The 5 Very Best Smart LED Strips

Addressable: Yes | LED array type: RGBWW | Cuttable: Yes | Matter certified: Yes

If the fun part about light strips is the ability to experiment with all manners of colors and settings, then it stands to reason that the strip with the most colors and settings to offer would be the one to beat. Not only is that true of Govee’s Light Strip Pro 2, but the LSP2 happens to be one of the densest, brightest, most color-accurate, and easiest-to-install strips of all the options I considered. And while other strips offer the ability to sync to music using your smartphone’s microphone, Govee’s light controller has a built-in microphone for this purpose so you don’t have to leave your phone open on a specific app to achieve this effect. The fact that this strip also has support for every major smart home platform (via Matter certification) and is part of one of the biggest ecosystems in colored ambient lighting makes it an easy choice.

Overall, the LSP2 is pretty similar to the slightly cheaper and perennially popular Govee M1, but the LSP2’s superior color rendering and light quality make it worth the extra buck per foot. As an RGBWW strip, the LSP2 has dedicated white LEDs for both warm and cool whites (the RGBW M1 only has a single white LED), and it also has an upgraded 16-bit color processing chip that allows for more seamless and subtle transitions between colors and shades. It sounds silly, but I felt like I could see a difference when using these upgraded “LuminBlend” scenes compared to the regular ones. The other advantage of the LSP2 is that it has clearly labeled cut markings every four inches, whereas the M1 can technically be cut along the same intervals — after every IC chip — but lacks clear markers.

The biggest downside to the LSP2 is also its biggest asset: a wide-ranging, cluttered Govee app with a tiny font that inexplicably features a lighting-based social-media network with its own Discover page and trending hashtags alongside an entire store’s worth of Govee products to purchase — complete with its own loyalty program and gamified coupon system. It works fine as a lighting controller, but all that other stuff is not present in competitors’ apps and, in my opinion, cheapens the overall experience. It’s possible to bypass the app entirely if you use a voice assistant like Alexa, Google, or Siri to control your strips, but you may lose out on some functionality, like the ability to recall specifically named scenes using Siri. Similarly, Apple Homekit is supported through Matter but provides only basic brightness and color switching, not dynamic scenes.

Addressable: Yes | LED array type: RGBW | Cuttable: Yes | Matter certified: No (but it’s compatible with all platforms)

If having the most exciting lighting scenes and accessories isn’t a priority, then you can save a few bucks by going with the Tapo Smart LED Light Strip L930-5 — which is often on sale for less than its $50 MSRP. With about half as many LEDs per foot (I counted 9 to the Govee’s 18), it’s not as bright as Govee’s offerings and, unlike the Govee and Hue offerings, won’t be enough to light up a room on its own. But it’s fine for accent lighting use, and you’re unlikely to have complaints if you’re not comparing it head-to-head with a brighter strip. Otherwise, you get the same amount of adjustability for colors, brightness, and transitions, as well as support for all major smart home platforms (although it’s not officially Matter certified, it is certified separately with Apple, Google, and Amazon). Tapo’s app doesn’t offer nearly as many preprogrammed lighting scenes and modes as Govee’s, but it does have quite a few to play around with, and you can also make your own if you’re so inclined. I also must confess that despite having far fewer features and settings, I much prefer the Tapo app’s simpler design to Govee’s maximalist app.

The only consistent issue that user reviewers bring up is that the adhesive may feel insufficiently sticky during the installation process, even though it’s the same 3M adhesive used on all the other strips. In any case, it’s good to clean the intended application surface and wait for it to dry completely before installing any strip.

Addressable: Yes | LED array type: RGBW | Cuttable: Yes | Matter certified: Yes

Looks aside, the COB strip also has a brightness advantage owing to the sheer density of LEDs Govee managed to cram into this thing. Whereas the LSP2 and M1 strips are denser than most at 60 LEDs per meter, the COB strip packs a whopping 1,260 LEDs per meter. As a result, it can light up a whole room as well as any overhead light fixture at maximum brightness. The density of the LEDs also makes for a much smoother-looking light overall — it feels more like a continuous neon light than a marquee. It comes in lengths of up to 16.4 feet (5 meters), but cannot be extended beyond that.

Clear-coated LED strips like the Govee Light Strip Pro 2 have the benefit of being easier to install because of how thin they are, but they tend to be a bit glaringly bright and difficult to look at head-on. Suppose you’re planning to stick a lighting strip directly onto a wall or piece of furniture (such as the edge of your desk), where it’s possible to make direct eye contact with the strip. In that case, I recommend Govee’s COB Strip Light Pro, which features a wider, light-diffusing silicone covering. It has all the same features as the Light Strip Pro 2, but it is much easier on the eyes when lit up and turned off. It’s not quite as techy-looking and could even be mistaken for molding if you’re not paying close attention.

Addressable: Yes | LED array type: RGBW | Extendable: Yes | Cuttable: Yes | Matter certified: No

If you’re looking for a way to make your TV feel bigger without actually going out and getting a huge screen, then a TV backlight is a relatively affordable way to make your existing TV feel more immersive. It’s basically an LED strip that sticks to the backside of a TV and mirrors the onscreen colors as they change. The effect is especially immersive for action movies, video games, and animated films that feature lots of bright colors but is not as compelling when watching period dramas or reality TV. Out of the handful of options out there, the Govee Envisual T2 (available for 55-inch to 65-inch TVs and 75-inch to 85-inch TVs) offers the best performance for the price, is easy to set up, and has the ability to control other Govee lights and strips you may already have. Like Govee’s other LED strips, it offers more LEDs per inch than competitors, and the camera it uses to read the TV screen is actually two cameras, giving it a more accurate and complete view of the onscreen content. I also appreciated that everything you need to install it and get it going is included in the same, relatively affordable package.

The fact that the Envisual T2 relies on a camera to gather data means that there is a very slight, albeit perceptible lag between what’s happening onscreen and what happens with the lights. This is especially noticeable when viewing content that has fast cuts — such as a trailer — or where lots of stuff is happening simultaneously — such as in a video game. And while it has the ability to automatically turn itself on and off based on what the camera detects (via the “Blank Screen” setting), I found this to be pretty unreliable. The reflection of filtered sunlight through window blinds off of my TV’s black screen was enough to prevent the “low brightness” detection trigger from turning off the light strip. I was able to get it to work using “same hue” — which turns it off if the color doesn’t change for an extended period of time — but this setting takes at least two minutes to activate. This would be less of a problem if this strip offered Matter support so I could use my Apple TV’s Siri functionality to control the lights, but the Envisual T2 only supports Alexa and Google Home as of this writing.

Lag is no problem with the Phillips Hue Play Gradient ($250 to $300 depending on TV size) because it gets its signals directly from the source via HDMI. But the HDMI box is a separate, $350 accessory and you still need a $60 Bridge to get the whole thing to work. If you don’t mind the cost and want the best possible performance, the Hue is your best bet.