FabianYesterday evening, I was browsing Reddit again and read a few posts in the Hue community. Among other things, I came across a post about poor quarterly figures, the new CEO, and the future of the consumer division. There, I read several comments like the following:
We all buy Hue because we think it’s the most reliable product, but competitors like Govee have a much wider range of products.
Govee is also mentioned as a recommendation in many other comments. But I seriously ask myself: Why?
Certainly, some of Govee’s products are really not bad. They definitely have some inexpensive and good products, such as an HDMI sync box and various light strips. I found out for you that they are not necessarily better than those from Philips Hue when I compared them with the Hue OmniGlow, which is around 40 percent more expensive.
Govee is not badly placed when it comes to individual selected products. However, when it comes to the entire smart home, the Asian manufacturer lags significantly behind. With just over 30 products, it does not come close to the variety offered by Philips Hue. For example, Govee does not offer any switches or sensors.
And then there’s the app. Especially when it comes to multicolored lights, it’s really creepy bad. What’s more, it’s not even possible to sort lights neatly into rooms and control them together. Sure, you can do that somehow via Alexa and the like, but a manufacturer simply has to offer such basic functions in its own app.
Of course, I like Philips Hue. But I certainly wouldn’t mind a little competition. When it comes to a sufficiently large portfolio, however, I simply don’t see anyone else. Not Govee, not Innr, not Nanoleaf, and so far not even Ikea. In the end, a little more competition would also ensure that Philips Hue itself has to step up its game a bit…
Govee supporting Matter was what put them truly into the conversation in my opinion. However, I just don’t want a lot of WiFi based lights on my network when there are zigbee &/or thread. If Govee ever starts to use zigbee &/or thread… that is going to be another boost for them.
Have perhaps 50 govee devices and they work very well. There’s no issue with creating groups of devices either.
Missing switches in their lineup only affects you for lights govee doesn’t support like fluorescent bulbs.
I have both and the govee lights themselves are at least equal to hue in quality and build. Their strips are far ahead in terms of addressable led and color options. The omniglow only catches up as the ambiance strip was getting very dated compared to govee.
Where govee fails miserably is the app. Its horrendous and the hue ecosystem is much much better. It would take you a month to setup a scene in the govee app that one tap can do in the app.
I asked on the govee forum if having 100 plus govee lights messes up the wifi at all and noone would admit to it. I do think using zigbee mesh for lighting is far superior to wifi based protocols; but that is just my opinion.
Wow, that took one article for you to demonstrate your lack of knowledge on your subject matter. “not necessarily better” is what? A guess? “it’s not even possible to sort lights neatly into rooms and control them together” um yeah you can and it’s been that way for at least a year. “But I certainly wouldn’t mind a little competition” rofl, that’s great because Govee is sucking up Hue’s customers daily!
Govee has no sensors?
https://a.co/d/eHZwJav
They must have come a long ways then, in the past two to three years. They used to be very clearly inferior products. It isn’t surprising that they would have been catching up, but I still wonder if it’s nearly as elegant as a solution. They just scream cheap Amazon products to me.