Background information
Now my smart home’s getting really smart: I’ve discovered Home Assistant
by Debora Pape
The Govee Skyline Kit provides dreamy lighting – but it’s not a good fit for every room
15/10/2025
Translation: Katherine Martin
Pictures: Debora Pape
Govee has made a bold move with this LED strip. Rather than being concealed, it’s designed to be hung up in plain sight. As it turns out, the product ticks (almost) all of my boxes.
Smart lighting brand Govee has pulled another blinder – this time with its «Strip Light with Skyline Kit», or «Skyline» for short. As an LED strip designed to be stretched across a room to create magical lighting effects on both ceilings and walls, Skyline’s certainly a fitting name. Given how great the strip light looks in the manufacturer’s launch videos, I was more than happy to volunteer as reviewer when our editorial team was sent the product for testing purposes.
The Skyline might be a nice addition to the other smart lights I have at home. After all, I think large-scale lighting effects on walls are lovely. The problem is, you need space for so-called wall-washing effects – space that I don’t really have. But let’s save my final verdict until later.
What exactly is the Skyline Kit?
«Huh? An LED strip that hangs across the middle of the room?» my husband asks sceptically when I set the Skyline box down on the table at home. We usually tuck away our strip lights behind cable guards on ceilings or at the back of shelves. That way, they illuminate the wall while staying concealed. By contrast, the Skyline strip’s designed to be hung across the middle of the room. The advantage of this? With the lights being further from the wall, there’s a larger surface area for the colours to appear on.
The centrepiece of the product is the four-metre RGBWWIC LED strip. This comes with installation components that allow you to attach it to the wall and turn it into a «skyline». To boost stability, you’re provided with a steel ribbon that adheres to the strip light. Individual LEDs on a typical strip light usually face the wall, leaving you unable to see them. However, the ribbon can be turned over too, allowing you to direct the light sideways or downwards.
Where should you put the Skyline?
Wall-washing effects require space. They look best on large, exposed, light-coloured surfaces. In the manufacturer’s promotional photos, for instance, you’ll find gorgeously illuminated walls and ceilings in sterile-looking flats. In my little home full of nooks and crannies, however, this is a tad ambitious. There are hardly any exposed surfaces. With windows, doors, shelves, cupboards and pictures all vying for position, there’s barely any free wall space. Although I do have that in the hallway, having such pretty lighting there would just be a waste.
After quite a bit of deliberation, I decide to install the Skylight in the sunroom above the dining table. Unfortunately, this is anything but ideal. Since the room has a low ceiling, I need to take extra care that the LED strip doesn’t block the door from opening. There are also beams running across the ceiling, slightly ruining the wall-washing effect. But I don’t have any other options.
On the plus side, I can easily hide the power cable behind a shelf. What’s more, the light goes beautifully with the Govee LED strips I have already. And since the Skyline can easily be turned downwards, I can also use it as extra table lighting. If I ever organise a pen-and-paper RPG night, it might help me set the right mood.
Installation: drilling, cutting, turning
When it comes to the box contents, you couldn’t ask Govee for much more. The strip light comes with all the screws and wall plugs you need. You also get some adhesive pads to help with cable routing and even a mini spirit level.
For installation, there’s a base socket with a rotation bar inserted into it on each side. There’s also a tube to be screwed into the bar to accommodate the metal strip. The really pleasant surprise? These six components are made of metal, and not plastic as I’d expected.
Managing to hide the cable behind a cable guard, I run it over a shelf towards the plug socket. Although I don’t have to do the same on the opposite side, I do need to cut down the LED and metal strips by a few centimetres. I have some trouble with the instructions at this point, as it’s not entirely clear where I’m supposed to make the cut. The fact that there are cut markings on the strip itself makes things even more confusing. They imply that you should cut there and only there. Feeling sceptical, however, I take a more conservative approach and leave a piece jutting out.
I then use the fixing bar to connect the rotation bars and adjust the looseness of the hanging strip. This aspect of the installation process – mounting and adjusting the strip via screws, then tweaking it with the fully rotatable bar – has been well thought out.
Uncomplicated setup and cutting aids
As usual, setting up the strip light in the Govee app is straightforward. The app immediately detects the Skyline and asks whether I’ve cut the LED strip. Apparently, you can cut it at any point. After I hit «Yes», the app helps me calibrate the length so that the light effects show up correctly. A green light marker makes this really easy, as it gives me the confidence to snip the LED strip behind the specified mark and make it fit the mounting bar. Lo and behold, the light still shines after I make the cut.
Since the Skyline works with Matter, I don’t have any trouble integrating it into Home Assistant. On the flipside, I don’t have access to the scenes Govee’s implemented in its app. Still, at least I have the option to add the light to my automated processes and select music mode.
Clothesline charm meets colour explosion
I’m a little torn when it comes to the result. Held in place with the wall mounts at each side, the light strip stretching across the room looks like an indoor washing line. It’s certainly an acquired taste. Mind you, there’s not much Govee can do about that. Nor can it do much about the lack of distance between the strip light and the ceiling. Hanging it lower down would allow it to light up a larger surface area. So in my home, the Skyline’s pretty much the proverbial pearl cast before swine.
Let’s face it, the product really is a gem. As part of Govee’s newest generation of strip lights, it gives off punchy colours and creates buttery-smooth transitions during motion effects. Unfortunately, my photos and videos don’t fully do it justice, but they give you a sense of it.
According to the manufacturer, the strip reaches a brightness of 350 lumens per metre on walls – easily bright enough for a cosy gathering at home.
All this to say, Govee hasn’t simply churned out any old product. In fact, it’s a genuinely good one. The technical specs are similar to that of the LED Strip 2 Pro, which I also have at home. Both products are well ahead of Govee’s light bar with RGBWIC technology. When you compare them, the LED strips produce fuller colours and create smoother transitions between colours.
If it’s positioned correctly, the Skyline’s capable of making quite the impression. But it’s not completely wasted in my less than ideally positioned setup either. The light can be synchronised with my other Govee lights via Dream View in the Govee app. Working together, my three lights set a gorgeous mood. They go brilliantly together during both music synchronisation and standard moving light scenes.
The variety of settings means I can use the lighting effects to transport myself into dreamlike worlds, colourful forests or aquariums. When synchronised with music, the Skyline creates a spotlight effect on the ceiling in the middle of the room, making me feel like I’m at a concert. And my husband’s happy with it too.
In a nutshell
Get the placement right and you’ll be guaranteed dreamy lighting
The Skyline doesn’t look as good in my home as it does in the promo video. That said, I’m sure it could if I managed to get the placement right. I certainly think the «floating» wall-mounted installation’s innovative. It opens up additional lighting options that wouldn’t be available to you with LED strips, spotlights or other lamps alone. Even though I haven’t been able to exploit the Skyline Kit’s full potential, it fits very well into my existing setup and gives my home another lighting zone.
Pro
- Excellent LED technology
- Innovative placement options
- Well thought-out installation
- High-quality components for hanging the strip
- Perfect for light synchronisation with other Govee products
Contra
- Explanations in the instructions could be clearer
- You can’t get the best out of it in every area
Header image: Debora Pape
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
These articles might also interest you
38 comments
later