Govee Strip Light 2 review

Key features

• Lighting type: 2/5/10m RGBIC+ lightstrip
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Ecosystems: Matter, Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings

Back in September, over in Berlin at IFA 2024, Govee took the covers off of a couple of new additions to its flagship LED strip light portfolio, including the Govee Strip Light 2 Pro – which we’ve got on review here.

The Govee Strip Light 2 Pro is powered by the company’s new LuminBlend Color Control System, designed to “set the standard” for great color performance.

The Strip Light 2 Pro enhances 16-bit signal analysis and five-way color-control for advanced RGB color depth and accuracy, while the upgraded 5-in-1 RGBWW light beads and color blending algorithm ensure precise color rendering, especially at lighter shades.

Govee joined the Matter revolution when it launched of the Govee LED Strip Light M1 Matter last year and Matter is also on board for the new Strip Light 2 as well… although it’s not without its issues.

Govee is part of the Shenzhen Intellirocks Tech umbrella and has been making a huge push over the past few years to get its connected tech to consumers in the Western World.

Govee storefronts on Amazon are overflowing with a range of connected devices – predominantly smart lights – and the Govee Store itself is also pretty easy to use as well.

Take a look at our comprehensive Govee smart light review to find out more.

I’ve had the Govee Strip Light 2 illuminating my drinks cabinet for the past few weeks, read on for my full review.

Design and installation

• Easy sticky back installation
• Physical controller
• Can be cut to fit your length needs

Available in 2, 5 and 10m lengths, Govee’s latest lightstrip isn’t just Matter smart home compatible but highly customizable thanks to the RGBIC+ tech that the Chinese brand often uses with its smart lighting devices.

Unlike traditional RGB lightstrips, which have all the LEDs set to the same color, RGBIC+ lightstrips are equipped with smart IC beads and can display multiple colors simultaneously; opening up a lot more lighting scenes for you to use in your home.

As with the LED Strip Light M1 Matter, Govee has packed in an industry-leading 60 light beads per meter on the Strip Light 2, resulting in the highest luminosity of any lightstrip on the market.

See also: Govee Glide Hexagon Light Panels Ultra review

The Govee Strip Light 2 Pro arrives neatly coiled into a convenient disc, which is a nice touch for keeping things organized right out of the box and installation is super simple, whether you’re mounting it behind a TV or setting it up for ambient lighting around your room.

On the back of the Strip Light 2 Pro is a peel-away sticky strip so you can simply run it along the surface you want it to live on and press down in place.

I installed inside a drinks cabinet and it was a super easy process and I was able to hide all the wires out of sight too.

However, you can also use the clips (also with sticky tabs attached) that come in the box and there are even some screws included too if you want to add an extra layer of stability.

Whatever method you use, you’ll have to plug the lightstrip itself into a a port on a wire that comes out of the controller.

A nice touch with the Strip Light 2 Pro, as with all modern Govee smart lights, is that it comes with a physical controller, which allows you to power on and control the lights without getting out your phone, or bothering your digital assistant.

On the controller is a power button, a button that changes the color and a button that cycle through some of Govee’s lighting effects.

Both the controller lead and the power lead have plenty of length, so you can easily get your Strip Light 2 Pro plugged in, even if you’re running it a few feet away from the mains – although the power pack is a little on the bulky side.

As mentioned, there are three versions of the lightstrip available and you can also cut down at 1m segments to get the perfect fit. Cutting lines are clearly marked so it’s easy peasy.

Setting up and controlling

• Works with Matter.. supposedly
• Uses Wi-Fi, not Thread, for Matter
• Native app needed for full feature set

Now, while Matter is available on the Strip Light 2 Pro, I’d seriously recommend totally ignoring it and going native to the Govee app if you are living in a Google Home or Alexa household.

If you’re sticking solely to HomeKit or SmartThings, then you will – probably – be okay pairing to those systems using Matter. It’s only when you try and mix and match ecosystems that things get weird.

Plenty of the issues I encountered when testing the M1 Matter are still present with the Strip Light 2 Pro.

Obviously, one of the main reasons for the Matter smart home system is that you don’t then have to bother with a brand’s app if you don’t want to; instead you can control devices through whatever smart home ecosystem you use, whether that be Apple Home, SmartThings, Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

I won’t go into too much detail on exactly what Matter is and what it means for you smart home here – as we’ve got pretty comprehensive guides and explainers galore on our Matter hub page.

Rather, I’ll go through exactly what Matter meant for me, when dealing with the Govee Strip Light 2 Pro specifically.

Given I run a smart home website for a living, I’ve probably got more than the normal amount of smart home systems and assistants running in my house.

I’ve found, during testing of numerous Matter devices, that HomeKit is by far the most reliable platform for pairing new kit. So that’s where I started with the Strip Light 2 Pro, by adding it as a Matter device through Apple HomeKit and taking it from there.

Pairing using Matter was easy enough through HomeKit – I just went through all the steps as I have done with a few Matter devices before and it was all paired up and raring to go within a few seconds.

No native app needed, no fiddling around disabling 5GHz Wi-Fi on my Eero router, no fuss at all. Exactly what Matter was intended to achieve.

However, the issues started after I tried to access, using Matter, the lightstrip through another ecosystem… Alexa.

At first, all worked fine – I grabbed the Matter pairing code from the Apple Home app and used it to add it as a Matter device to Alexa. No problems.

It was only when I went into the Govee app that things got messy.

You may be wondering why I’d even bother going into the Govee app, as I could control the Strip Light 2 Pro using Matter through both HomeKit and Alexa. And I could have added it to SmartThings, Google Home or even Home Assistant in a matter of minutes.

However, while much of Matter’s early success has been focused on it making smart home setup processes easier than ever, much of its criticism has been focused on its limitations.

As we noted in our Nanoleaf Essentials Matter review, the array of smart light controls for Matter smart lights is quite limited when using apps like HomeKit and Alexa.

For the Strip Light 2 Pro the lightstrip can be set a solid color or color temperature, and the brightness can be adjusted. That’s about it and this lightstrip is capable of so much more, so I headed over to the Govee app to really put it to the test.

The first thing I noticed when I fired up the app was that the icons on the lightstrip’s homescreen tile stated that I was only connected to it over Bluetooth; there was no Wi-Fi icon as per another, non-Matter, Govee light that I have setup.

That makes sense because another major plus point for Matter is local control.

Yes, the Strip Light 2 Pro is a Wi-Fi smart light (rather than a Thread one) it is controlled locally – i.e. now cloud processing – using your Matter controller.

In my case, this would probably have been via a HomePod or HomePod Mini, as I initially set up via HomeKit; although it’s still not really clear what controllers actually control Matter devices in your house if you have more than one… and I have about 47.

That’s kind of irrelevant though also, as another reason Matter exists is so you don’t have to worry about things like that; your Matter gadgets should just work.

‘Should’ being the operative word here. I noticed as soon as I entered the control panel for the Strip Light 2 Pro in the Govee app, things weren’t working as they should have been.

After playing around in the Govee app and marvelling at the multitude of effects on offer (more on that in a bit), I noticed that the Strip Light 2 Pro had became unresponsive in both Alexa and HomeKit.

This was a severe case of Déjà vu as this exact thing happened when testing the Govee M1 Matter lightstrip. And for that, I wasted days trying to get everything working as it should.

So I cut my losses, reset the device and paired natively to the Govee app. I was then able to pair with Alexa, using a Skill, with no issues at all.

That’s all a bit 2020, and the sort of thing that Matter was meant to eliminate but, let’s face it – Matter is still a massive mess.

This meant no local control, no extra Matter security blanket and no feeling smug that I had a Matter device working successfully.

But let’s not get too bogged down with Matter as, if you’re only looking to pair with one ecosystem, you’re unlikely to encounter the issues I had… hopefully.

Features and performance

The headline feature for the newest Govee lightstrip is the LuminBlend Color Control System, powered by its self-developed 16-bit color processing chip (the G1151).

This advanced tech allows for seamless color blending and more vibrant, dynamic lighting effects, which is especially noticeable when you’re using lower saturation colors.

Govee’s lights have always impressed in testing and the new tech takes the wow-factor a step further.

The RGBWWIC lamp beads offer real cool white lighting across 2700K-6500K, which adds a new level of versatility compared to previous-gen Govee lightstrips.

Govee’s DreamView system also lets you sync the Strip Light 2 Pro with other Govee products for a unified light show, a cool feature if you already own other Govee lights.

Thanks to its 60 light beads per meter, the Strip Light 2 Pro offers fantastic brightness and consistent coverage.

Whether you’re looking for soft ambient lighting or bold, vibrant colors, it delivers. Govee has added a cool white element into the mix, which wasn’t present in earlier models, making the colors even more natural and pleasing.

There’s a choice of 16 million colors, and the Strip Light 2 Pro does a fantastic job of blending colors together.

In order get the most out of the light, you need to hook it up to the Govee app, which unlocks a similar set of features to the company’s other products, such as the Lyra Floor Lamp and the Neon Rope Light.

The good news is that the Govee app has recently been revamped and is now much easier to get a handle of.

It’s still super busy, with a multitude of options on offer and is therefore a bit daunting still, but it’s much less clunky than it was and is easier to navigate now.

If there’s not an effect already set up that you like you can pretty much customize to your heart’s content. You can customize by segment, using a sketch tool and many, many more ways.

The strip’s lighting effects are diverse and customizable, with over 100 preset scene modes available through the Govee Home App.

The dynamic Music Mode, powered by an integrated mic in the control box, is a standout. The lights pulse and react to your music in sync with other Govee lights, creating a lively atmosphere – ideal for parties or simply enhancing your audio-visual experience.

One of the more unique aspects is the AI bot built into the Govee app. You can chat or text with the bot to create personalized lighting effects. While it’s fun and useful for generating vibrant color scenes, it’s not perfect.

During testing, asking for specific effects like flickering resulted in some confusion – at one point, it suggested I take a break and have a coffee instead!

Final thoughts

The Govee Strip Light 2 Pro provides rich, customizable lighting effects, easy integration into smart home ecosystems (at least, if you stick to one at a time), and its intelligent color blending make for some dramatic illumination scenes.

While the Matter mess and AI bot take a bit of the shine off, these are minor gripes in an otherwise stellar product. If you’re serious about upgrading your lighting setup, the Strip Light 2 Pro should be at the top of your list.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Smart lights usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a connected light for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular light compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our full guide on How We Test Smart Lights to find out more.

FAQs

Govee Light Strip 2 Pro: Specs