Govee has finally launched the latest version of one of its most popular standalone smart lights, bringing an even sleeker design and wider illumination to bathe even more of your walls in colour. The Floor Lamp 3 is also being joined by the Govee Lantern Floor Lamp, which sees the firm head into more neutral interior design territory for the first time.
Following a public debut at CES back in January, the Floor Lamp 3 goes on sale today in the US for $169.90, through the official Govee website and Amazon US. I’ve had one in the corner of my home office for the past week, casting a casting a colourful glow over my desk and Hi-Fi station. For setting the mood in as small a space as possible, I can’t see it leaving any time soon.
The Floor Lamp 3 arrives flat-packed in a surprisingly compact box, given it stands over 1.5m (five feet) tall when fully assembled. Govee sticks a handy screwdriver in the box for attaching the handful of metal guide rails together and to the lamp base; you then slide the lighting part into the rail, hook up the power connector, and secure the top piece. It’s all straightforward and took just a few minutes.
I’m totally sold on the ultra-modern styling; it fits right in with my tech-filled home office. The base is also brilliantly compact, letting me squeeze it into a corner that I’d up to now considered dead space. It’s made from aluminium alloy and has two separate illumination rings, for a Need for Speed-style underglow and more subtle up-firing effects. Being able to turn it on separately from the main lamp is a nice touch.
It has a flat, rubber underside that’ll keep it sturdy on hard floors, but you might need to add something to support it on carpeted ones. In my room it sunk into the carpet and leaned a little to one side; that’s something you’ll really notice when placed in a corner, albeit not a fault of the lamp, which stands perfectly vertical.
With 144 RGB and 144 white LEDs, it has double the light density of the previous model, with a wider 170-degree illumination angle that covers more of a wall than you’d expect for something so skinny. That translates to a perfectly smooth illumination, with no hot spots or dim areas between the individual LEDs and no colour banding all the way down to 1% brightness.
The firm’s LuminBlend+ tech also gives it a massive colour temperature range of 1000K-10,000K, so you can recreate convincing sunrises and sunsets with a few taps in the smartphone companion app; DaySync can then automatically change colours based on the time of day. Stick to plain white light and it’ll pump out a huge 2100 lumens brightness, or more than enough to illuminate your entire room.
I’ve been bouncing between DaySync and the Ukiyo-e preset, which slowly flows between blues and reds used prominently in 18th century Japanese artworks, while at work. The more dynamic modes come out when I’ve clocked off for the day and want to play games or watch a movie.
There aren’t any inline controls, but you do get a handy remote that magnetically hangs on to the top of the light. I like that you can remove the bracket if you prefer an uninterrupted look. It covers the basics, saving you from reaching for your phone if you just want one solid colour or to tweak the brightness.
Govee’s companion app is as comprehensive as ever here, with over 100 different effects and colour gradients to pick from. It can react to sound, help you create specific moods with help from an AI chatbot, and integrate with both Amazon Alexa and Google Home. There’s also Matter integration to slot in with your existing smart home setup. It’s all fairly intuitive, if a little overwhelming until you get your head around which menus the various modes and effects sit under.
The Lantern Floor Lamp, meanwhile, gives me strong Ikea vibes. It’s the firm’s first attempt at a lantern-style ambient light, with styling that should fit in with a wider range of home decor. The white base and pole add to the softer feel.
Four layers of RGB LEDs promise equally breathtaking light shows with more of an ambient feel than the Floor Lamp 3’s “look at me” effects.
The top of the lamp section is touch-sensitive, letting you cycle through light effects by tapping (and without having to reach for your smartphone).
It has an identical colour temperature range to the Floor Lamp 3 but puts out a slightly lower 1400 nits peak brightness, making it good for 30m² of illumination. Think a relaxed evening on the sofa or setting the mood in the bedroom rather than lighting the entire room. All the usual app-based smarts, voice assistants and Matter are baked in too.
It’s on sale now, at Amazon USA and directly from Govee, for $130. There’s currently no word on worldwide availability.
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