PRODUCT REVIEW: Govee Multi-Color LED Light Strip
(Slow Dancing In A Burning Room - John Mayer)
Anyone who's been to my house or spoken with me at any length about Internet Of Things (IoT) tech knows how much of an absolute nut-ball I am for smart lights, especially those that can change colors. I've got smart lights all over my house and I love changing their colors. Up until this point, however, I'd not bothered to dabble in accent lighting. I tend to buy more mainstream lighting solutions, and while they produce seriously high-quality lights, they're also quite expensive.
Circumstances changed a few weeks ago when I stumbled into a two-pack of Govee Smart LED strips. I got my hands on them for an insane price and thought, 'Why the hell not?'
This is normally where I'd absolutely offer up a 'Short' and 'Long' version of a review, but it's not really that simple with this kind of tech. Rather, I'll offer up a few quick highlights, and then go into more detail.
Who are these lights good for?
- People looking for robust accent lightning options at a bargain price
- People looking for IoT connectivity through an App and/or Home AI platform
- People who are only putting up these lights in one or two places in their home.*
Who are these lights not good for?
- People who are color purists
- People who demand smooth color zones
- People who want to use LED light strips as a primary source of illumination
- People who really only want white accent lighting
I bought these lights online during a killer sale and got them for $43. They typically retail on Amazon for around $55, which is still a bargain for 32 feet of LED strip. While we're on the subject of bargains, let's do a quick comparison. LIFX and Philips Hue are easily the two most established and robust smart lighting platforms out there, something I'll cover in greater detail in another article. A quick glance through their websites will give you some rather terrifying data:
- LIFX's LED strip solution, the Z LED Strip, is $90 for six and a half feet. That's $450 to get close to 32'.
- Philips Hue LED Strip is $25, which gets you a whopping 40 inches. For those of you who just started counting on your fingers, that's a little over three feet. That's $275 to get you to 33'.
Let's just recap that I bought my 32' for $43.
Yes, before you storm the comment section, LIFX and Hue both have insanely good tech powering their products, and that's part of where the price point comes from. For the vast majority of people, however, that won't come anywhere near close enough to justify that insane cost.
"But Steve," you cry, "that much cost-savings must mean that you lost some kind of functionality by buying that cheaply." You're not wrong, so let's get into that right now. There are a few really big areas where Hue and LIFX blows Govee off the face of the planet:
- Brightness: Hue and LIFX are both HELLA bright. You could use them as primary light sources if you did it properly. You'd have to take a second mortgage to do it, but you could. In contrast, the Govee lights are really only good for accent lightning. They make things look pretty, but they just can't hold up in the lumens department.
- Color: Not every LED is created equal, and it shows here. Hue and LIFX can produce just about any color you can think of with their lighting systems, including a whole variety of cool and warm whites. They've got color production down to an art-form, and it shows. Govee does well with solid colors as long as they're near Red, Green, or Blue. They struggle a great deal with traditional whites though because each of their LED arrays is pretty much made up of a red, a green, and a blue LED. Because of this, cool whites end up looking more blue than white, and warmer whites end up looking yellow or green. In order to get a good, warm white around 4000k, you need to manually adjust the color of the lights to somewhere between deep orange and red. Even then, the lights struggle.
"But Steve," you cry, "I'm looking at pictures of these things online and their whites look perfectly fine and colored properly." Yeah, I know. Technology can be a real bitch sometimes. Here's my kitchen:
The light coming off of these lights looks bright and clear and amazing because I took these photos with my phone, which has an amazing camera driven by amazing software that is correcting for a LOT of problems in both of these images. If you want white light, BUY WHITE LED STRIPS. Govee makes those too, and they're perfectly functional. Either way, understand the return policies from the vendors you buy from and keep your receipts!
- Interface: Philips Hue probably has the single most robust interface for their lighting platform that you'll ever see. It's polished, powerful, and with a few small exceptions, very well designed. LIFX's app is also quite powerful, if a little less polished. In contrast, Govee's interface suffers from poor language translation, lag, and a significant lack of polish.
I know it feels like I've spent most of this article trashing these lights, so let's get on to some of the positives now. We've already talked about price, which should be a massive consideration when you're dipping your toes into accent lights. Govee LED strips are a great way to get into this tech without breaking the bank. Beyond price, there are several other strong selling points:
- Installation is absolutely a snap. The lights come wound up in an easy to hold spool and they've already got strong 3M adhesive on the back of them. All you have to do is start peeling, stick one end of the light strip, and then just pull the adhesive and press the strip down to the surface! Need more adhesive? No problem. Each 16" segment -- my kit came with two -- comes with five clips that work to hold the strip in place if you have a bit that isn't sticking properly.
- While the app isn't the nicest thing in the world, it -is- easy to use. Setup was a snap. You'll need a Govee account, but that takes two seconds to set up as well, and I haven't gotten any annoying spam from them yet. If you want to control the lights using your phone, you'll need a 2.4GHz WiFi network at home, but that's pretty much par for the course these days.
- I know I spent part of this article ripping on the precision of some of the colors, but if you step back from precision and just go for overall appearance, the colors are lovely, and you can pick from a giant color wheel of custom colors to change the lights to. The lights do the best with any shades or brightnesses of red, green, or blue. Going for oranges or yellows is best done with the color set to deep and bold. Your mileage will vary as you start working into pastel colors.
- The lights produce almost no heat at all and they're safe to use in the kitchen as long as you observe common sense.
- You get connectivity through Alexa and Google Home right out of the chute.
- Govee doesn't work with Apple Home Kit! I absolutely view this as a positive, because Home Kit is a pain in the ass to set up and the Home Kit ecosystem is severely limited compared to Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Home Kit integration with systems like LIFX and Hue is a monster pain. Devices that support Home Kit tend to force you to use Home Kit, and for those of us who don't want to settle for the sub-par experience of the Home Kit system, that's a poor experience. Govee's lack of Home Kit support means you don't have to deal with it, which is a HUGE plus in my book!
- Can we go back to that $43 price tag for a moment, please? This is 32' of solid, acceptable, smart lightning with an app and IoT connectivity.
If you're interested in easy, hassle-free accent lightning and you want something you can control from your phone or your existing Home AI platform, there's no reason you shouldn't consider Govee's products.
* - I made a note at the top of this article that these lights are good for people who only plan on putting a few of these strips up in their home. If you want to control these lights using your phone or Home AI, you'll need to connect them to WiFi. That, in and of itself, is not a problem. Be warned, if you fill your house with WiFi lights, you're going to start running into technical problems that you'll need a bit of nerdly know-how to get around. If you buy a set of these and think, "I'm going to fill my home with these glorious bastards!" I suggest you slow your roll and do some deep research into smart lightning, WiFi collision, and the pros and cons of a home hub that runs Zigbee. If none of this makes sense to you, STOP, and phone a nerd. Just...not this nerd. Not unless you lead with food.
Anyone who's been to my house or spoken with me at any length about Internet Of Things (IoT) tech knows how much of an absolute nut-ball I am for smart lights, especially those that can change colors. I've got smart lights all over my house and I love changing their colors. Up until this point, however, I'd not bothered to dabble in accent lighting. I tend to buy more mainstream lighting solutions, and while they produce seriously high-quality lights, they're also quite expensive.
Circumstances changed a few weeks ago when I stumbled into a two-pack of Govee Smart LED strips. I got my hands on them for an insane price and thought, 'Why the hell not?'
This is normally where I'd absolutely offer up a 'Short' and 'Long' version of a review, but it's not really that simple with this kind of tech. Rather, I'll offer up a few quick highlights, and then go into more detail.
Who are these lights good for?
- People looking for robust accent lightning options at a bargain price
- People looking for IoT connectivity through an App and/or Home AI platform
- People who are only putting up these lights in one or two places in their home.*
Who are these lights not good for?
- People who are color purists
- People who demand smooth color zones
- People who want to use LED light strips as a primary source of illumination
- People who really only want white accent lighting
I bought these lights online during a killer sale and got them for $43. They typically retail on Amazon for around $55, which is still a bargain for 32 feet of LED strip. While we're on the subject of bargains, let's do a quick comparison. LIFX and Philips Hue are easily the two most established and robust smart lighting platforms out there, something I'll cover in greater detail in another article. A quick glance through their websites will give you some rather terrifying data:
- LIFX's LED strip solution, the Z LED Strip, is $90 for six and a half feet. That's $450 to get close to 32'.
- Philips Hue LED Strip is $25, which gets you a whopping 40 inches. For those of you who just started counting on your fingers, that's a little over three feet. That's $275 to get you to 33'.
Let's just recap that I bought my 32' for $43.
Yes, before you storm the comment section, LIFX and Hue both have insanely good tech powering their products, and that's part of where the price point comes from. For the vast majority of people, however, that won't come anywhere near close enough to justify that insane cost.
"But Steve," you cry, "that much cost-savings must mean that you lost some kind of functionality by buying that cheaply." You're not wrong, so let's get into that right now. There are a few really big areas where Hue and LIFX blows Govee off the face of the planet:
- Brightness: Hue and LIFX are both HELLA bright. You could use them as primary light sources if you did it properly. You'd have to take a second mortgage to do it, but you could. In contrast, the Govee lights are really only good for accent lightning. They make things look pretty, but they just can't hold up in the lumens department.
- Color: Not every LED is created equal, and it shows here. Hue and LIFX can produce just about any color you can think of with their lighting systems, including a whole variety of cool and warm whites. They've got color production down to an art-form, and it shows. Govee does well with solid colors as long as they're near Red, Green, or Blue. They struggle a great deal with traditional whites though because each of their LED arrays is pretty much made up of a red, a green, and a blue LED. Because of this, cool whites end up looking more blue than white, and warmer whites end up looking yellow or green. In order to get a good, warm white around 4000k, you need to manually adjust the color of the lights to somewhere between deep orange and red. Even then, the lights struggle.
"But Steve," you cry, "I'm looking at pictures of these things online and their whites look perfectly fine and colored properly." Yeah, I know. Technology can be a real bitch sometimes. Here's my kitchen:
The light coming off of these lights looks bright and clear and amazing because I took these photos with my phone, which has an amazing camera driven by amazing software that is correcting for a LOT of problems in both of these images. If you want white light, BUY WHITE LED STRIPS. Govee makes those too, and they're perfectly functional. Either way, understand the return policies from the vendors you buy from and keep your receipts!
- Interface: Philips Hue probably has the single most robust interface for their lighting platform that you'll ever see. It's polished, powerful, and with a few small exceptions, very well designed. LIFX's app is also quite powerful, if a little less polished. In contrast, Govee's interface suffers from poor language translation, lag, and a significant lack of polish.
I know it feels like I've spent most of this article trashing these lights, so let's get on to some of the positives now. We've already talked about price, which should be a massive consideration when you're dipping your toes into accent lights. Govee LED strips are a great way to get into this tech without breaking the bank. Beyond price, there are several other strong selling points:
- Installation is absolutely a snap. The lights come wound up in an easy to hold spool and they've already got strong 3M adhesive on the back of them. All you have to do is start peeling, stick one end of the light strip, and then just pull the adhesive and press the strip down to the surface! Need more adhesive? No problem. Each 16" segment -- my kit came with two -- comes with five clips that work to hold the strip in place if you have a bit that isn't sticking properly.
- While the app isn't the nicest thing in the world, it -is- easy to use. Setup was a snap. You'll need a Govee account, but that takes two seconds to set up as well, and I haven't gotten any annoying spam from them yet. If you want to control the lights using your phone, you'll need a 2.4GHz WiFi network at home, but that's pretty much par for the course these days.
- I know I spent part of this article ripping on the precision of some of the colors, but if you step back from precision and just go for overall appearance, the colors are lovely, and you can pick from a giant color wheel of custom colors to change the lights to. The lights do the best with any shades or brightnesses of red, green, or blue. Going for oranges or yellows is best done with the color set to deep and bold. Your mileage will vary as you start working into pastel colors.
- The lights produce almost no heat at all and they're safe to use in the kitchen as long as you observe common sense.
- You get connectivity through Alexa and Google Home right out of the chute.
- Govee doesn't work with Apple Home Kit! I absolutely view this as a positive, because Home Kit is a pain in the ass to set up and the Home Kit ecosystem is severely limited compared to Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Home Kit integration with systems like LIFX and Hue is a monster pain. Devices that support Home Kit tend to force you to use Home Kit, and for those of us who don't want to settle for the sub-par experience of the Home Kit system, that's a poor experience. Govee's lack of Home Kit support means you don't have to deal with it, which is a HUGE plus in my book!
- Can we go back to that $43 price tag for a moment, please? This is 32' of solid, acceptable, smart lightning with an app and IoT connectivity.
If you're interested in easy, hassle-free accent lightning and you want something you can control from your phone or your existing Home AI platform, there's no reason you shouldn't consider Govee's products.
* - I made a note at the top of this article that these lights are good for people who only plan on putting a few of these strips up in their home. If you want to control these lights using your phone or Home AI, you'll need to connect them to WiFi. That, in and of itself, is not a problem. Be warned, if you fill your house with WiFi lights, you're going to start running into technical problems that you'll need a bit of nerdly know-how to get around. If you buy a set of these and think, "I'm going to fill my home with these glorious bastards!" I suggest you slow your roll and do some deep research into smart lightning, WiFi collision, and the pros and cons of a home hub that runs Zigbee. If none of this makes sense to you, STOP, and phone a nerd. Just...not this nerd. Not unless you lead with food.
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