Key Takeaways
- The Govee app offers limitless personalization, though the AI needs work.
- The light strip can display more than 16 million vibrant colors, most of which display accurately.
- LEDs are long-lasting and practically hassle-free for yearly holiday use.
Govee’s Christmas String Lights 2 benefit from the company’s typical focus on vibrant, dynamic, smart lighting. However, even when fine-tuned in the Govee app, I didn’t feel the LEDs lived up to the traditional bulbs of yesteryear.
Govee Christmas String Lights 2
$64 $100 Save $36
Typically a go-to for customizable lighting, Govee falters a little with the practicality and color accuracy in its Christmas String Lights 2. While the vibrancy and personalization are still there, you may not always get the exact color you want depending on the combinations you choose.
- Govee app offers near-limitless personalization
- Most colors are vibrant and accurate
- No worry about bulbs burning out each year
- Wire is surprisingly strong and tightly wrapped
- Some colors didn?t display accurately
- Customizing individual bulbs is meticulous
- AI integration is very underwhelming
- Impractical compared to basic Christmas lights
Price and Availability
Govee Christmas String Lights 2 are available on the official Govee site in four sizes: 66-feet for $100, 99-feet for $130, 164-feet for $200, and 328-feet for $400. The 99- and 164-foot strands come with a green or white wire. All sizes are also available on Amazon.
Nostalgia is the Biggest Pitfall
Before I dive too deep into what does and doesn’t work with Govee’s second version of its Christmas String Lights, I think it’s important to note a personal preference. I grew up with the classic Christmas bulbs of yore—those big glass monstrosities that glowed brilliant shades of green, red, and typically blue, purple, and orange.
So, when I say nostalgia makes it hard for me to really enjoy the LED lights that are becoming more and more common, that’s why.
To Govee’s credit, though, the 200 lights on this strand of 66 feet of green wire burn bright no matter what color I cycled them through. Of course, an alternating green and red hue is what I ultimately went with, and I’ll touch on the meticulousness of achieving that display.
For now, let’s explore one of the biggest strengths of this LED strand: longevity.
Stringing Up the Lights Is No Pain This Christmas
While the Govee Christmas String Lights 2 are strung across trees in most of the marketing material, I opted to be rebellious. I needed a new strand of lights to line my home’s exterior and 66 feet of small LEDs seemed like the perfect replacement for pesky bulbs that burn out and are a nightmare to replace.
Christmas 2023 proved particularly obnoxious, as the string of three standard strands outlining my garage and porch died at different intervals throughout the season. It was a chore I didn’t want to relive for 2024.
Having had much experience with Govee’s LEDs, specifically with its TV and PC monitor backlighting, I know the tiny bulbs glow brightly for many, many hours. The Envisual TV Backlight T2 I reviewed two years ago is still going strong today. I can be confident that next year, and for many years to follow, I’ll have these LEDs to turn to.
If only I was as enamored by them as I am by the standard mini lights my neighbor has illuminating their home.
There’s No Beating the Classics
Like I said, I’m a sucker for nostalgia. So, when it comes to colors, I really tried to at least recreate the same hues of those old big glass bulbs. When it came to the blue, yellow, and purple, the shades were near perfect. They were vibrant and really popped. Red and green, on the other hand, gave me a few issues.
If you take a look at the image below, it’s very clearly a strip of alternating reds and greens (achieving which was a process I’ll get into in a moment).
When I was staring at the LEDs in real time, that red was undoubtedly orange. I even brought out a second set of eyes in case my father’s colorblindness was finally presenting itself. Alas, still orange.
Yet when I changed the lights to all red, they looked as I originally expected. I’m not sure if it was an issue with the two colors side-by-side or if the LEDs were misfiring, but that kind of color inaccuracy isn’t something I’ve had with other Govee products.
It’s not as evident in the images above, but, in person, the lights also had a slight glow around them that maybe had a hand in diluting the colors. No matter what color the LEDs were, the fuzzy halo was a warm amber. It was something I could lessen, but that also meant dimming the brightness via the Govee App (available on iPhone and Android devices)
It’s All in the App
I think the real selling point of the Govee Christmas String Lights 2 is what you can do in Govee’s dedicated app. Already a beast when it comes to customization, the app takes things a little further than I’ve seen with the TV and monitor backlighting for the second edition of string lights.
On the surface, it seems like all you can do is customize the lights in ten larger segments of 20 lights each. While this works for some of the preset scenes (like the sparkly and dynamic Christmas scene that integrates greens, golds, and reds), it doesn’t look as good when stagnant. There is an alternative option, though it takes a lot of patience.
When you start to explore the app, you’ll find that all 200 lights can be their own color. That’s when I started to notice some issues with color accuracy, which was a little discouraging as I had to manually click on 100 tiny strips on my mobile device. With bigger fingers, that’s no easy feat. What I did like is that I could save that customization as a DIY project, so I could return to it easily without having to do that painstaking process again.
Despite my reservations about AI, I had hoped it would help create the display I was envisioning. That wasn’t the case at all. Asking it to make every other light a specific color or requesting a blend of specific hues resulted in a moving scene of lights that maybe included one of the colors I asked for.
It was hard to tell because it almost always combined so many hues that were cascading between strands quickly.
Like other Govee lights, the strands can also respond to music, be put on a schedule, and sync with the brand’s other sets. Unfortunately, the music only really works indoors where you control the ambient volume. I tried it on my exterior lighting, and it was more akin to a Halloween strobe.
Should You Buy the Govee Christmas String Lights 2?
I am typically all-in on Govee’s lighting. From standard bulbs to hexagonal shapes and curtain lights, I’ve tested and pretty much liked them all. With the Christmas String Lights 2, I’m somewhere in the middle.
Unless you’re upgrading a basic Christmas tree you bought years prior and really want that Govee customizability, there is little value to buying a tree and stringing it with $100 lights. This pre-lit 6-foot tree, for example, sells for a bit over $130 and includes controllable, music-reactive LEDs that you don’t have to string up year after year.
As exterior lights, the LEDs just don’t have the same impact as more traditional mini bulbs or those larger classics I keep going back to. They’re vibrant, but they also have an aura that seems to dilute color accuracy. With that said, I’m still going to use them every year if it means I don’t have to worry about the surprise burnout when I unpack the lights or go to turn them on one night.
I also have an extensive Govee ecosystem, so I don’t need to go into a dozen different apps just to customize all my lighting. That’s a convenience I’m willing to overlook a few issues for.
Govee Christmas String Lights 2
$64 $100 Save $36
Spruce up the holidays with Govee Christmas String Lights 2, a set of customizable LEDs that allow you to make your Christmas display truly yours. With the Govee App, the lights can be personalized in a number of ways, making them compatible with every holiday throughout the year.
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