Govee DreamView G1 Pro Gaming Light review: match your monitor with RGB

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G ovee Govee has carved out an interesting niche in TV bias lights that use a mounted camera to match the lighting on-screen. The Govee Dreamview G1 Pro Gaming Light is a product that brings this formula to desktop computers and gaming monitors.

The Dreamview G1 Pro is a smaller, TV-sized version of the Dreamview G1, but it has a much more streamlined all-in-one camera and wire housing, with a higher asking price of $179 when sales start on May 9th. There is no separate control box for the wiring, as the 56-inch flexible light strip and two 17-inch light bars plug right into the camera via USB-C, and the whole kit takes up just one power outlet.

Like the TV bias lights, the camera uses a fisheye lens to view your whole monitor, and it can be attached with a claw-like pressure clamp and some 3M glue. You need to be comfortable applying a lot of 3M on the back of your monitor and then on the screen.

The install is easy and straightforward. The quick-start guide walks you through setting it up on a variety of displays, ranging from 24 to 30 inches. My monitor is a 30-inch Dell with a less common 16:10 aspect ratio, but it worked well with the included size guide. If you have a monitor with a lot of panels and seam breaks, it may be more difficult to mount the main strip.

The light strip is very flexible and encased in a soft rubbery material. I like the design of the strip of lights on Govee's TV kits and other products. It makes the strip much thicker, but it also makes the lighting a softer glow, which reduces the number of hotspots if your monitor is right against a wall. It makes installing, removing, and reinstalling the strip much easier, as I had to change it later on, which was helpful for me. Govee's instructions had a conflict between the text and pictures, telling you to run the strip counterclockwise from the top but showing an example picture that only fits one way. You can swap its orientation with software after reversing the lighting. Thankfully, popping out the strip and re-mounting it was painless.

• Everything that comes in Govee’s DreamView kit, including the lights, camera, cables, adhesive clips, guides, and orange calibration foam.
• The camera’s ports include power, two USB-C ports for the lights, and the optional audio port for sound modes.
• Temporarily attaching the 16:9 guide card for alignment of the clips.
• The 16:9 guide with mounting clips for the light strip adhered in place.
• After removing the guide, the light strip and camera are mounted.
• Calibrating the Govee camera requires orange foam cubes to be temporarily adhered to the screen.
• The camera calibration process from the Govee Home app, dragging the anchors to pinpoint the foam squares.

Plug in the two light bars from your monitor once the strip is installed. The free-standing light bars should be at least 12 inches away from your display or they can cause problems with the automatic lighting.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it. It is impossible for us to read and analyze all of these agreements. We started counting how many times you have to agree to use devices when we review them.

You must agree to the following in the Govee Home app if you want to use the Govee Dreamview G1.

• Govee user agreement
• Govee privacy policy

There are two required agreements.

The most anxiety-inducing part of the Govee Home install is when we get to everyone and they have to temporarily stick seven small foam cubes to their monitor. I understand if you bought a fancy new monitor and this step gives you pause, I was a bit cavalier with my old monitor that is nearing its 10th birthday and ran through this quickly and easily. The high quality of the glue on these cubes makes it impossible to leave a mess when you remove it.

To make sure the app illuminates the right areas on your screen, you need to map out the five sections of your strip. The Dreamview G1 Pro starts displaying colorful light based on what you see on your screen after the camera and lights are installed. You can change the back of your monitor into a dance party with music or a candle-lit flicker. The video modes that mimic the on-screen colors are the real star of the show, and the reason you buy a product like this.

Video mode has two sub-modes, a game and a movie. The game mode makes color changes very quickly. Movie mode leans towards softer transitions to avoid being too busy. Further display types can be found within each sub-mode. While movie mode is much more hands-off, with only options for controlling how varied the light is displayed across the strip and bars, game mode has four themed display types. The different behavior of all four of them at times felt a little random, though these are designed for different types of games.

Here is my best summary of the different game modes.

• Story mode: Quick changes in the lighting for some impact of big, bold colors. It keeps the bars of light on each side uniform, so you’re fully flanked by whatever color is designated on each side. This mode works well on most titles, and I’d even suggest trying it for watching movies and music videos if you prefer more flash to movie mode.
• Action mode: More mixed lighting, thanks to the side light bars now being separated into up to three segments. Each bar often displays multiple colors at once.
• Shoot mode: Similar multi-color behavior to Action, but the light bars are now split into just two segments. The light strip behind the monitor seems more dynamic, and there may be more variation in brightness levels, giving a slight pulse effect at times.
• Racing mode: The light bars will occasionally divide into smaller color segments to send pulsing waves of color up and down, which seems nicely matched when fast-moving objects speed by you in a game. It reminds me of the light stack that signals the start of a drag race (referred to as a Christmas tree) but moving much faster.

I used the story setting most of the time after testing. It gave some nice colors that were accurate to the screen. It transitioned and changed quickly enough to keep up with the action but didn't step into spastic flashing of colors.

There are two settings you can use to adjust if the LEDs are showing inaccurate colors. I had to get the Govee to match the colors on the screen. Pull up a fullscreen, all-white document and make adjustments until the light from the strip and bars is actually white. The results were much improved because of this.

I had to change the color of the LEDs because my desk is white, and it reflects a lot of light upward toward the camera. You will get better results with a black desk or a dark desk mat under the monitor. The solution to this is to turn off the lights in the room, which will make the TV and monitor look better.

Living with the Govee Dream View on my monitor for a short time has made me even more fond of the lights. I've used basic bias lights for my TVs for years, but I've appreciated having these monitor-matching LEDs turned on even while I do my work. During the day, they mostly show white light that acts as an extension of my pages, with the occasional pop of color from websites and product photos. When the sun is down, the room lights are off, and there is a rainbow in the sky, I get a new treat.

When I play a game like Elden Ring, the visual stimulation and immersement add to the fun. It doesn't transport me into The Lands Between, but it's fun if you're a nerd for lighting and a bigger nerd for games. The sky of Caelid is red and the purple-blue of the Siofra River is purple when I fast- travel to certain areas. Sometimes a small glimpse of warmth, like walking by a blazing torch in a cave, is like a small wink from the environment. While external lighting doesn't help me be better at video games, a little flash of color across my walls from a spell effect as you drop an enemy can easily trick you into thinking you're some kind of a badass.

Sometimes the Dreamview gets things wrong, or at least makes some confusing choices. While the camera is mapped to capture all corners of the monitor, it seems to favor the top half of the screen since it dominates most of the fisheye lens. This is mostly fine, and it rarely affected my enjoyment of a game.

The Govee has some audio functions. The Y-shaped 3.5mm cable is used to send your audio source to the Dreamview camera. If you turn on sound effects mode, you will get flashing, pulsing lights to go along with whatever music or sound effects are playing. I tried it with different types of music and game action, but I preferred not to use it. It's nice to have, but not as interesting as the lights. Sound effects mode was a mess at first, but eventually it was fixed. The audio features are not the reason you buy these lights.

The same applies to the smart home integration. The Govee Home app can be used to connect to other services. You can use voice commands to turn it on or off. It couldn't switch between the Govee's modes when I used the Google Assistant. I don't see much need to use voice commands since the power button atop the camera is easy to reach, but with more connected devices and some macros, there are more possibilities. One of the biggest benefits of the Dreamview is that you can control it from other Govee lights, which should be helpful for those already invested in other Govee lighting. Other smart functions like schedules and timers are here as well but probably don't matter as much on a gaming monitor light.

The biggest sacrifice you have to make is the real estate at the top of your monitor. Unlike the TV lights, there is no option for mounting the camera on the bottom of the monitor. It's necessary for your webcam to move over to the left or right. The Govee camera completely blocked the center view of my camera that was set up above and behind my monitor. The locations I could mount it were limited by the large mounts that other webcams had.

The Govee monitor light is a fun addition to any desktop display that fits it, if you enjoy bathing your spaces in colorful lighting. The install process is enjoyable for all kinds of games played on a desktop monitor or even some spreadsheets.

Antonio G. Di Benedetto is a photographer.