Christopher Coke Posted: Apr 4, 2022 1:00 PM Category: Hardware Reviews 0
Looking to upgrade your gaming desk or streaming setup? The Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Lights allow you to bend and mold your RGB lighting with excellent diffusion. At $67.99, are they worth choosing over a traditional LED strip? Find out in our review!
Like you, many of us are on tight budgets and can’t afford the higher costs of Philips Hue lights throughout our homes and gaming dens. Even with those tighter budgets, it’s still possible to upgrade your setup over time to make it look fresh and exciting. That’s where Govee comes in.
Govee is a brand we’ve looked at many times over the years here at MMORPG and for good reason: its ethos seems to be to democratize customizable RGB lighting. As a brand, they’ve been on a tear delivering outstanding and affordable alternatives to popular options from other brands. This time last year, we were looking at the Govee Flow Pro light bars that added reactive lighting behind your gaming monitor. Not long after that, it was the Govee Glide Wall Lights that added neon tube lighting to your room at an affordable cost. If we go way back, we can see that even when the brand still went by its old name, Minger, its RGB strips offered impressive customization compared to the other options that were available at the time.
Put another way, Govee has been at this for a while and they have one of the best track records out there for balancing cost and quality. Frankly, it seems like its goal is to make brands like Philips Hue obsolete. We know, this sounds gushing and isn’t intended to be. Ask yourself this: if you’re not already in the Hue ecosystem, why would you spend 2-3 times more when Govee offers 99% of the features and sometimes even better performance? You wouldn’t, and that’s why they’ve been on a consistent upward trajectory ever since the Minger days. This company is onto something.
So when they reached out about their new RGBIC Neon Rope Lights, I had to take a look. Compared to traditional RGB lights, rope lights feature a thick silicone diffuser that allows you to craft different shapes. Or, in my case, wrap around a door frame. They offer an added level of versatility and an appealingly smooth lighting effect that can really bring a gaming area to life.
Inside the box, you’ll get all of the supplies you need to mount your light. I was sent the 3M (10ft) version, but the company also has a 5M (16ft) version available and a 2M (6ft) version releasing soon. My 10-foot strip also included a set of ten aluminum mounting brackets to hold the light and some alcohol prep pads to prepare the mounting surface. The aluminum brackets have 3M adhesive pre-applied on the back, but the company also includes screws and drywall anchors if you’d prefer to permanently mount the brackets. I used the 3M strips and they worked very well.
Once the strip is installed, you’ll need to plug it into the wall. Like Govee’s other accessories, the AC adapter is big and bulky. This isn’t a big deal if you only have one Govee peripheral, but when you have several like I do, or other devices with large adapters, it can become a genuine problem. Govee is at the point where they really need to develop a hub or docking station that can power multiple devices at once.
Controlling the light can be done with the included in-line remote or using the Govee Home app over Bluetooth or WiFi. WiFi connectivity also allows it to tie into your smart home with native Alexa and Google Home integration. You do need to create an account to use the app, which I wasn’t a fan of, but the app is able to store all of your settings across devices. Having recently upgraded my phone, I had planned on having to re-add and set up all of my Govee lights, but all of my settings were stored and ready to go.
Once you’re inside the app, you have a huge array of options at your fingertips. Each of the light’s 15 segments can be color customized across the full RGB spectrum, even choosing relative brightness per section. You can choose from dozens of preset themes and animations. You can sample pictures to choose complementary lighting schemes (great if you use these behind a monitor with a custom wallpaper). There’s even a microphone built into the in-line remote so it can display reactive effects that pulse and shift to your music. If you find that’s not accurate, you can swap to using the direct audio output from your phone, removing the microphone from the equation. All of this is because of Govee’s RGBIC technology, allowing for advanced lighting effects other RGB strips aren’t capable of.
The app also allows you to group multiple lights together into groups. I have the Glide Wall Light and the Neon Rope Lights around my closet. The app allows me to control and customize these as one. Outside of these groups, you can also customize a set of commands, such as putting your lights on a schedule or integrating auto-run commands through the smart home functionality. It’s an impressive array that, yes, you need an account for and it would be better if you didn’t, but is frankly worth it if you’re considering these lights.
Unequivocally, yes. It’s pretty well known here at MMORPG that I’m an RGB fan. I’ve used normal RGB strips extensively and, until last year, had a set wrapped around the back of my desk for backlighting for my system. RGB strips have their place, but their lack of diffusion makes them a poor fit to be directly visible like the RGBIC Neon Rope Light can. These are meant to be displayed, RGB strips are meant to be hidden.
Compared to the vast majority of RGB strips (Govee’s DreamColor strips not included), these offer vastly more customization. Affordable RGB strips tend to rely on dedicated remotes to choose the color. Bluetooth enabled strips often have app control. But none that I’ve seen — including researching dozens of competing strips for separate features — offer the level of customization the Govee Home app does. The sheer amount of themes and animation options available here is extremely impressive.
That isn’t to say there aren’t some drawbacks to choosing a rope light. Normal RGB LED strips can be cut to size. These have to be purchased at set lengths and aren’t intended to be cut. The silicone on the diffuser also has a somewhat tacky quality that grabs and holds any bit of dust or hair that might be around it. We have three cats and a dog and the strip immediately picked up fur when my cat entered the room. It’s nothing a little cleaning can’t fix, but does mean you probably won’t want to look to close at these when they’re turned off.
I also wish Govee had included three or four additional mounting tabs. For the 3M length, the ten included tabs aren’t enough to completely prevent some warble in the line. The brackets are hard to find on their own and can be expensive. See what I’m referring to in the picture below to decide whether this would bother you.
The Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light is an excellent addition to the Govee catalog. At $67.99 directly from Govee or $79.99 from Amazon with Prime Shipping, it’s expensive on its own and affordable in comparison to others. The biggest downside is really that there’s no great way to power multiple devices you might own. Taken as a whole, this another great release from Govee.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes. Purchasing a product through Amazon links included in this post will help support MMORPG.com as a whole.
Chris cut his teeth on MMOs in the late 90s with text-based MUDs. He’s written about video games for many different sites but has made MMORPG his home since 2013. Today, he acts as Hardware and Technology Editor, lead tech reviewer, and continues to love and write about games every chance he gets. Follow him on Twitter: @GameByNight
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