GE Cync indoor wired camera review: nice design but too many bugs

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying out smart home components from Cync by GE. (Pause) You can check out my reviews of the smart lights, or the smart Thermostat. (Pause) Today I’m looking at the GE Cync Indoor Smart Camera. IN this review, I’ll talk about what this camera is designed to do, what it works well for, what you get in terms of recording plans and video storage and if I can recommend it for you.

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What you get: GE Cync indoor wired camera

This camera is an AC powered 1080p HD resolution video camera, which is pretty much standard for most home security cameras today. It also has night vision, two way audio so you can listen or talk to whoever’s in the space, plus it has person detection for smarter alerts and notifications. For the privacy-conscious, there’s a physical shutter that you can close over the camera. This camera is quite small and has a really elegant form factor. It’s oval shaped and could fit in any number of small spaces.

Unlike some other cameras out there, this one does not have a battery, so it must be plugged in at all times to access it.

Set up

Getting this camera set up is refreshingly easy… As I have found all of the GE Smart home product. Simply plug the camera into power, then either log into or sign up for an account using the Cync app. A quick tap on the add device button, then select camera. In just a moment the camera was added to my app and I was able to view live video.

If you want to, you can Control your camera by pairing it with your Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa device.

Video Quality: good video, but audio is a problem

The video quality from this camera is pretty good for an HD camera. It’s detailed and easily allows you to see what’s happening.

While it’s possible to talk or listen to what’s happening when in live mode, when I downloaded footage, there was not audio tied to it.

I was all set to share part of this video by shooting it with the Cync camera, but without the audio, it’s back to my original plan. There was also no way to hear the audio when listening inside the Cync app. This isn’t ideal in my opinion; your files should absolutely be downloadable with both audio and video.

I also spent a lot of time waiting for the camera to connect to my phone. Most days I needed to unplug and reconnect the camera to force-cycle it into a reboot in order to get a connection.

Video storage: How much does GE Cync Cloud Recording cost?

You have two options for storing video. The most inexpensive and straightforward option is to store all your footage locally on a SD card… And worth pointing out is one is not included with your purchase.
That’s probably because GE would rather you opt into their cloud recording plan, which you do get for the first 30 days for free. GE’s plan gives you:

• Two weeks of unlimited cloud storage at a time
• Footage that’s filtered by events, sounds, motion, or people detection
• Easy exporting of footage to devices

A screen grab of the video footage.

So you’re probably wondering How much GE Cync Cloud Recording costs?

Something I very much did not like about this camera system, is that there is almost no transparency about the monthly costs and fees. I couldn’t find any information about the cloud recording plans on GE’s website, and when I clicked on the email I was sent when registering for the free 30 day trial, it prompts you to create an account before it will share any information. It took me some digging but here’s what I learned about the cost: GE charges $30 per year or $3/month, but it doesn’t says if that’s for one cameras or all cameras you may have. That price is on the lower to average side of pricing when it comes to Cloud storage plans.

How does it integrate with other GE Cync components?

The camera does not really integrate into the rest of the Cync ecosystem, per se. For example, you can’t have your camera start recording if your motion detector is tripped. But the integration you do get is the ability to access the camera from within the Cync app, meaning you can streamline the number of smart home apps you need to manage.

Overall review: GE Cync indoor camera

Overall this camera is definitely not ready for primetime in my opinion. While the video quality is pretty good, there’s no audio with my downloads and cloud recordings.

I didn’t like how long it often took to connect to the live view and almost daily I had to pull the plug to reset it and access the camera… so good luck viewing a feed if you’re out of the house.

For those reasons, I’m not recommending this camera. Maybe after some firmware updates it’ll be a better gadget and more useful.

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