Here at Pocket-lint, we love Ambilight tech, and we love PC gaming, too. While there are somegaming monitorsthat have brought the two together, they’re few and far between, and broadly unavailable in the US.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could add anAmbilight-style effect to a gaming monitor of your choosing? Well, Govee thinks so, and its new AI Gaming Sync Box Kit is designed to do exactly that.
Govee has releasedsimilar productsin the past, but those required a camera to be mounted to the top of your display. This new solution takes data right from the HDMI - which is a much neater option and should be more accurate, too.
That’s not the only new thing here, though, Govee has also implemented some cleverAIimage recognition tech. This means that the sync box should recognise in-game actions, and display lighting effects to amplify the action.
The question is, how well does it work? And is it worth the (fairly high) cost of entry? We’ve been testing it out.
Govee AI Gaming Sync Box
The Govee AI Gaming Sync Box Kit adds immersive and stunning lighting effects to the gaming monitor of your choosing. We love it - but the price tag is undeniably high.
What’s included?
The kit is comprised of three main parts. First, you have the sync box, which is the brains of the operation. It has three HDMI inputs, a single HDMI output and twoUSB-Cports for connecting your lighting.
On the front, it has two buttons, one is for input selection and the other toggles the lights on and off. The sync box itself hasRGB lightingaround the front edge, and when active, it’ll show you exactly what the other lighting units should be doing. This, as with everything else, can be changed to display different effects in the Govee app.
Next up, we have two light towers, which have cables that join together, terminating in a single USB-C connector. These are designed to sit on either side of your monitor, with the lights facing the wall, to extend the reach of the lighting effect.
Finally, we have an RGB strip, which is split into pre-determined lengths and joined by flexible cabling. This also terminates in a USB-C for connecting to the sync box. The strip is backed by 3M VHB tape and is designed to be stuck to the back of your monitor.
Also in the box, you’ll find two HDMI cables, a power adapter, some self-adhesive cable tidies, screws and a small screwdriver.
Setup and configuration
Setting up is pretty straightforward, but it involves a fair amount of cable clutter that can be cumbersome to tidy up. This is something PC gamers are fairly accustomed to, so ensure to get yourcable tidiesready if you want to keep things looking neat.
First, we applied the RGB strip to the rear of our monitor, as we mentioned before, the strip comes pre-segmented into four sections, one for each side of the screen.
It’s designed for use with 27 to 34-inch monitors, and we’re using a 27-inchAcer Predator XB273Ufor our testing. At 27-inch sizes, there isn’t a lot of room for the corner cables, so you have to be careful with how your route them to keep them out of sight. The included adhesive cable grips make this nice and easy to sort out.
We wouldn’t advise trying to use this kit on a smaller monitor, due to the lengths of the strip segments, but if you wanted to use it on a bigger screen, then there’s not much that would stop you.
Of course, for the best results, you want to keep the strips near the edges of the monitor, but you need to do so without blocking any buttons or ports, as well as ensuring that it can’t be seen from around the front. It’s a delicate balance, but we found it easy enough to place, though you may want to check that the rear of your monitor isn’t too complicated before taking the plunge.
The light bars are simpler to set up, all you need to do is attach the bases with the included screwdriver, and place them on either side of the monitor.
The rest of the plumbing is pretty self-explanatory, you attach your PC or games console to the sync box via HDMI, then use the other HDMI to connect to your display. The RGB strip and light bars can connect to either USB-C port, then you just need power.
Once you’re all plugged in, the rest of the setup takes place in the Govee app, and this went very smoothly for us. After adding the sync box to our network, it just took a few taps to tell the system which side was which, and then we were ready for action.
App and smart home integration
The AI Gaming Sync Box Kit uses the same Govee Home app as the rest of Govee’s ecosystem. It’s not the prettiest, from a design perspective, but it does its job well and we’ve experienced very few issues with its functionality.
Just like the rest of Govee’s products, you can add the kit to yourGoogle Homeaccount, which will let you turn it on and off with your voice, change brightness, or make it part of your daily automation routines. It also works with Alexa, but for the most granular control, you’ll be sticking with the Govee app.
In the app, you’re able to select from a multitude of lighting modes, you aren’t just restricted to displaying colours that match the action on screen. So if you want your monitor lighting to dance in time with music, that’s no problem, plus you can select from a huge variety of preset and user-generated scenes that offer everything from subtle ambient lighting to full-on strobing disco effects.
The AI Gaming Sync Box Kit integrates well with Govee’s other products, too. We have theGlide Hexa wall panelsand an egg-shaped nightlight, both of which can be synced with the monitor lighting using a mode called DreamView.
With this active, you can select screen segments that you want to mirror with your other Govee products. There’s an impressive amount of configuration options available, and this allows you to fine-tune the effect to your liking.
When the lights are distributed around your room, it’s almost like surround sound but for lighting, it’s pretty cool stuff. In practice, though, we found the effect a little too distracting for any serious gaming sessions, but it’s a pretty neat feature that you might enjoy for movie-watching and the like.
Performance
The Govee AI Gaming Sync Box Kit is likely to spend most of its time in “video mode”, which is the mode where the box analyses the on-screen image and syncs up the lighting to match, just likePhilips Ambilight.
We found that the effect works pretty flawlessly, and is very comparable to Philip’s offering. We did turn the saturation down a touch, as we found it slightly too vibrant by default, but the app makes this extremely easy to do.
Elsewhere, we found that everything was to our liking as standard, the lights react quickly and smoothly, creating an effect that’s immersive without being jarring during scene changes.
What sets this kit apart from others like it, though, is its AI functionality for gaming. Thankfully, in this case, it’s an actual AI implementation and not some marketing nonsense.
When the AI Identification mode is active (there’s a toggle in the app) the sync box will attempt to recognise what game you are playing and add additional lighting effects to match in-game actions.
It’s not connecting directly with the game API, it’s only connected via HDMI after all, instead, it’s using image recognition to look for in-game elements and then applying effects to match. For example, when you win a game ofApex Legends, the lights will flash and sparkle in celebration.
At the time of writing, onlyApex LegendsandLeague of Legendsare supported, but Govee plans to offer support forOverwatch 2andValorantimminently, with additional games to come in the future.
BothApexandLoLworked flawlessly in our tests, being quickly recognised as the correct game, and activating the effects almost instantaneously when an action occurred.
An advantage of using this image recognition method is that it works with recorded gameplay, too. And given that all of the supported titles are popularesports, Govee might well have thought about this.
So, this all sounds pretty great, right? Well, there’s a catch, and that’s the cost. The AI Gaming Sync Box Kit retails for $299.99 / €299.99 / £299.99 and that’s a big chunk of change for an LED lighting gizmo.
However, when you look at the main competition, which is thePhilips Hue Play Sync Box, then the cost starts to look a little more justifiable. The Philips box costs around $249 on its own, and can easily be in excess of $400 when you add a couple of lights to the equation. Plus, it maxes out at 120Hz, rather than the 240Hz on the Govee.
Another potential sticking point is that it’s HDMI only, when a lot of gamers, particularly the PC esports enthusiasts that Govee is targeting, would prefer to use DisplayPort.
Still, if you can come to terms with the price and the connection type, you’re in for an excellent time. The effect is truly impressive and the AI gaming integrations amplify the excitement further.
If you can’t stomach the cost, then there’s always Govee’s camera-based lighting solutions like theImmersionthat we tested a few years back. Those go a long way towards providing the same effect, plus it’s worth noting that Govee holds some pretty great sales throughout the year, so keep your eyes peeled for those.
