In a connected lighting market flooded with knock-off brands, one name rises to the top of almost every smart light shopping search: Govee. Thanks to what appears to be a combination of paid promotion and genuine market traction, listings for Govee products pepper shopping search results across Amazon and other retailers whether you’re searching for “smart bulbs” or other brands like “Philips Hue.” You don’t have to be eagle-eyed, either, to notice that Govee’s sometimes uncannily similar offerings are typically discounted well below those other brands’ retail prices, sometimes by as much as half.
As anyone who’s ever wasted money on cheap smart bulbs knows, when it comes to connected devices, you’ll often get exactly what you pay for. However, the savvy shopper will notice several elements of Govee’s that seem to stand out: polished, professional product photos and videos; packaging as slick as anything you’ll see from Philips Hue and the like; and positive reviews, and tens of thousands of them. Could Govee be the exception that proves the rule?
Mostly yes, with but one notable “no.” The Govee app you need to set up and control the company’s array of smart home products is lackluster compared to similar apps by rival companies. That said, Govee products consistently produce pleasing light in a wide range of colors and brightness and they seem at least as reliable as higher-priced alternatives. Is dealing with a sub-par app experience worth it in the long run?
We think so, especially since you can outsource control of Govee lights to other, more user-friendly apps, like Alexa and Google Home. We’ll get into that and more as we go through our five favorite Govee smart lighting products, starting with our all-time fav, the Govee Lyra Floor Lamp.
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Govee Lyra Floor LampIf you’re considering making the leap from plain smart bulbs to dedicated smart lighting device, the Govee Lyra Floor Lamp ($135 at Amazon) makes a great jumping-off point. The Lyra’s nearly 5-foot-tall aluminum tube casts color and white light across a wall or a corner to create a spectrum of moods ranging from a subtle ambiance to a spectacular light show. (Pro tip: Try it in a stairwell.) It’s clearly modeled on the Philips Hue Signe Floor Lamp ($330 at Philips Hue) which retails for over twice the price — when it’s in stock, which it hasn’t been for months.
What makes the Govee Lyra especially great is how easily it integrates with other smart lighting brands once it’s connected to Alexa or Google Home. Not only can you set a wide range of single colors from within the Alexa or Google Home apps, but you can also trigger the Lyra’s many animations, which, again, range from the subtle (Sunset glow, Ocean) to the pyrotechnic (Fireworks, Greedy snake). Simply create a scene or routine in Alexa or Google Home to trigger all your smart lights on at once regardless of brand (you can do this with all of the Govee devices on our list).
Govee Glide Wall LightMoving on to our next Govee favorite, the $80 Glide Wall Light, it’s easy to ponder whether they’re trying to put bigger smart lighting companies out of business one product at a time. The antecedent for the Govee Glide, the LIFX Beam ($150, LIFX) is also out of stock. Regardless, at half the price and accomplishing nearly the exact same effects, the Govee version is the one to buy anyway.
Similar to the Govee Lyra, the Govee Glide is a tube that produces gradients of color and white light that can be either static or animated. The change? Well, you mount the Glide directly on the wall or under cabinets instead(pro tip: we’d also place them above). This form factor loses some of the subtlety of the Lyra, since you’ll be viewing not only the reflected light but the LEDs themselves, giving the Glide a far more futuristic feel.
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Govee Immersion TV BacklightOne of the coolest effects you can achieve with a flat-panel TV is achieved not by the TV itself but by the addition of backlighting. While an LED backlight doesn’t exactly project the onscreen image across the wall behind the TV, it mimics the effect by casting colored light from the edge of the screen in real-time across the wall. Philips Hue pioneered the technology with its Sync Box ($230, Philips Hue), which connects with HDMI to your TV. However, that device also requires a Gradient LightStrip 55” ($230, Amazon), LightStrip 65”($250, Amazon), or Lightstrip 75” ($280, Amazon).
Rather than drop over $500 on an HDMI-based backlighting device, you could instead buy the Govee Immersion TV Backlight for 55-to 65-inch screens ($69) or the larger version for 75- to 85-inch screens ($130, Amazon) and save literally hundreds of dollars.
The tradeoff? You’ll have to mount a small, relatively unobtrusive camera atop your TV to capture the colors projected onto your wall. Once operational, however, the devices are nearly indistinguishable.
Govee Smart Light BarsA subtler alternative to stringing rope lighting around the perimeter of your TV’s backside is to place light bars to either side of the display, which is exactly what Govee’s Smart Light Bars with camera ($75, Amazon) are designed to do. The effect isn’t nearly as intense, but neither is the installation (although you still have the pesky camera calibration to deal with). You can do the same thing, basically, with Philips Hue Play White and Color Smart Bars ($150, Amazon), but you’d need to add the Sync Box ($230, Philips Hue), bringing the total cost up to four times that of the Govee.
Govee Smart Light BulbsNo, we didn’t forget the unsung workhorse of any good smart lighting array — the humble color smart bulb. Govee’s color bulbs are usually available in the sub-$10-per-bulb range, like with this four-pack ($42.99, Amazon). The colors are as saturated and bright as anything you’ll get from LIFX ($180 for a four-pack, Amazon).
HomeKit Compatibility Is MissingShutterstock
It’s time we acknowledge the elephant in the room: So far, at least, Govee lighting devices are not directly compatible with Apple HomeKit, so if you’re all-in with Apple’s smart home ecosystem, you’re basically out of luck. Unless, of course, you’re running a workaround like the Raspberry Pi-based HomeBridge, which allows non-HomeKit compatible devices to communicate with HomeKit and, thereby, Apple’s Siri. But that requires next-level smart home chops the typical consumer doesn’t have.
But if you’re not using HomeKit exclusively, the cost savings alone are worth the extended learning curve required to master the Govee app (both with and without leaning on Alexa or Google Home, which these devices integrate beautifully with).
Plus, Govee seems like an eager new(ish) tech company that’s constantly improving. It wouldn’t be surprising if even the hurdle of Govee’s clunky app was eventually overcome.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.