Fairy lights have by no means been so enjoyable
After I first bought phrase of the Govee Curtain Lights, I knew I needed to get my arms on them. They’re basically a set of hanging string fairy lights with individually addressable RGB LEDs, however mixed with Govee’s app, they turn out to be a large pixel artwork tapestry to brighten up your wall.
They’re designed primarily to hold in entrance of a set of floor-length curtains, the type you’d have in entrance of a set of French doorways, however they’re equally at house on any flat floor. They usually’re IP65 rated, too, so you may even dangle them outside.
At a value of $129, these lights aren’t precisely an impulse purchase, so I needed to search out out in the event that they’re price your hard-earned money. The lights have been gracing my wall for a few weeks now, and here is what I’ve discovered.
Govee
Govee Curtain Lights
Beneficial
The Govee Curtain Lights are a superb approach so as to add a splash of color and pleasure to your residing area. They’re vibrant, vibrant and really straightforward to arrange and set up. When you’ve got an acceptable area to place them, it is a simple product to advocate.
- Superior animated results
- A number of mounting choices within the field
- Large and vibrant
- Countless customisation choices
- IP65 waterproofing
- The app will be complicated at occasions
What’s included?
- Curtain lights, management field and energy adapter
- Curtain hooks, seamless nails and VHB pads
- Screws, screwdriver and manuals
Within the field, you will see that the lights themselves, in addition to an influence adapter and a management field with an influence button and microphone inbuilt. The string lights are fairly sizable and fairly straightforward to tangle, however they’re delivered in such a approach that retains issues neat and simple to handle till they’re fastened in place.
Govee contains all the pieces you want for 3 totally different set up strategies, properly virtually, one technique requires a hammer and you aren’t getting a type of, for apparent causes.
You possibly can both connect “G4 hooks” and dangle the lights in your present curtains, stick them up with the included VHB strips, or dangle them from hooks that nail into the wall. I selected the latter, primarily as a result of I haven’t got any appropriate curtains.
Setup and configuration
- Three set up strategies to select from
- 1.5 x 2-metre area required
As I discussed, I used what Govee calls “seamless nails” to put in the Curtain Lights. Basically, they are a set of 4 white plastic hooks, and every has 4 quick nails pre-installed. To hold the lights you merely line up the hooks, bang them in with a hammer, and also you’re off to the races.
I am unable to touch upon the opposite strategies, as I did not strive them myself, but it surely appears to be like equally straightforward from what I can inform. I additionally know from testing earlier Govee merchandise that the included VHB pads are usually very robust and dependable, so I can solely think about that is the case right here, too.
Establishing the lights utilizing the app is as straightforward as will be. For those who’ve used every other Govee product, you will know precisely what to anticipate. You merely hit the plus button on the high proper of the app, and the product is often discovered mechanically, if not, it is merely a case of typing within the product title and selecting it from the record.
You possibly can dangle the lights with the ability twine trailing on both the proper or the left-hand aspect. At first, I believed I had made a mistake, as animations that show textual content have been displaying backwards, however there is a toggle within the app labelled “Swap Set up Course” and tapping that put issues proper.
App and sensible options
- Govee House app for Android and iOS
- Works with Google House and Alexa
There aren’t too many surprises with the Govee app, it is the identical app utilized by all of Govee’s different merchandise and the expertise is essentially the identical.
It is simple sufficient to make use of, but it surely’s not essentially the most intuitive, generally options are hidden in barely odd locations and it takes a little bit of tapping round to search out the issues that you simply’re in search of.
The sensible house integration is similar as with Govee’s different merchandise, too. I am a Google House consumer, and Govee was already linked to my Google House account, so including the Curtain Lights solely took a couple of faucets. It has been some time since I did the preliminary setup, but it surely was fully hassle-free, so there’s nothing to fret about when you’re making an attempt Govee for the primary time.
As soon as related, you may add the Curtain Lights to your automations, and management them by way of your Google House app or utilizing your voice with Google Assistant. From the Google House app, you may select a primary set of pre-determined colors in addition to management the brightness and toggle them on or off. You possibly can’t choose any of the flowery animated scenes, you will want to make use of the Govee app for that, however when you use Google House to automate an on/off cycle, it is going to proceed to make use of the final animation that you simply had it set to.
I do not personally use Alexa for my sensible house stuff, so I did not strive it out with this product, however from what I perceive, the method and performance are broadly related.
Efficiency and results
- Music modes, preset scenes, DIY mode
- Add GIF animations and browse user-created scenes
The lights can get exceptionally vibrant, to the purpose the place you would have them on in the course of the day when you actually needed to. There’s glorious uniformity to the color rendition throughout the array and the LEDs can kick out some significantly vibrant hues.
To the bare eye, there isn’t any flickering by any means, and the identical is true on digital camera. That is nice if you’d like these lights to brighten up your dwell streaming or YouTube set-up. I even shot some 120fps sluggish movement on the Lumix S5II with these lights within the background, and there was nonetheless no noticeable flicker – spectacular stuff.
There are an enormous vary of results and scenes to select from within the app, starting from summary patterns to pixel artwork and all the pieces in between. After all, a few of these are more practical than others, and your viewing distance additionally issues fairly a bit. There are solely 520 “pixels” to work with, so easy pictures are rather more recognisable than complicated ones. That stated, it’s potential to attach a number of units of curtain lights, so you would get extra complicated in case you have the area and the persistence.
The app permits you to add animated GIFs to be displayed on the Curtain Lights, which so far as we’re conscious, is a characteristic that is distinctive to Govee. This makes it far simpler to get your customized art work displayed, in comparison with utilizing the app’s built-in instruments, as you may simply use software program that you simply’re conversant in and switch it over. It is an excellent characteristic.
My private favorite is the music reactive mode, particularly with the Meteor Bathe and Dream Shade presets. It makes use of the microphone that is constructed into the management field and reacts swiftly to the beat, creating hypnotizing vibrant patterns in sync with the music. The one pitfall is that it reacts to voices in the identical approach, so I can think about the impact getting considerably muddied throughout a loud social gathering. You possibly can tailor the sensitivity with a slider within the app, however the capability to react solely to your telephone’s sound output can be even higher – perhaps we’ll see that sooner or later.
Verdict
For those who like the thought of animated RGB LED curtain lights, then there aren’t too many merchandise to select from. I have not come throughout any which are as straightforward to make use of and well-constructed as Govee’s, at the least, and that makes them very straightforward to advocate.
The flexibility to add GIFs, in addition to create animations with the app’s complete suite of instruments, implies that the choices are countless. Plus, easy accessibility to community-created animations means you can take pleasure in numerous scenes while not having to do the legwork.
We predict the worth is honest for what you get, however a decrease asking value would make such a purchase order simpler to justify. That stated, Govee is understood for its nice reductions, so preserve a watch out round Prime Day and Black Friday if the associated fee is holding you again. Even on the time of writing, there was a $30 off the asking value on Amazon, so do preserve a watch out.
I’ve cherished taking part in with the Govee Curtain Lights, and I reckon anybody that enjoys vibrant lighting will really feel the identical approach. For those who’ve bought floor-length curtains or a clean wall that might use jazzing up, this is a superb choice… and loads of enjoyable too.
