Cync’s products work over Wi-Fi and BLE Mesh and do not require a bridge or hub. They are controlled by the Cync app, powered by Savant — which GE Lighting bought in 2020. Competitor Hue uses Zigbee and Bluetooth with a bridge, and Nanoleaf works via Thread and Wi-Fi, and both are fully committed to Matter.

Cync also has a new slimline Cync Reveal HD+ Full Color Wafer Downlights, due Q3 2023 (no price yet), which adds a “whiter white” option for recessed lighting and a slimmer profile. There is already a Cync line of these easy to install ceiling light fixturesbut the Reveal line is designed for bathrooms and kitchens where you might want the best bright light.

Finally, the Cync app gets a new integration with smart locks from Schlage Encode, allowing you to link lighting automation to locking and unlocking your door.

This smart lock integration provides Cync with a nearly complete smart home solution, including lighting, locks, climate control and cameras. At CES last year, Cync introduced 11 new smart bulbs, a new outdoor camera, and a smart thermostat, adding to a portfolio that already includes smart light switches, dimmers, indoor and outdoor lights, smart plugs, an indoor camera, and a motion sensor. sensor.

But that solution is something of a “curated” garden and has limited integrations with other platforms (most Cync products work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home). If Cync continues to embrace Matter across all of its products and expand its interoperability, it could be in a very good position to attract new smart home users. The lower price compared to Hue and Nanoleaf in combination with a well-known brand name is an attractive proposition.

However, its reliance on BLE Mesh, compared to its competitors’ respective Zigbee and Thread support, is a weak spot. Matter could help improve connectivity, but with a limited rollout early on, along with the lack of backward compatibility with existing Cync devices, it looks like the company is still hedging its bets on the new interoperability standard.