Govee’s new Glide Wall light is an affordable option if you’re looking for a reasonably priced set of RGB lights. The $104 Glide wall is essentially an LED strip locked inside six connectable plastic bar housings and one curved connector with a translucent front.
Installing the lights took barely 10-minutes. While the process isn’t lengthy, you still have to be extra careful when snapping together the light bars’ different connectors. For example, the plastic quality isn’t top-of-the-line and attaching different bars took quite a bit of force. I managed not to break mine, but I imagine attaching the bars clumsily could result in damage.
On the other hand, the setup experience is a breeze post-assembly. Each light bar comes with a strong 3M adhesive tape and a velcro strip. You simply decide where you want to set up the lights, and the rest is as easy as sticking and holding them in place. I completed the assembly alone, though it would be wise to take someone’s help.
I decided to attach mine on the left of my gaming/work-from-home rig, outlining my desktop case and the adjacent window frame to breathe new life into the setup. However, other spots, including the wall behind your monitor, TV, above your bed’s frame, above or beside a door, are all excellent locations.
Once mounted or placed, the light bars connect to a control box, which is then powered by a power adapter. The control box’s primary functions are to receive signals from your phone and to listen to sounds with its built-in microphone to support Govee’s ‘Music Mode,’ so it’s wise to place it somewhere with less outdoor noise.
This means that if you place the control box near where you’ll be sitting, whatever noises you make will interfere with the Music Mode’s light show.
Once set up and plugged in, the Govee Glide will light up instantly, but you’ll want to go straight to the Govee Home app on either iOS or Android to add them to your home network and gain access to a bunch of scenes and settings, similar to the company’s Flow Pro and Lyra lights.
Navigating such apps and testing out all the customizable options for the first time is an exciting experience and never fails to bring a wide smile to my face.
The Govee Home app provides complete control over the lights with different modes, including ‘Music,’ ‘Colour,’ Scenes’ and DIY.
Remember the control box I mentioned earlier in regards to the Music Mode? The Govee Home app allows you to switch between syncing music or audio cues using the Control Box’s microphone or the microphone on your phone. Whatever mic you choose to sync the audio with, it works perfectly, and unlike the Govee Flow Pro Light Bars, the Glide had no noticeable delay.
I recommend you use this mode only when listening to music, as it was a huge distraction while watching movies. Oh, and, if you’re playing games and use a mechanical keyboard, it’s a good idea to have Music Mode off, otherwise, best of luck avoiding feeling dizzy.
The app’s Colour Mode allows you to set varying colours to each of the three configurable sections per bar, with extra brightness and light tone options.
Following that is a Scene Mode, which includes 35+ pre-configured scenes that animate the lights in various ways, such as ‘Leisure,’ ‘Night Light,’ ‘Candle Light,’ ‘Fireworks’ and many more, allowing you to set the mood of the room with scenes like ‘Christmas,’ ‘Halloween,’ ‘Birthday’ and ‘Valentines Day’ for those special occasions.
Even though the Glide is RGBIC and not RGBW, they still offer solid bright white colour options, similar to a traditional fluorescent tube light that can brighten your full room.
Lastly, The DIY section of the app allows you to create your own unique shareable presets, and download Scenes produced by other users.
Unlike the Govee Flow Pro Light Bars, which I would only use while watching movies, the Glide lights usually stay on throughout the day, with different modes depending on my mood. When turned down to one percent brightness or with the ‘Night Light’ preset, they also work great as night lights.
Apart from the fact that snapping together the light bars during the initial setup was daunting, I have no complaints about the Govee Glide Wall Lights as they sufficiently brighten up my room, change colours smoothly, look like one solid unit instead of six interconnected pieces, and are fully responsive to changes made on the app.
I changed modes and scenes from two rooms away, even though the Control Box is hidden away in a corner, indicating that it has a strong signal and having voice assistant compatibility with Alexa and Google Assistant is always a bonus.
The app itself is easy to use and doesn’t have any noticeable glitches or bugs, though it might take you a while to discover all the controls and options it has to offer.
At a competitive price point of $104, the Govee Glide Wall Light is a solid purchase if you’re looking to — literally — brighten up your setup.