Everyone has to grow up sooner or later – or so I’ve been led to believe. Those gamer-grade RGB strips and illuminated wall panels that were the epitome of cool in your teens and twenties apparently won’t fly now you’ve settled down with a partner and kids. But that doesn’t mean colour-shifting smart lights are totally off limits. Govee has been paying attention to modern interior design trends for its refreshed floor lamp line-up, and the headline act is a proper head-turner even before you switch it on.
The Uplighter Floor Lamp is a gloriously minimal “three in one” freestanding shiner that can play it straight with warm white for your wine and cheese nights – then bathe the ceiling in a wash of rippling colour when you want to relive your raver days. It launches today in the US, UK and Europe for $180/£180/€190, through the official Govee website and Amazon. Soon it’ll be joined by two more twists on the sensible styling/fun-loving hue formula – the Torchiere Floor Lamp and Tree Floor Lamp.
I’ve had an Uplighter Floor Lamp casting a dreamy glow over my living room for the past few weeks, and am totally sold on its blend of traditional lighting and fun effects.
It might arrive flat-packed, but only needs a few minutes to screw the slender black metal pole between base and lamp – and without tools. Fully assembled, the Uplighter stands a commanding 1.7m tall. In my low ceilinged lounge that didn’t give the upfiring part a whole lot of room to work with, but in larger spaces it’ll cover an area 20m².
The light show was still brilliantly soothing, with the constantly moving ripple effect available in your pick of speeds and colours. Slow-moving ocean blues and Northern Lights greens have become my go-tos, but cranking up the speed and setting a rainbow of colours went down perfectly with live Glastonbury Festival performances. There are also hundreds of pre-set scenes and customisable colours to play with in the Govee Home app.
Switched off, you’d have no clue this lamp can be such a party animal. The base is sturdy, the black metal finish looks sleek, and the lamp portion is very minimalist. I’d put the industrial design up there with fashionista lamps costing considerably more, and those just light up in a single colour. In one direction.
The down-firing lower section gets properly bright, hitting a peak 1000 lumens, so works perfectly as the only light in a modestly sized room. You can also tilt the lamp in any direction to get more light where you need it. Colour temperature is fully adjustable, and there’s an auto-run mode that can swap from cool white in the mornings (maximum alertness) to a warm yellow light at the end of the day to prep you for bedtime.
The middle section can match the lower one, for a softer dispersion of light that bounces off walls – or you can go full rainbow here too, as the LEDs behind the frosted glass are full RGB.
I like that there are in-line buttons on the pole, which saves you reaching for your phone; a long-press swaps between static down-firing light and the up-firing projection effect. Like pretty much all Govee kit it also plays nicely with Alex and Google Assistant voice commands, and there’s Matter support on board too. All worked flawlessly in my testing.
The Uplighter Floor Lamp is proper statement lighting stuff, but can also fade into the background when you don’t need it to be the centre of attention. I’ll take one over an RGB strip light any day.
I’ve not had as much time with the Torchiere Floor Lamp, which is a little simpler but still designed to bathe your ceiling in light. The base and pole are very similar to the Uplighter, standing at a similar height – except there’s just a single inline button here rather than two. The lamp itself looks a bit like a jelly bean, with a top half made from clear plastic and a bottom machined from metal.
There are three sizeable RGB lights in this thing, each angled slightly differently, and the lamp itself can be tilted and rotated to get the illumination you’re after. Diffused reflectors over each internal lamp help spread light evenly (over a 16m² area, according to Govee). The only way I could create any dark spots was by putting it right up against a wall.
The three internal lights can be controlled independently if you have specific colour combos in mind. Stick to plain white light and a colour temperature anywhere between 2700K-6500K, and it’ll pump out a maximum 780 lumens brightness.
Smart home connectivity is just as comprehensive as the Uplighter, and it’s also able to sync light effects to music using a built-in mic.
It’ll retail for $150/£130/€140, and should be in stock from early July.
Finally, the Tree Floor Lamp isn’t meant to be the centre of attention – its three independently adjustable arms mean these bulbs are better for lighting up artwork or drawing your eyeline elsewhere. Each one can twist 350° horizontally and 90° vertically, to put the shine on three different subjects at once.
There’s no inline button here, unless you count the one wired into the mains power cord. Govee’s app lets you adjust things, of course – you can have full power, brightness and colour control over each light independently.
All in you’re looking at 1500 lumens of brightness when pumping out pure white; colour temperature can slide anywhere between 2700K and 6500K, and all the same smart home connectivity applies.
It’ll set you back $170/£160/€170, and also goes on sale from July 7.
