Earlier this week, Govee sneakily released the Wallwasher Smart Table Lamp, a round lamp with three LEDs meant to blast color onto your wall. As of this writing, the new lamp is only available on Amazon for a cool $100.
It’s an interesting light, not least because it seems very much like a direct competitor to the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer, a very upscale (read: much pricier, at $220, than Govee’s version) lamp meant to create ambient light shows and slick, behind-your-TV synchronized lighting effects. I reviewed that light in October last year and found it to be mostly a lovely extravagance, like many of Philips Hue’s very expensive, artsy-fartsy lights.
Design-wise, Govee’s light differs greatly from its Philips Hue analog. It’s an object clearly meant to be seen on its own, with a half-globe shape that features a softly glowing light on the back, opposite its main triple-light array, which is reminiscent of the tri-color light modules included in the Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism I reviewed last year. The whole thing rests on a clear, cylindrical stand. By contrast, the Hue lamp is a black metal can with a cutaway on one side to let light beam out—it’s all about the light output, not the device itself.
Both sets of the Wallwasher’s lights are RGBICWW, meaning they can display both a wide range of color and tunable white light. It outputs a white light spectrum across a broad temperature swath, from a very warm 1,000K to an extremely cool 10,000K. That’s the same range found in the Sky Ceiling Light that Govee released earlier this month.
Like every Govee light, you can expect the Wallwasher to be heavy on the effects—things like warping, color-shifting gradients, or vibrant flashes. The light can also be synchronized to music, according to its Amazon listing. The listing doesn’t say how it responds to music, but many other Govee products use microphones to do so. That means they really just respond to noise in general, not just songs, but it can be a fun effect, all the same.
I’m curious whether the Wallwasher works with devices like the Govee AI Sync Box 2 the same way the Hue Play Wall Washer works with the Philips Hue Play Sync Box 8K. That is, can you hook the Govee Sync Box 2 up to your TV via HDMI and beam your TV’s colors to the lamp? I’ve asked the company and will update this story when I get a response.
The Wallwasher Smart Table Lamp is wired and supports Matter, which means it’ll work with any smart home platform you throw at it. In something like Apple Home or Google Home, you’ll only be able to turn its lights on and off or change their overall color and brightness, though. You’ll need to connect it to the Govee app for all the fancy effects and zoned lighting control.
Besides the Wallwasher, Govee has also introduced the Govee Ball Lights, a two-pack of 12-inch, ball-shaped (spooky, scary) RGBIC LED strips. That costs $120 and comes just in time for Halloween, Christmas, and whatever other holidays you might want to spend exorbitant amounts of money lighting the outside of your home during. It’s also Matter-compatible and replete with gobs of flashing, color-changing effects.
