Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels Review: Beautiful Effects in 16.8 Million Colors After Installation Struggles

Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels Review

Once installed, the $199.99 Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels offer a fascinating array of lighting effects to enhance any room. While the adhesive LED panels are aimed at gamers, they can easily become that cool accent light a room always called for but was never found on the shelves at HomeGoods.

What we like

The What could be improved section focuses on installation. Let me just say that was not part of what we liked about the Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels.

What we do like is the wide gamut of colors available after installation. The app offers a huge assortment of pre-programmed lighting effects across the full RGB array of 16.8 million colors. The effects range from animation to 3D effects. Several mode settings demonstrate that the lights aren’t just for gaming. Visitors comment on how it fades into the decor on a white wall when off and brings the right vibe when on.

The panels work together and can be individually addressed, making for very individualized displays. The names of light patterns evoke their colors: think Forrest, Fire, Rainbow, as well as effects, such as 3D Matrix and Cubic. Under life you can find Movie, Leisure and Night Light variations.

And the lights also respond to music, flowing to tunes via the iPhone’s microphone.

The app does a fine job of managing the installation, from changing colors to turning them on and off. Having the light on during installation, and the use of color to guide it, is a clever design element.

The Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels also connect to Alexa, but like many Alexa skills, it isn’t consistent with its ability to control the panels. Sometimes, Alexa just can’t communicate with the panels. But when it does, it’s a good, if not essential, feature.

The cardboard Govee Glide Hexa Pro shipping box and recyclable internal materials reflected positively on the overall design. The only environmentally unfriendly elements were stickers on the box and panels and on the back of the double-faced tape.

What could be improved

It is easy to place a Govee panel on the wall. It is not easy to make it look like the illustrations or to put it in the right place.

The app, which offers helpful designs for the panels, and complete instructions on how to connect them electrically to perform properly once installed, doesn’t offer much guidance on how to measure the wall so that the final installation sits in the right place.

My daughter and I were determined to install the panels over her television in the living room. We selected a horizontal design that would fill much of the empty wall above the television.

We then set out to determine how to center the design above the television, both vertically and horizontally. We laid out the design on the dining room table and measured. The design made it hard to pick the center point. I can imagine some of the more vertically oriented designs would be even more difficult to measure.

The app offered no guidance. We fumbled and guessed. We walked around with tape measures and put marks on the wall, confident that the panels would eventually cover them. We aimed the first panel, checked the level, then placed another. We stepped back and realized we had guessed wrong about where to start. The design would end up too high on the wall. We pulled the panels down, one pulling away with a chunk of paint.

Before I go on, let me say that my daughter’s walls have some interesting finish for which the house flippers did not share their secrets. Well, one secret we discovered is that the thick coating doesn’t adhere well to the undercoat. Thus, even when using the pull-away technique on the included tape, a tape-sized chunk of paint was removed with it. I highly recommend installing on very stable surfaces, the smoother the better (I will return to this note on adhesives).

So, back to the installation. We paused. Arms were flung. Minor arguments ensued. I said we needed a template. My daughter had recently received several pieces of furniture and artwork for her new home. Some of the detritus remained, including a very large plastic bag. I cut the bag in half and laid it over the design on the dining room table, and then I sketched the outline design with a Sharpie pen.

We then brought the template to the wall and measured its edges in-place, rather than trying to work by going back and forth between the table and the wall. We could also visualize our choices as the entire design was on the wall.

We started again. This time we finished. Once that first panel is in the right place, and make sure it is, the remainder of the design falls into place. The excellent electrical guidance proved precise, stating exactly which port to insert the connector and which cutout to place it through. The accent color on the each installed panel pointed to the next panel.

The installation grew, and eventually, all of the panels adhered to the wall after holding each in place for 30 seconds.

Now let me return to the adhesive. The marketing literature states it is 3M, but the adhesive in the review unit box was not marked as 3M anywhere. That doesn’t mean it won’t work. In fact, we say it worked too well earlier in the installation as it removed paint.

Unfortunately, and I don’t know how much the paint plays a role, but over the last couple of weeks, two panels have fallen off the wall, their connectors saving them from crashing to the floor, but they dangled precariously from their single thread. We worry that if this repeats, they may create a pull on the panel, curtailing their descent so that, eventually, that panel, too, will fall. We’ll keep an eye out.

Other than installation, we have experienced no issues with the Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels. They work as promised, perking up an otherwise white wall with a wash of whatever color the moment calls for.

Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels: The bottom line

Once installed, owners will love their Govee Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels. They are fun to use, and a joy to show off. I know they are intended for gamers, but they will also do great work in a nursery. My three and a half-year-old granddaughter loves them. She demands we put lava on the wall.

I wish the Govee considered more advice about how to install the light panels in spaces that require measurement. Including a large, folded piece of paper to create a template probably wouldn’t add much cost to the already, thankfully, paper-forward packaging.

Govee provided the Glide Hexa Pro LED Light Panels for review. Images courtesy of Govee unless otherwise noted.

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