Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light review

If there’s one issue with normal LED light strips, it’s that they’re not particularly flexible, so trying to bend them around corners is a delicate art.

Not so with the Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light, which has a softer exterior, so you can bend it into pretty much any shape that you like.

With Govee’s usual excellent color and theme selection, these lights make a welcome alternative to traditional light strips and light panels, such as the Nanoleaf Lines or Nanoleaf Shapes.

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Check out our full Goveee smart light review to see what else Govee does.

Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light: Design and price

Available for $79.99 for a 3m light strip or $119.99 for a 5m light strip, the Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light is well priced for a multi-segment light strip.

It does seem to be called different things, depending on where you look. The box is as we’ve stated it, but the Govee website calls this the Govee Neon LED Strip Light.

In all cases, the word Neon is a good one, as this is the LED equivalent. Thanks to the soft, bendable exterior, this light strip can be bent in tight angles, letting you create pretty much any shape that you want. It’s far more flexible than light panels are.

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Mounting the light strip means using the bundled U-shape connectors. These have both sticky pads and screw holes (screws and wall plugs are provided). The difficulty is in trying to get the pattern you want and the brackets to stay in place while you do it.

I recommend making the shape you want on the floor, getting someone to help. Then snap a photo of the layout you want, before you start trying to replicate this on the wall.

And, you’ll still want someone to help hold the light while you attach the brackets, particularly at the beginning when the weight of the light strip can move brackets off axis.

It’s worth the hassle. While other lights are more limited, the Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light can swoop around pictures, draw out a picture or loop up and down.

There’s practically no limit to the available shapes. Just makes sure that the power cable is in the most convenient place for a wall socket, and that you can hide this as much as possible.

The power cable also has a remote control, which can stick to a wall.

It sits at the end of the lighting run, so it can be a little tricky to end a design with the remote placed somewhere sensible.

There’s no way to extend these lights and because of the integrated circuit, that lets you use multiple colors at once, you can’t cut the lightstrip either.

Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light: App and features

The easiest way to control the lights is with the in-line remote, which has three buttons. There’s a power switch to turn the lights on and off, a button to cycle through different solid colors, and another one to cycle through the music modes, where the lights react to sound.

To 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.

The connection can be via Bluetooth, although that means having your phone to hand or via Wi-Fi.

Although the app is a little clunky to use, it gives you a lot of control. As well as adjusting brightness and power, you can configure the light to be one solid color, or you can individually color the 15 segments.

Both brightness and color quality is excellent. There’s a choice of 16 million colors, and Govee does a good job of blending colors together where the segments meet, so it doesn’t look like a hard line.

Having 15 color segments makes the dynamic scenes (music where the lights react to audio, and normal ones which change color automatically) more fun.

They vary between gentle rhythmic changes to crazy lights that seem to rush and flow around the pattern you’ve built.

If you don’t like what’s built-in, you can create your own with the DIY section of the app, although it is a touch fiddly to use.

Govee RGBIC Neon Rope Light: Alexa and Google Assistant

Provided you’ve connected the lights to Wi-Fi, you can control them with your voice using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Using either assistant, you can toggle the lights on and off, pick a scene or solid color, and adjust brightness.

IFTTT control is available, so you can automate your light, choosing a color, brightness or toggling it on and off automatically.

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