Govee Just Released a New Neon Rope Light
I grew up in the 80s – the golden age of neon – so naturally I always dreamed of owning a neon sign from Hot Topic. This week, Govee, my favorite brand of LED chaos, released their latest version of neon rope, and by all accounts, it’s exactly as fun as you think.
We’ve tested a number of Govee products and they all work fine. In particular, they produce a range of LED lights for indoor and outdoor use, usually at (comparatively) affordable prices. My complaint is mainly related to the poor quality of the apps for their products. Trying to let the user do absolutely everything makes it difficult to do almost everything, and that’s okay if you like their pre-made light themes. (I find them a little bright and loud, but that’s what neon is all about.)
The rope itself is similar to many LED strip lights, except that instead of wrapping the tape around things like shelves and cabinets, you bend it into a specific shape and then attach it to the wall using a backing. Bend clamps (included) hold the curves you create in place, and this new version uses softer material than the first version , so it’s easier to create soft curve shapes. The rope comes in 16 and 9 foot lengths, black or white.
There is a lot of competition in this space, so there are other neon LED strip lights, but this is the first new product from a well-known brand. These lights support Matter, which is great because it means you don’t need a hub, but you still need the Govee app.
In this release, Govee offers “shape mapping”: you take a photo of your neon creation and Govee displays an outline, which you can then use to develop a lighting theme by assigning colors to segments. The segments will then obviously merge into a perfect ombre. The screenshots also seem to imply new animation offerings, and I’ll be interested to see if they’re more subtle than previous versions.