You can't find a better value for money outdoor RGB LED light bar.

You can't find a more valuable RGB LED strip. Enjoy the easy installation inside and outside the home, and control the lights through the app on your phone. Unfortunately, you cannot control them via Wi-Fi or integrate them with other smart home settings.

Few accessories can change the appearance of your home like LED light bars. You can use Govee Phantasy LED strips for everything from furniture backlighting to garden lighting, and there are 16 million colors to choose from. If you do, you will have no shortage of options.

They may not be as smart as other light bars on the market — not even other light bars from the same brand — but the Govee Phantasy LED light bar is quick to set up, easy to use, and affordable.

Before February 14th, you can get up to 30% discounts on the entire Govee store, which means you can buy Phantasy outdoor light strips for less than $50 with free shipping!

Govee Phantasy LED strips are two 5-meter long strips, which you can install at home or outdoors. Each light bar uses RGB LED bulbs to provide 16 million colors, and you can use different effects to fade, blink or jump between them.

Each strip is very flexible and comes with a 3M adhesive backing, allowing you to stick it on any clean and dry surface. If you want, you can bend the strip around the corners, but you may need to fold it into a circle to rotate it at a right angle.

The waterproof rating of these strips reaches IP65, which means they are dust and water resistant. It is absolutely okay to use them outdoors on rainy days-just don't let them submerge them.

Govee includes a pocket-sized RF remote control with a light strip that you can use to turn lights on and off, cycle between lighting modes, and choose between six different brightness settings.

The remote control provides a range of 30 meters, but for the best experience, you need to use the Govee Home app to control the light strip via Bluetooth. Using this application, you can also set timers, create DIY scenes and browse Govee Light Studio.

But most importantly, the best feature of Govee Phantasy LED strips is price. For only $60, their price is less than half the price of the same Philips Hue light strip, and the length of the Govee light strip is twice that. Although the use of Hue alternatives does get more smart home and automation options.

Getting the Govee Phantasy LED light bar up and running couldn't be easier. When you open the box, you will find two 5-meter-long light strips on separate reels and connect them through a control switch.

All you need to do is to connect the control switch to the included 12V power adapter and plug it into the wall. Then press the button on the switch to turn on the light.

It is a good idea to unfold the lights and turn on the power before connecting the lights to any surface to make sure they are working properly.

When you are ready to install the lights permanently, remove the adhesive cover from the control switch and the back of each light bar, and then secure it to any clean, dry surface.

For better safety, Govee also provides you with 15 clips, screws and plugs, which you can use to fix the light bar to different surfaces. Although you still need a drill bit to drill these holes.

Since the cables connecting them are short, you need to keep each strip relatively close to each other, but the length between the power adapter and the control switch is appropriate.

If you want to install the light outdoors, make sure you have a waterproof outdoor socket.

Although you can choose multiple colors for the Govee Phantasy LED strips, you can only illuminate two strips with one color at a time. These are not individually controllable "pixel" LEDs. On the bright side, Govee provides you with a good selection of built-in scenes that you can use to automatically switch between the colors of different patterns.

The scene changes between a set of different colors using different effects:

Through the remote control, you can use the mode button to switch between seven built-in scenes. But with the Govee Home app, you can choose between 64 built-in scenes, or use the DIY option to create your own scenes.

When making your own lighting scenes, you can choose up to eight colors-you can generate them from photos or images if you want-and switch between them using any standard scene effect.

You can even drag the slider to set the speed of the color change.

After completing the scene, share it with others in Govee Light Studio. You can also save the scene made by others here. There are tons of options here, and even if you don’t want to save them, you can apply the scene to the light immediately.

The music mode on the Govee Phantasy LED Strip Lights uses the microphone on the control switch to synchronize your lights with any music you are listening to. When this happens, the lighting should change in time with the music, creating a light show at any location you choose to set.

If the lights are not properly synchronized with your music, you can use the buttons on the remote control to adjust the microphone sensitivity. Or, move your music source closer to the microphone on the control switch.

In other words, this music mode rarely works well.

Activating the music mode will definitely make the light strips change colors more frequently, but they usually have no rhythm or reason, and certainly no rhythm. Many times, it doesn't seem to matter that I play soothing soundscapes, heavy metal, or complete silence; the lights always change colors randomly, and have little to do with any surrounding sounds.

The music mode will definitely enliven the atmosphere through unpredictable color changes, but in my experience, when I play a metronome directly into the microphone or play dance music with an incredibly strong beat, it comes close to syncing with the beat.

You don't need to use the app to enjoy the Govee Phantasy LED light bar. They are equipped with a very practical remote control that allows you to change the color, scene and brightness of the light strip. But pairing these lights with the Govee Home app can provide you with a better experience.

The Govee Home app not only allows you to choose from a wider range of scenes, but also allows you to set a timer for the light strip. You can set four independent timers to control the lights, and if you want, you can enable them on different days of the week.

You can also choose to use wake and sleep timers to slowly turn the lights on or off.

Unfortunately, you cannot choose a different scene for your lights; they will only switch to the last scene or color you used.

This is not the only limitation of Phantasy Strip Lights; you also cannot control them via Wi-Fi. Despite the fact that other LED lights from Govee can indeed work via Wi-Fi, this makes it an even stranger omission.

Likewise, you cannot pair these lights with any other smart home systems, such as Alexa, Nest, or HomeKit. This means that you cannot control your Govee Phantasy light from the same application you might use for non-Govee products such as Hue bulbs, Alexa speakers, or Nest thermostats.

Without smart home integration, you will also lose the advanced automation possibilities that come with it. You cannot automatically turn on the Govee Phantasy light strips when you go home, nor can you synchronize them to work with other smart home accessories such as motion sensors.

It is possible to add more Govee smart home accessories to the Govee Home app and create complex scenes in this way, but even so, it cannot provide the same options you get with more sophisticated smart home settings.

Music needs a very strong beat to resemble a rhythmic light show, and these light strips are seriously lacking in smart home integration. But compared to other waterproof LED strips, they are still excellent value for money.

You only need to use the things in the box to complete the setup in five minutes, which is great. There is no painful matching process, and you don’t need to go to the hardware store to buy last-minute supplies.

For most purposes, the light itself is very vibrant and bright, especially considering that you have a total distance of 10 meters. Therefore, if you are looking for a quick way to add a touch of color to your home (indoor or outdoor), then I would say that they are a reliable purchase.

We hope you enjoy the items we recommend and discuss! MUO has affiliated and sponsored partnerships, so we get a portion of the revenue from some of your purchases. This will not affect the price you pay and will help us provide the best product recommendations.

Dan edits iPhone, iPad, and Mac content for MakeUseOf, using his experience working in the Apple Store to do so.

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