Govee sensible lights represent glorious worth for money. These smart bulbs are simple to make use of and connect on to your Wi-Fi network so there’s no need for an additional hub. While they could lack the polished application of Philips Hue and extra features of LIFX, at a quarter of the value of its rivals, the Govee bulb makes for a compelling buy. Why you may trust TechRadar We spend hours testing each product or service we evaluate, so you'll be able to be certain you are buying the perfect. Find out more about how we check. Govee is probably not a name you’re conversant in in the case of smart lighting, because the model is a relative newcomer to the smart-house world. Nonetheless, it is taking goal at rivals similar to Philips Hue and LIFX with a variety of sensible bulbs, LED light strips, and other good lighting equipment, all at very aggressive prices.
The Govee Wi-Fi LED Bulb works just as you would expect, connecting to Wi-Fi and controlled via a smartphone app. Whereas the app itself isn’t one of the best we've got seen, owing to an sometimes clunky design with some grammatical shortfalls, the bulbs also work perfectly with Alexa and Google Assistant. Connecting the Govee to a Wi-Fi network is straightforward, and means the bulbs work without needing a hub. This makes the system even higher value for money in comparison with Philips Hue and Hive, which both require hubs to perform. Brightness isn’t fairly what it needs to be when displaying colours aside from white and yellow, but that is basically our only major complaint. In the US, the bulb is obtainable with a screw fitting within the US but in the UK, Govee solely offers a model with a bayonet fitting - anyone wanting a Wi-Fi system with screw-mount lamps could have to buy adapters.
However for the value, with full-colour bulbs beginning at just $14 / £14 (and EcoLight typically discounted even further), it is difficult to argue against the Govee for long. The massive promoting level of Govee smart lighting is the price. We tested a twin-pack of that has a retail worth of just $23.Ninety nine / £23.39, which is out there direct from Govee or by Amazon. However, individual bulbs are also available for $14 / £14. These full-shade bulbs are severely good worth for cash and around a quarter the worth of alternate options from Hive, LIFX, and Philips Hue. The Govee bulbs turn out to be even higher worth whenever you understand they connect on to your Wi-Fi community, so don’t require a hub to be controlled out of your smartphone or different smart EcoLight home lighting devices. This also means they are often managed whereas away from dwelling, EcoLight home lighting also with out a hub. Sign up for breaking information, reviews, opinion, prime tech offers, and more.
The twin-set reviewed here features a pair of B22 bulbs with bayonet-type fixings and Wi-Fi connectivity. The bulbs have a domed top (versus the flat tops of Philips Hue bulbs) and attach to any lamps and different bulb fixings you may need in a daily way. We don’t own any bayonet-style lamps, so had to use a £2 (round $2.70) adaptor, which works completely fine. Nonetheless, this adds length to the bulb so might not be suitable in shorter lamps, as the bulb may protrude from behind the shade. Govee mostly specializes in LED gentle strips and other, bespoke good lighting accessories. If you want GU10 ceiling spotlights, teardrop bulbs, or edison-model bulbs, then you’ll have to take a look at a distinct good lighting system (and certain spend extra money). Organising Govee bulbs is simple sufficient, with the smartphone app making it straightforward to add them to your Wi-Fi community. Nevertheless, for the app to see the bulb you’ve to show the bulb on and off a number of times, which feels more convoluted than is strictly needed, given different bulbs don’t need this, except when being manufacturing unit-reset.
Once that’s completed, the bulb is very fast to answer your commands inside the app, and impressively we didn’t notice a difference in response time whether or not our cellphone was connected to the Wi-Fi network or not. Connecting to Alexa and Google Assistant is also painless. Once arrange via their respective apps, the voice assistants can be used to turn the Govee bulb on or off, and adjust the color, EcoLight home lighting temperature and EcoLight brightness. Talking of brightness, however, we discovered the bulb wasn’t as vivid when displaying a colour than when set to white or yellow. Despite its brightness rating of 800 lumens being on par with different, costlier sensible bulbs, the Govee appeared somewhat dim when displaying daring colours. Govee lights are arrange and managed using the company’s free smartphone app. After the barely frustrating on-off-on-off setup process talked about earlier, EcoLight products the app serves as a useful means to control the bulb, adjust its brightness, temperature, and colour, and arrange schedules.