REVIEW: Light up Christmas with Govee Neon Rope Light – techAU

If you’ve had the chance to do some Christmas light driving, you might have seen lots of beautiful house displays. Why not do something special for the inside of your house this Christmas?

It doesn’t need to be over the top, or you can go all out if you desire. And it doesn’t even need to be the Christmas season to set up lots of coloured lights. Let’s face it, lights always look cool. With Govee you can create and showcase fun lights any time of the year.

Govee Neon Rope Light

The Govee Neon Rope Light promises unique designs, with a three to five metre neon rope you can craft into any shape. Out of the box, you’ll receive everything you need to start making waves, literally if you like—well, a neon rope wave if that’s your vibe.

Get really creative and play with colours, waves, and any shape that takes your fancy. This setup was at the Govee booth during PAX Aus earlier this year. (Photo: TechAU)

Upon unboxing your Govee Neon Rope Light, you might first notice an abundance of hardware for your light. The reason you have so many pieces of hardware is to craft your masterpiece. You’ll receive 15 short connectors, eight long connectors, and a bunch of screws. If for example, you wanted to create a five pointed star, this would require ten connections. To make the wavy line above, you’d need approximately nine connectors. For the wave and the whale’s tail, these have been attached to a piece of clear perspex, and glued along the entire length of the rope. This is an option if you want to create something a little more intricate, requiring multiple touch points.

Unboxed, showing the Govee box, light in a coil wrapped with Velcro to hold together, lots of screws, mounting plates, power cable, and light controller. — Out of the box, there’s plenty of options for hardware mounting, and all the information you need to get started with your funky light. (Photo: TechAU)

Using your Govee lights

Govee lights will work out of the box. Plug in your light, and you’ll instantly see the rope light up. The default settings are 100% brightness, and shifting rainbow colours. To change these settings, you’ll need to use the Govee software. Although you can toggle the power and change brightness using the built-in Govee controller. For the full experience, download and install the Govee Home app, available on iOS and Android. Log in or sign up for an account, and select to add your light.

The Govee neon rope light is in a coil sitting on a desk, lit up with rainbow colours. — Light up Govee rope on the default setting. (Photo: TechAU)

Since I already have Samsung SmartThings installed on my phone, I have the option to connect my lights through it. I’d recommend setting up your light with Govee first, choosing your brightness, and configuring the desired lighting sequences before adding your light to Samsung SmartThings or another third party application. This is because you won’t have all the options available to choose funky colours and things in the third party app.

These other applications like Samsung SmartThings are perfect for turning your lights off/on, setting themes, and choosing timers. It means if you have a lot of different IoT (Internet of Things) devices you’ll be able to synchronise and select various rooms and scenarios within a central application. Just make sure you get the colours and light sequencing right first.

New Matter smart home standard

In addition to using Govee with Samsung SmartThings, you can also use it with Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. Govee also follows the brand new “Matter” standard. It’s an open source standard for smart home technology that ensures all IoT devices are now built with the same Matter software library.

This means no matter what brand of device you buy, all your devices will be able to talk to one another. It makes life a lot easier and ensures everything can connect to one central application or device for central control.

Building and creating your Govee lighting

Okay, so we’ve unboxed the Govee rope light, and have it connected in Govee. Now here’s where the fun begins. You can choose to craft your design before choosing light sequences, but the design part requires a lot more creativity. Therefore, I started by selecting all the exciting light patterns. The Govee app has dozens of lighting options to choose from.

The built-in Govee controller allows you to toggle light power, and select brightness without the need for the app. (Photo: TechAU)

There are so many lighting options, it’s almost too many to choose what you like. Thankfully, there are preset designs and themes, or if you have lots of time up your sleeve, you can fully customise your lighting design. Choose which part of the rope emits what colour, select speeds, and even draw where you’d like to show particular colours.

Govee software showing the "Neon Rope Light" screen. The screen has been scrolled down to reveal several lighting options including sunrise, universe, wave, flower field, sunset, rainbow, and several more. — How do you choose which light setting you’d like? (Screenshot by TechAU)

After a while, you might notice your Govee Rope Light feel rather warm. This is relatively normal for lights, and you shouldn’t be too alarmed. I have several rope style lights in my office and they all get a touch warm after a few hours. If you’re worried, drop the brightness of the light down to approximately 15%. This will reduce the heat, and it still looks great, not to mention saving you a few dollars on electricity.

Govee software showing the "Neon Rope Light" screen. The screen is saying "Connected" via bluebooth, there's a yellow sliding bar for brightness, currently set to 100%, a timer button, and buttons for settings, toggle power, color, scene, music, share space, and DIY. — Set the brightness by sliding the yellow bar in the Govee app. (Screenshot by TechAU)

Govee Neon Rope

The Govee Neon Rope is one of the most flexible substances I’ve seen. You can bend and squish the rope into any shape, and it won’t damage the rope or compromise its internal lighting.

If you compare the neon rope to a “neon” light I had professionally made, you’ll see it’s almost the same. I say “neon” because none of these lights are actually neon. They are LED lights inside a flexible casing. The reason they carry the “neon” name is a callback to traditional looking neon lights you might see in Vegas or Japan. These ropes replicate the look and feel of neon, at a much cheaper price and with a more consumer-friendly connection type.

comparison between the Govee Neon Rope Light, and what would be considered a "neon" light. They look almost identical. — Govee Neon Rope Light 2 (light up) against a “neon” light made my professionals. (Photo: TechAU)

Grab Govee now

Govee has only landed in Australia and is available to purchase through Clever Gear. The Govee Neon Rope Light, also called the Govee RGBIC Neon Light 2S, is available in a 4m pack for $179.99 AUD.

It’s also worth noting that the Govee Neon Rope Light is very thick, measuring a centimetre from the base of the rope.

If you’re wanting to add some lights as a frame backing, you might like to consider the Govee Strip Light 2, which comes in at $129.99 AUD.

Since Govee is still new to Australia, there are limited products available.

For our readers in America, check out the Govee website for the full—and very extensive—smart light range, including outdoor lights, and even smart appliance such as sensors, fans, and humidifiers. Happy shopping.