Review: LSC Smart Connect – Smart home products from the Action

You can now also buy Smarthome products at Action. In this review we look at the fifteen different products of LSC Smart Connect.

You no longer have to go to an electronics store for smart home products. Nowadays, you will also find a wide range of smart lighting, security products and a smart plug from the LSC Smart Connect brand at the Action chain. And that for an Action price. We got started with the complete range of LSC Smart Connect. You can read our experiences in this review.

Anyone who starts by purchasing a first set of smart lighting will easily lose more than 100 euros. And then you probably don’t have enough smart lights to supply your living room. At Action you can buy a smart LED lamp from 7.95 euros. You can operate this with an app and LSC Smart Connect also offers support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. You also don’t need a hub. The smart products of the Action use the Tuya platform and can easily be set up and operated via WiFi (2.4ghz).

Tuya platform

LSC Smart Connect products work through an app called LSC Smart Connect. You can download this for free for iOS and Android. LSC Smart Connect works via the Tuya platform. Tuya may not be known to everyone yet, but it is a very large player in the IoT market. Former Alibaba employees started Tuya a few years ago. Most products that are Tuya-enabled work via WiFi, which also applies to the smarthome products from LSC Smart Connect. However, Tuya also supports Zigbee, Bluetooth and GPRS. In the case of these smarthome products from the Action, you do not need a hub. You can connect them directly to your own WiFi network.

In fact, anyone can buy a license and have a branded app made at Tuya. Tuya supplies the software and the underlying cloud. Since this is a so-called White Label app that uses the Tuya platform, you actually don’t need this app at all. You can also use other Tuya apps such as Tuya or Smart Life in combination with these products from the Action.

Electro Cirkel Retail BV, the company behind the smart products of the Action, has therefore purchased a license and had the LSC Smart Connect app made. You also know this company from the Calex brand, which you can find in various furniture stores and hardware stores.

The LSC Smart Connect range

Since the Action has included no fewer than fifteen different products from LSC Smart Connect in its range, we will discuss these per product group. For example, we find smart LED lamps with a large fitting, small fitting and spotlights in the range. The Action has also included various types of filament LED lamps, an LED strip, a complete ceiling lamp, a remote control, motion detector, door sensor and a smart plug in its range. For the most part, these products are fine, but there are exceptions.

Smart LED lighting

In the range we find three different smart LED lamps, respectively with a large fitting (E27, 806 lumen), small fitting (E14, 400 lumen) and a spotlight (GU10, 380 lumen). For 7.95 euros per lamp, the lamps are much cheaper compared to the lamps of the other players on the market. Especially when you consider that these are also color lamps. So you can not only choose different shades of white and dim the lamps, you also have access to all the colors of the rainbow, just like the color lamps of other brands.

Do we compromise on the build quality? Not really. If you put a smart LED lamp from the Action next to the lamps from Philips Hue or IKEA Tradfri , then Philips is the big loser in terms of build quality. The white shell of the Philips Hue bulbs appears to be made of much cheaper plastic than the other two brands. In terms of shape, the Philips Hue lamp is also different. IKEA and Action have almost the same design, except that the IKEA lamp consists of slightly more glass than the Action lamp.

The build quality of the smart LED lamps from LSC Smart Connect is therefore more than excellent. The lamps with a large fitting also have an excellent light output. Via the app you can change the color with a large color circle, similar to Philips Hue. Keep in mind that you always suffer from a small delay. Where the colors at Philips Hue and IKEA Tradfri change immediately, with these WiFi lamps it takes half a second before the selected colors are set. The wide variety of selectable colors are excellent and although the colors are slightly less pronounced than with the Philips Hue lamps, it is absolutely not a bad buy at this price. The Action’s smart LED lights are well worth the price.

Smart filament LED bulbs

Where other brands have only recently started with smart filament LED lamps, the Action immediately puts them in the shops. This way you bring the atmosphere of an old-fashioned light bulb into your home. They are therefore not color lamps, but Warm White Ambiance. You have different shades of white at your disposal and you can also dim these lamps.

Action has five different filament LED lamps in its range. Four of these are equipped with a large fitting (E27, 470 lumens) and there is also a lamp with a small fitting (E14, 400 lumens). With the lamps with large fitting you can choose from different shapes and sizes.

You’ll have to be a little more careful with the smart filament LED bulbs. These lamps are simply provided with a thin glass bulb, which is very fragile. You will undoubtedly leave finger stains while screwing in. However, this is part of these types of lamps. They do not provide that much light, but help to create a good atmosphere in the house. You can adjust the lamps completely from cold blue light to warm yellow light.

However, there is also a disadvantage, because the quality control seems to have been on the back burner for this type of lamp. Two of the five lights emit a very high-pitched beep when turned on. Older people probably won’t hear this, but it drives kids and pets crazy. This is not only a coincidence with the products that we have been allowed to test. Online you can find several stories of consumers with the same problem. So if you get a smart filament LED lamp with a high beep, you will have to exchange it again. For the rest, the smart filament LED bulbs do what they are supposed to do. They increase the atmosphere in the house and are easy to operate with the app.

Security products

In addition to smart lighting, you can also get your own security system at the Action. The range includes a motion detector, door sensor, motion detector and a smart siren. You can set automation rules for this via the app. As soon as movement is detected by the door sensor, you can activate the siren. Does the motion sensor detect movement? Then you can also link this to your lighting, so that the lamps will switch on.

It seems to work fine in the base, but these are the products that I am less satisfied with. Since the motion detector works over WiFi, the battery would be empty in no time if this motion detector was always on. So there is a kind of standby time in it. Not only does it take a few seconds for the light to turn on, but once activated it takes a few minutes for the motion sensor to turn on again. That works great for an alarm system, because you will immediately receive a notification of movement, but if you use it as a motion detector in combination with a lamp for the toilet or in a storage room, you will not only be in the dark for the first few seconds, but once the light goes out, it takes a few minutes before it turns on again. That does not work.

By the way, via the automation rules you can set the light to stay on longer until the motion detector is activated again. This way you will not be in the dark, but the light will be on for far too long if, for example, you only have to be in a certain room for a short time.

The security products work better as a basis for an alarm system. You will immediately receive a notification on your smartphone every time. Due to the lack of a camera, however, it also remains with a notification, you do not get more information. As an alarm system, the whole is therefore quite limited. Since this works with Tuya, you can buy a Tuya camera from another brand. You can simply connect it to it. The siren is very loud, so you will probably scare away any burglars.

Other products

In addition to the above products, there are also the ceiling lamp, the multicolor LED strip, the smart plug and the remote control. The 9.95 euro remote control has a range of twenty meters and can be used with the lamps and the smart plug. The remote control feels quite cheap and the buttons do not press very well compared to the IKEA or Philips Hue remote control. Still, it all works fine. In addition to switching the light on and off, you can also dim the light.

The ceiling lamp is actually the worst product in the range. You can already buy a basic glass ceiling lamp at home stores for a few euros. The smart ceiling lamp of the Action costs 16.95 euros (White Ambiance) and has a plastic housing. It looks very cheap. So just buy a glass ceiling lamp for a few euros and place a smart lamp in it yourself, then you have the same functions at your disposal for a cheaper price and a nicer housing.

The multicolor LED strip costs 19.95 and is the most expensive product in the range. However, compared to LED strips from other manufacturers, 19.95 euros is quite cheap. Especially when you consider the length of five meters. Still, the light output decreases considerably as you get further towards five meters. The first three meters are fine, after that the light is just much less bright. Fortunately, you can cut this LED strip to size. Do this, because the last two meters are just not really usable. Still, 19.95 euros for such an LED strip is quite cheap and the whole works fine.

The smart plug (Smart Power Plug) is surprisingly small in size. Compared to other smart plugs, which are often quite large and also occupy the adjacent sockets, the Action’s Smart Power Plug also fits another plug perfectly. Provided it is equipped with a flat plug then. In any case, a plus for the format. However, the effect is also excellent. When the power is switched on, a cheap ‘tick’ sounds in comparison to other models, but this smart plug of 8.49 euros is simply excellent. You can also operate this model with your voice via Google Home.

Installation and the app

You can therefore operate all LSC Smart Connect products with the LSC Smart Connect app or another app that uses the Tuya platform. And there is not much wrong with the app itself. From the home screen you have direct access to your installed products and the created scenes. At the bottom you will find three tabs called ‘My family’, ‘Smart’ (for scenes and automation rules) and ‘Profile’.

After creating an account you can start adding products. To do this, click on the plus sign at the top right, select the product to be installed, click on confirm a few times and in the meantime enter your WiFi password and you’re done. The installation process is very easy. Although a physical manual is included, it is very poor in quality. Fortunately, the app is fairly intuitive and you can add any product within twenty seconds.

From the home screen, click on ‘Smart’ at the bottom to create scenes and automation rules. A scene appears as a shortcut on the home screen. For example, you can link multiple lamps with each other and switch them on with one shortcut, for example. You can also link the brightness, color and any automation rules to this.

With automation, you basically get a small IFTTT included in the app. IFTTT stands for If This Then That. So if a certain action happens, you can link it to another action. If the motion sensor detects a movement, you can choose to switch on a specific lamp during automation. It works fairly easily, but a beginner will get lost here anyway. Since the manual is missing, this will be a matter of trial and error for most people. Ultimately, however, logical thinking always leads to a satisfactory result. It is good to see that such an app has these extensive possibilities.

Control with Google Home

For those 7.95 euros you don’t get a smart color lamp and a decent app, you also get support for Amazon Alexa and Google Home. You can also control the smart lamps and the smart plug via your voice with a smart speaker. You cannot operate the security products via Google Home or Amazon Alexa. 

Privacy and security

You hang the smart products of the Action directly on your WiFi network and Tuya is a Chinese company. What about privacy and security? Although you can read the privacy policy in advance, it does not say much more than ‘We will not misuse your data’. The fact remains that Tuya is a Chinese company and you therefore also send your data to China. However, Tuya is a major player that is used worldwide and not just some vague Chinese company. It is up to you whether you have a problem with this or not.

Furthermore, you do not use a hub and you connect the products directly to your WiFi network. For example, advanced users can use a separate part of the network so that you can separate the smart products of the Action from your other internet traffic, but this is often not feasible for ordinary consumers. It is also good to know that you can flash the smart lamps and possibly use them via Home Assistant. This is also something that the ordinary consumer can do little with.

There are no known stories of abuse by Tuya, but your data does fly all over the world. However, this is also the case with other companies and our data from Facebook and Google can also be found in the United States. So it is mainly up to you what you want to do with this.

Conclusion

The LSC Smart Connect products have generally positively surprised me. The normal smart color bulbs are excellent and the smart plug is also doing quite well. There are some Monday morning models among the smart filament LED bulbs, but in general these also work great. The security products work reasonably for a limited security system, but we do not recommend using the motion sensor for a lamp in a storage room or the toilet. Due to the delay time, it takes a while before the lamp is switched on and due to the standby time of about five minutes you are then in the dark.

You have to stay far away from the ceiling lamp and you will have to cut the multicolor LED strip a bit shorter yourself. The app does what it should do and the support for Google Home and Amazon Alexa is also a bonus. Not all products are equally good, but the Action retail chain is now making smart home accessible to ordinary consumers. LSC Smart Connect offers an affordable alternative to the much more expensive competitors.