Govee Skyline review: the ambient light fixture your walls have been waiting for

While I’ve yet to find a Govee light that I don’t like, there’s only so far you can get with panel-based fixtures that stick on the wall or neon strips. Indoors, these tend to be a bit too attention-grabbing — the lighting itself becomes the feature. The best lighting effects are those that happen when you’re projecting onto the wall: ambient lighting. LEDs on the back of a TV or floor lamps are great for this.

The Govee Skyline with LED Strip Light is the newest entry into this category of projection-based ambient lighting, and it’s absolutely stunning, creating a soft, calming illumination of your walls and ceiling.

DIY Tools at the ready: it's a permanent install

The Skyline kit comes in 4m or 6m versions, priced at $120 or $150, each offering 350 lumens per meter. It does require a permanent install with screws because of the way it sits suspended. Interestingly, the wall plates can actually be angled — meaning that if you have a sloped ceiling, you can set up the Skyline to follow the slope. Either way, it’s recommended that you install it around 40cm from the wall and ceiling for the best effect. The package includes a helpful template to achieve that.

In addition to installing on a slope, you can rotate the Skyline after installation to point it more at the ceiling or further down the wall, so there’s a lot of customization to get it exactly how you want it to suit your space.

It’s also probably the most complicated light fixture I’ve installed yet. There is drilling, screwing — and cutting to length, of course, if your wall is not precisely 4 or 6m. So allow an hour or two to get it right.

Do measure twice, but there is some leeway on both sides, so don’t worry if you cut it a few centimeters short; you can tighten or loosen it when you screw the rotating bars into the wall mounts. Just be sure to only cut on the marked cutting points for the LED strip.

The actual Skyline mount is a 2cm wide piece of white plastic with a sheet of metal embedded on the other side for rigidity. The LED strip then sticks down to this, and the whole thing secures to the wall, with the brackets pulling it taut so there’s no sagging in the middle.

Matter and the Govee Home app

It’s easy to pair the Skyline with your Matter system of choice via the QR code on the cable. But you will still need to install the Govee Home app to access any of the advanced functionality like dynamic scene control, music-reactive modes, or DreamView. Matter does not support scenes — only single color and brightness levels — so most of the time you will still be interfering with the Govee Home app.

But personally, I find it really useful to have in Matter for an at-a-glance look at the smart home at bedtime. I can easily power off the Skyline without having to navigate the much more complex Govee Home app.

Speaking of which, the Govee Home app has become increasingly bloated with features over the years, but the core functions remain easily accessible. Scene mode has 150 or so varied scenes to suit every occasion, or you can use the DIY scene mode to come up with your own by choosing colors and a basic effect pattern to apply. Music-reactive modes can use the on-device microphone or your phone.

But the most exciting element of the wider Govee ecosystem is DreamView, which links together multiple Govee fixtures for a coordinated light show. Some of the Govee products will handle this on-device using direct Bluetooth communication with the other lights, or you can do it from your desktop using the free Govee Desktop app. Note that this requires you to turn on LAN control from the settings of each light you want to add.

There are various DreamView products available, but the most impressive is the AI Sync Box — this little box analyses any HDMI signal and syncs up the lights according to how you’ve configured them. This box itself comes with an LED strip for your monitor and light bars either side. You can get one for a larger TV instead, but after that you just choose your other Govee fixtures and which part of the screen they should sync to — the effect is stunning.

The Skyline is a great addition to a DreamView setup precisely because it’s not too in-your-face — it’s just adding ambience. It covers a wide area but does so in a subtle way.

Should you buy the Govee Skyline?

The innovation here is really with the architectural installation element of the Skyline. The LED strip is nice, with some new color-mixing technology they call LumiBlend — but ultimately, the LED strip itself is not the innovation — it’s the mount system.

The Govee Skyline fills a gap, literally: a gap between the ceiling and upper wall gap that couldn’t be easily illuminated until now. It’s versatile, allowing you to mount at an angle and reorient more towards the ceiling or the wall depending on your preference. It’s not a bawdy, attention-grabbing fixture; it’s designed to fade into the background and offer a softer, soothing illumination.

As part of a wider Govee system, it’s a great addition. But it’s also excellent as a starting point if you’ve been put off by some of the more ostentatious Govee lights.

The only downside is that it does require a permanent installation with drilling into your walls, so it’s not good for renters or people who are compelled to rearrange their rooms every month.

Other than that: another Govee classic.