Fairy lights have by no means been so enjoyable

After I first obtained 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 into an enormous 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 dwelling on any flat floor. They usually’re IP65 rated, too, so you’ll be able to even hold them outside.

At a value of $129, these lights aren’t precisely an impulse purchase, so I needed to seek out out in the event that they’re value your hard-earned money. The lights have been gracing my wall for a few weeks now, and this is what I’ve discovered.

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 in-built. The string lights are fairly sizable and fairly straightforward to tangle, however they’re delivered in such a means that retains issues neat and straightforward to handle till they’re mounted in place.

Govee contains the whole lot you want for 3 totally different set up strategies, properly nearly, one technique requires a hammer and you aren’t getting a type of, for apparent causes.

You possibly can both connect “G4 hooks” and hold the lights in your current curtains, stick them up with the included VHB strips, or hold 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. Primarily, 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 equally straightforward from what I can inform. I additionally know from testing earlier Govee merchandise that the included VHB pads are typically very robust and dependable, so I can solely think about that is the case right here, too.

Organising the lights utilizing the app is as straightforward as will be. In case you’ve used every other Govee product, you may know precisely what to anticipate. You merely hit the plus button on the high proper of the app, and the product is normally discovered mechanically, if not, it is merely a case of typing within the product title and selecting it from the checklist.

You possibly can hold the lights with the ability twine trailing on both the suitable or the left-hand facet. At first, I assumed I had made a mistake, as animations that show textual content had 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 other products and the expertise is basically the identical.

It is simple sufficient to make use of, but it surely’s not probably the most intuitive, typically options are hidden in barely odd locations and it takes a little bit of tapping round to seek out the issues that you just’re on the lookout for.

The sensible dwelling integration is identical as with Govee’s different merchandise, too. I am a Google Home consumer, and Govee was already linked to my Google House account, so including the Curtain Lights solely took just a few 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 should you’re making an attempt Govee for the primary time.

As soon as linked, you’ll be able to 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’ll be able to select a fundamental 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 flamboyant animated scenes, you may want to make use of the Govee app for that, however should you use Google House to automate an on/off cycle, it would proceed to make use of the final animation that you just had it set to.

I do not personally use Alexa for my sensible dwelling stuff, so I did not strive it out with this product, however from what I perceive, the method and performance are broadly comparable.

Efficiency and results

• Music modes, preset scenes, DIY mode
• Add GIF animations and browse user-created scenes

The lights can get exceptionally vivid, to the purpose the place you possibly can have them on in the course of the day should 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 digicam. That is nice if you need these lights to brighten up your live streaming or YouTube set-up. I even shot some 120fps gradual 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 the whole lot in between. In fact, 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 photos are way more recognisable than complicated ones. That stated, it’s doable to attach a number of units of curtain lights, so you possibly can get extra complicated in case you have the area and the endurance.

The app permits you to add animated GIFs to be displayed on the Curtain Lights, which so far as we’re conscious, is a function that is distinctive to Govee. This makes it far simpler to get your customized paintings displayed, in comparison with utilizing the app’s built-in instruments, as you’ll be able to simply use software program that you just’re aware of and switch it over. It is an awesome function.

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 means, so I can think about the impact getting considerably muddied throughout a loud celebration. You possibly can tailor the sensitivity with a slider within the app, however the potential to react solely to your telephone’s sound output could be even higher – possibly we’ll see that sooner or later.

Verdict

In case you like the concept 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, a minimum of, and that makes them very straightforward to advocate.

The power to add GIFs, in addition to create animations with the app’s complete suite of instruments, implies that the choices are infinite. Plus, quick access to community-created animations means you can get pleasure from numerous scenes without 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 thought for its nice reductions, so hold 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 hold 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 means. In case you’ve obtained floor-length curtains or a clean wall that might use jazzing up, this is a superb possibility… and a whole lot of enjoyable too.