23 Oct
Blog

Govee Glide Wall Light Review: Add Color to Your Wall

govee Glide wall lamp Review Lifestyle 2 of 3

Govee Glide wall lamp

RRP $ 100.00

"The Govee Glide wall lamp can transform any bare wall into a masterpiece of dazzling colors."

advantages

  • Variety of light patterns

  • Bright light output

  • Firm adhesion to the wall

disadvantage

  • Limited designs

  • Antiquated looking software

Govee was on the verge. The last smart home maker to launch new products with so much enthusiasm was Wyze, but Govee has been a lot more hectic over the past six months. What is interesting here is that the company's focus is only on one product category and does not delve into many areas. Intelligent lighting is his specialty.

The Govee Glide wall lamp moves a little outside of the intelligent lighting convention and offers a slightly different approach. Instead of being a lightbulb or lamp, it's actually a modular set of light strips that you can configure to decorate and adorn walls. If you are tired of the LED light strips that tend to be out of sight, this may pique your interest as it will ask to be presented in front and in the center.

Installation and setup

Two kits are available: a 7-piece system for $ 100 and a 12-piece system for $ 150. I tested the 7-piece set but found that it doesn't offer nearly as many arrangements as other wall lights – like the Twinkly Flex or Nanoleaf Lines. Because the light bars are connected one behind the other and there is only a single 90-degree piece, which makes it almost impossible to find a unique arrangement that stands out from others. Even if you go for the 12-piece kit, you will likely have to buy another to really design something ornate. I chose an L-shaped design because you can't do much more without investing in more light strips.

Govee Glide wall lamp on the wall.John Velasco / Digital Trends

Luckily, mounting it on the wall is child's play, because the underside of the light strips has adhesive strips that appear to remain firmly attached to the wall. While the light bars may seem bulky, they are actually light enough to stay firmly in place. In fact, I've set up the Govee Glide Wall Light for over a month now and there's no sign that the glue has worn off. However, you should really finish your wall design before placing it on the wall because once they are erected it is a hassle to remove.

software

The Govee Glide wall light is controlled via the enclosed Govee Home app for Android and iOS. Aesthetically, it could benefit from a visual makeover as parts of it look antiquated. Its salvation is that Govee offers an extensive set of presets and modes that make for some dazzling lighting effects – including one that is music-responsive, as well as the ability to create your own custom light pattern.

Govee Home app that runs on a phone.

You will definitely spend a lot of time creating a custom effect as you will have to pick a color for a specific light bar. In comparison, I prefer Twinkly's method of adjusting the light patterns as it maps your design beforehand with your phone's camera. That way, it's much easier and more convenient to set up a custom pattern instead of having to manually select each light bar through the app.

power

As mentioned earlier, Govee offers a variety of lighting effects. From pulsating effects to multi-colored lights that turn on from end to end, I love the variety that it has to offer. The options available can be adjusted to suit the mood or ambience, making it very suitable as an accent light. While most similar smart lights like this are more of an accent, I'm actually surprised at how they can act as the main light source as well.

I'm actually surprised at how it can act as the main light source.

When it's night, the Govee Glide wall sconce has enough power to light up most rooms – which makes it useful for reading, which is surprising for a 7-piece set like this one. I didn't expect that, but it can replace the two floor lamps that I currently use in my home office. The colors are pretty vivid too, but not as vivid as the colors I saw from the Govee Lyra Smart Floor Lamp. Even so, it's not too shabby and most people would be happy with its hues.

characteristics

In terms of intelligent functions, I wanted something more than the usual – like voice control with Alexa or Google Assistant. There's a basic timer option for choosing days and times it can be turned on and off, but I really would have loved to see more. The Wyze Lights Strips Pro, for example, automatically adjusts the color temperature to the time of day.

Our opinion

With its simple setup and dazzling color patterns, the Govee Glide wall light has enough to offer without being too expensive. Other smart wall light options offer better saturation and adjustment than this, but are also much more expensive. Govee's offering is balanced enough to make it an option unless you want a more customizable design.

Is there a better alternative?

At the moment, the Nanoleaf Lines are standout wall lights that offer better color saturation and more customization options. You'll pay a lot more for it, but you're sure to get some visitor attention due to the dazzling and neat design.

There's also the Twinkly Flex, which is priced similar to the Govee Glide Wall Light. The flex offers great brightness and saturation and has the advantage of being manipulable to create even more designs on the wall.

How long it will take?

The plastic-coated light strips don't weigh much and feel a bit hollow. You could say it feels threadbare. Govee offers a one-year limited warranty to protect it from failure.

Should you buy it?

If you are content with simple wall designs and don't want to spend a fortune, the Govee Glide wall lamp with its fascinating light patterns is worth a look.

Editor's recommendations



04 Mar
Blog

Wyze Bulb Color: The Worthiest Cheap Smart Light Bulb

Wyze Bulb color in lamp green

"It's so good and cheap that you may never return to Philips Hue."

  • Really bright edition

  • The colors are very saturated

  • Doesn't need a bridge

  • Ridiculously cheap

Anyone who has expressed an interest in upgrading to smart LED lightbulbs knows the Philips Hue brand. You could say it's the Apple of smart lighting based on the countless positive reviews of its lightbulbs and the brand loyalty that has been built over the years. However, the light bulbs can be expensive.

Because of this, I've enjoyed some cheaper alternatives over the past few years. Xiaomi's Yeelight picks up only $ 27This is a significant savings over the $ 50 you would pay for a single Philips Hue color changing bulb. Even better were the Sylvania Smart + lamps that I used in my bathroom. A 4-pack is only $ 35.

Now we have another new competitor in the room with the Wyze Bulb Color. After achieving success in a variety of areas of the smart home, Wyze is making a stir in the lighting category with its $ 35 worth of color-changing lightbulbs.

Shining bright

One of the biggest drawbacks of cheaper alternatives, similar to Xiaomi's Yeelight, is that they are typically not that bright. Fortunately, that's not a problem for the Wyze Bulb Color. In fact, there is no comparison in terms of peak brightness when compared to Yeelight and Sylvania Smart + – it is noticeably brighter.

Wyze Bulb paint on the tableJohn Velasco / Digital Trends

This is due to the 1100 lumens of brightness it can produce, making it a 75 watt equivalent lightbulb. For comparison: Sylvania Smart + and Yeelight are 60 watt equivalent light bulbs. If you place the three lamps next to each other, there is no question that the Wyze Bulb Color has the strongest light output. In addition to the colors, this also applies to all temperatures of the daylight colors.

It's cheap but powerful.

And what about the mighty Philips Hue A19 lamp that I've been using for years? Although the differences aren't that big, the Wyze Bulb Color is still lighter – if only with a narrow border.

No bridges are needed here

Ask anyone who has dealt with a wide variety of smart home devices and they will tell you how annoying it is to set up a bridge. In my particular situation, my router only has a few Ethernet ports available to install a bridge. So it's a relief that the Wyze Bulb Color doesn't require one. Instead, connectivity is limited to Wi-Fi.

Wyze Bulb Color Wyze AppJohn Velasco / Digital Trends

Setting up with the Wyze app for Android is child's play. As a result, I had to briefly connect to the bulb's Wi-Fi network before I could automatically connect to my home's Wi-Fi network. The app is pretty straightforward and has controls for brightness, color modes, automation, and scene modes. If you prefer your favorite smart home ecosystem, you'll be happy to know that it has support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Voice controls work like a charm once they're set up through the Google Home app, so I can group them with other smart lights for room-by-room control.

Wyze Bulb paint on table greenJohn Velasco / Digital Trends

The only flaw with this experience concerns the scene modes that Wyze offers. In contrast to the Philips Hue lamps, the scene modes provided by Wyze are uniform. That means you just set all the lights to the same color – while Philips Hue gives you some interesting color combinations that are more dynamic. Hopefully that will change as things move forward.

Vibrant colors that burst

I was skeptical about saturation, mostly because most of the inexpensive lamps I've used didn't produce enough brightness and saturation to make colors pop. Here, too, the Wyze Bulb Color impressed me with the intensity of its color saturation. Blue and red are especially saturated and vibrant, so even a single lightbulb does a wonderful job of distributing enough saturation evenly wherever it goes.

Our opinion

Wyze's appetite to conquer the smart home never seems to end. The Wyze Bulb Color is a solid competitor in the field of intelligent lighting that dominates everything else in its price range. At $ 35 for a pack of 4, the Wyze Bulb Color is a fantastic way to light up your home without spending a fortune. It's cheap but powerful.

How long it will take?

The design of the Wyze color pear doesn't differ from anything else I've come across. It's mostly plastic, which is a good thing because, unlike traditional incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs that use glass, the plastic won't break as easily when the lamp is hit. Life expectancy is 25,000 hours, but there is a 1-year limited warranty that covers defects.

Is there a better alternative?

Not really for the price. Wyze's name in the tech space is growing all the time, so I feel that their products are more reputable than other cheaper alternatives you can probably find online.

Should you buy it?

Yes, it's only $ 35 for a 4-pack. That's cheaper than just buying a single Philips Hue color-changing light for $ 50.

Editor's recommendations




13 Sep
Blog

Panasonic HomeHawk Window Review: See The Color of The Night

The homehawk window was mounted in a window

Panasonic HomeHawk window

"The Homehawk window offers amazing color night vision without the need for a headlight."

  • Easy to install

  • Easy to move

  • Slim profile

  • Amazing color night vision

  • Motion tracking in recorded videos

  • The app is terrible

  • Night shots are grainy

  • Videos are stuck on the memory card

There is no shortage of security cameras on the market today. I've seen a lot of them. If a camera surprises me, I notice it. The Panasonic Homehawk Window is one such camera, and it's a three year project.

On its surface, the HomeHawk window is a surveillance camera mounted on the window. Not a big surprise. Cameras like the Logitech Circle 2 have been doing this for years. The standout feature of the Homehawk window is its night vision capabilities. The 150 degree camera has a proprietary sensor that delivers color night vision at just 0.2 lux. This is really impressive, so I wanted to find out how they did it.

exceed limits

HomeHawk engineers had to overcome two major obstacles to deliver a window-mounted camera with night vision capabilities. The first was to design the case so that the sensor is protected from reflections inside the house. Most exterior windows are double panes, so there is a pane of glass on the inside and one on the outside with an air cushion in between. It's easy to block reflections inside, but the outside is more problematic. The 16: 9 aspect ratio of the camera body matches the ratio of the sensor, so the body blocks most of the reflection.

The second problem occurs in the form of color night vision. The Arlo Pro 3 has colored night vision, but only because of the built-in floodlights. Most cameras use an infrared light and a sensor to provide a black and white image. The problem with IR with window-mounted cameras is that the glass causes a lot of glare in the image, which interferes with night vision. HomeHawk engineers have consulted with other departments at Panasonic, namely Lumix engineers and Panasonic's professional security department, to find out how to overcome this obstacle. The result was a proprietary, highly sensitive, high dynamic range CMOS sensor.

Night mode like with smartphones

The result is astonishingly good. The easiest way to describe it is to compare it to something like Night Sight on a Pixel phone. The difference is that Night Sight uses a series of long exposures made with A.I. to deliver a brightly lit scene. The HomeHawk delivers this with real-time video. If that sounds wild, it's because it is.

You can see three pictures below. The first is taken with a Pixel 4a with the night vision device turned on. It took about 30 seconds to get this shot, which is why it looks like a strange panda monster with a ponytail for its face. The second is recorded with an LG V60 with night mode turned on. It's less great. The third is a still image from the HomeHawk window. The fact is that even at 4 a.m. the picture is always so bright that no loss of detail occurs during the day either.

  • 1.
    Pixel 4a (night vision)
  • 2.
    LG V60 (night mode)
  • 3.
    HomeHawk window

The video is not perfect. At night the resolution is quite low and pixelated. You can still see enough detail to identify people, especially when they're close enough to the camera to actually pose a threat to your home. During the day that's no problem at all. The video is crisp and clear.

I would also like to see Panasonic do something about the fish-eye effect. A camera like the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro has a wider field of view with a less pronounced fish-eye look. Overall, though, it's a pretty good compromise considering how good night vision is.

The easiest way to describe it is to compare it to something like Night Sight on a Pixel phone.

The HomeHawk window comes with the camera itself and includes detailed assembly instructions for temporary and permanent fixtures, power cords and hooks for cable management. Thoroughly clean your window. To attach the camera to your window, remove the film from the suction mount, place it firmly against the window and pull the lever to activate the suction. That's it. Plug in the cable, insert a microSD card (up to 32GB) if you want to record, then attach the back plate.

The camera is firmly in place after assembly. An LED on the back indicates that the power is on and glows red while recording is in progress. There is a fan in the camera that can be heard when you are near the camera, but it is not distracting. That covers the hardware.

A disorganized app

Unfortunately I have to tell you something about the app now. It's not great, but there are some highlights. You have a lot of control over when your camera records an event, be it motion, people only, or 24/7 recording. When you record new footage, old footage is discarded. According to Panasonic, you will get around 10 days of footage with 32GB of storage.

However, it is difficult to tell the camera when to record automatically. The first time you enter the app, you'll see a "Basic" icon at the top that doesn't tell you what it is. I ignored it for the first few days. I accidentally tapped it once and suddenly I was able to configure which mode the camera should go into, which in turn defines what is being recorded. As you can imagine, this was a turning point.

On the surface, it's a good idea to have presets that determine when the camera records video. However, the user interface is not at all intuitive. I came across this literally by accident. However, automatic recording of events is essential as that is all the camera will do. It can be set to record 24/7, but that's also hidden behind that button that I didn't know was a button.

Keep local

The Home Hawk does not have a personal or other cloud storage subscription. What you get on the memory card, you get, and that's fine. However, there is no way to move a video to your phone. You can take snapshots that will be saved in your photo album. However, videos remain on the memory card. This is a very basic function and it seems like a missed opportunity.

Navigating between pages in the app is slow and often results in a loading animation. The app also has some organizational problems. For example, you can access camera settings using several different paths. Overall, the app is honestly just a weird experience that seems to be thrown together at the last minute.

HomeHawk Windows from the side.

The app has a few highlights, however. You can stream live footage from the camera. that is easily accessible. And you can access the live stream and recordings through the app when you are not at home to catch up on things. The videos you have recorded can be organized by the hour they were recorded. You can filter your recordings by motion, person or manual recordings. As the footage plays, the app will show you what has moved by drawing a blue box around it. This is smart and will let you know what to look out for.

There are tons of other software features, including a network strength indicator, which I found a nice touch. A common occurrence is that you place a camera and only later discover that the WiFi coverage is not good enough. You can also set limits and sensitivity for motion detection. Finally, the HomeHawk window integrates with the Google Assistant and Alexa, which is always a win in my book.

Our opinion

Overall, this is an impressive first attempt at creating a window-filling camera with really good night vision. Panasonic has to do with the app and the resolution of the camera at night, but I don't think that colored night vision is a party trick. I see it as a halo feature that other manufacturers should honestly strive for. At $ 150, the camera is on the lower end of the mid-range price range. This is very bad.

Is there a better alternative?

Are there better cameras? For sure. The Ring Spotlight Cam gives a much better picture at night, but this color video requires a spotlight. Overall, the industry seems to have decided that a spotlight or black and white is good enough for the night, and I can't say I totally disagree. In addition, both work in total darkness. If you are good at these solutions, there are a variety of good alternatives.

How long it will take?

The camera comes with short and long term assembly instructions. The app also contains a maintenance notification that can be sent to your phone to reset the camera from time to time. The housing is made of plastic, so it's not the most durable camera on the market, but it feels sturdy. The camera comes with a one-year guarantee.

Should you buy it?

Yes. Overall, this is a decent camera. It's not the only one attached to a window, nor is it the only one with colored night vision. But it's the only option that offers both. The ease of installation and portability make this camera a very nice low profile camera to fit behind the blinds. It's easy to maintain and it's in your home so you don't have to worry about the elements, external power sources, or charging batteries.

Editor's recommendations




23 Jul
Blog

Acer ConceptD CM2 Review: Supreme Color Accuracy

acer conceptd cm2 review discarded dsc01031

"The Acer ConceptD CM2 balances its small stature with astonishing color accuracy."

  • Unsurpassed color accuracy

  • Unique design

  • Aspect ratio 16:10

  • Decent game screen

Creative people have to be choosy when choosing a monitor. The higher the resolution, the better and more accurate colors are a must.

But Acer believes there is a population out there that wants it in a smaller package. The new series of ConceptD monitors, which is primarily aimed at creative specialists, includes a 24-inch panel with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200. The Acer ConceptD CM2 offers an aspect ratio of 16:10, which is refreshing in a world where monitors seem to be getting wider and wider.

Despite the likeable aspect ratio, it's far from the 4K 32-inch giants out there. The Acer ConceptD CM2 is priced at $ 400 and has to prove a lot if it wants to win over the creative professionals. Does the ConceptD CM2 do the trick?

design

When it comes to the design of the Acer ConceptD CM2, I really like what Acer did. When you take the display out of the packaging, you will immediately notice the weighty stand with an imitation wood base and an anodized neck. The neck of the display is simply screwed into the base from below. Then you can simply snap on the panel.

You will then be confronted with a display that has height adjustments and tilt functions, can be rotated in portrait mode and even rotated from side to side. Regardless of the arrangement of your desk, you can adapt the display to suit your ergonomic needs. A VESA mount is available for those who want to use their own monitor arms, but you will lose the charm of the ConceptD CM2.

Artists who prefer a tidy Zen workspace will appreciate the calm, natural design.

However, it is not perfect. The "ConceptD" text on the base and the grain in the wood effect do not perfectly match the plate. It is very close and it is just a small complaint that could be unique to our sample. Because the base rotates with the plate, we couldn't align the two even after the neck was reattached to the base.

Once you've ignored this bit, which isn't difficult, it's a nice monitor. The finish is beautiful and it comes with a slim bezel on three sides of the panel to complete the minimalist, almost Scandinavian look. Artists who prefer a tidy Zen workspace will appreciate the calm, natural design of the ConceptD CM2.

Connections and controls

When it comes to connectivity, Acer chose to keep things fairly simple. There is a main connector, two HDMI connections and a DisplayPort input on the rear I / O. Since these offer an entry into the audio channel, two two-watt speakers are also integrated on the display. You can also connect external speakers or headphones via the 3.5 mm audio jack.

As an ad for creative people, it is also nice to see an integrated USB 3.0 hub. A USB-B port handles the upstream connection, and then there is a USB 3.0 port on the bottom I / O and two more on the left side of the monitor.

However, there is a blatant gap: USB-C. I understand that many may not need it, but as a creative monitor, I really expected some kind of USB-C connectivity with power so that you could charge your laptop, power your display, play audio, and operate peripherals through one only cable. To be fair, it's a little more unusual for monitors under $ 500. Of course, if you are using this display with an older laptop or desktop, this is not a problem, but it must be considered in the interest of future security.

Take the LG UltraFine 4K display, for example. Though a few tiers higher for the price, it has a Thunderbolt 3 connection and can act as a docking station. It is child's play to ensure all connectivity to the USB-C ports of today's laptops with just a single cable.

The Acer monitor comes standard with factory calibrations for the sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color spaces, which can be easily selected via the OSD control panel (on-screen display) in the lower right corner on the back Monitor. Just click on it, click the top button to switch to color modes, and select the profile you want.

There are options for custom calibration profiles (for your own calibrations) in the OSD as well as the usual other options for changing brightness, contrast, gamma, black gain, blue light and more to perfect the image to your liking.

I like that the three most important options – color profiles, brightness and input selection – are available at the push of a button. You don't have to browse deep in the menus.

picture quality

The ConceptD CM2 has a 24-inch panel with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. That doesn't give you a lot of screen space to work with, but the CM2 deserves its brownie points elsewhere. The panel used is of the IPS type, which is still one of the most respected in terms of color rendering and viewing angle.

The monitor has a listed peak brightness of 350 nits and a static contrast ratio of 1000: 1.

The color accuracy of the ConceptD CM2 blew me away.

During testing, we found that the monitor can exceed its specified maximum brightness and reach up to 392 nits, and approached its specified contrast ratio at 970: 1. As promised, the display also covers 100% of the sRGB color space, 99% of AdobeRGB and 97% of the DCI-P3 space. All of this is very impressive.

The color accuracy of the display blew me away the most. Acer promises a Delta-E of <2, but delivers a lot more. Our tests showed an average Delta-E of 0.45 with a minimum deviation of 0.18 and a maximum of 1.0. These results are better than any monitor we have tested and will certainly make up for the high price of the display.

We calibrated the monitor ourselves to see if we could improve Acer's work, but as predicted, the results weren't much better – in fact, we found a decrease in contrast and slightly poorer color accuracy with a Delta-E of 0 , 62, which is still phenomenally good. Calibrating the display itself increased the AdobeRGB color space coverage by 1% and increased that number to 100%. All in all, however, we recommend using the factory calibration and a brightness suitable for you and leaving the rest untouched.

Gaming performance

Although it should be color accurate and nothing more, Acer has equipped the ConceptD CM2 with some extras that also make it good for games. In the OSD, you can jump to the "Performance" tab and find options for overdrive, adaptive synchronization, an FPS counter and a quick response.

So if for any reason you want to play on this display, you can turn on the overdrive for quick responses, as well as adaptive sync to sync your PC's frame rate with the monitor's refresh rate, resulting in smooth, jerky, and ripping results. free gameplay.

Of course, the refresh rate is limited to 75 Hz, but that's an increase over the standard 60 Hz that you'll find on most non-gaming monitors. If you only play casually, this is a nice experience.

For competitive games, of course, you should focus on a game-oriented display with a high refresh rate like the Razer Raptor 27. However, if you just start a casual title after a long day of work, the ConceptD CM2 can still do the job better than most 60 Hz monitors that don't have adaptive sync technology.

Our opinion

With the ConceptD CM2 from Acer, we scratched our heads at the first reception and wondered why someone would want to pay $ 400 for a 24-inch Full HD monitor. Promises of excellent color accuracy are often not kept, but Acer has proven that the stereotype is wrong. The 24-inch ConceptD CM2 immediately delivers extremely accurate colors, and our own attempt to calibrate the display has brought no improvements. This shows us that you are welcome to buy this display if you are looking for color rendering. Trust the factory calibration for years to come.

4K monitors lack the sharpness, but it's hard to find a $ 400 monitor with such good image quality.

Are there alternatives?

If the focus at this price is on color accuracy, the Acer CM2 is in a league of its own. Hardly any monitor at this price comes close to color accuracy and we don't see 99% of AdobeRGB at $ 400 every day, but the price you pay is in resolution.

The BenQ SW240 from two years ago is its closest competitor, but offers a less exciting design and lower refresh rate at the same price, and is becoming increasingly difficult to get.

However, when you're ready to swap part of the gamut and accuracy, the Dell UltraSharp 27 offers higher resolution, better finish, and more connectivity at a similar street price.

How long it will take?

Acer offers a three-year limited warranty on consumer and commercial monitors. This is a very appreciated fallback for an expensive purchase like this. With LED backlighting, the likelihood of failure is also low, and color rendering is likely to remain constant over the years, although you may want to recalibrate it after a few years.

The only big problems are the omission of USB-C and the low resolution. So think twice before you no longer want it.

Should I buy it?

Yes. If you're looking for an editing monitor and only care about color accuracy, the answer here is a resounding yes. However, if you want more screen space, more gaming performance, or more value, you may want to look elsewhere for a better balance between features and price.

Editor's recommendations