Artistic repair of 8-bit goodness

The Govee Pixel Gaming Light is a quirky display piece that will add fun retro flair to any gamer’s desktop.

Having fully embraced that I’m in the middle of a mid-life crisis that manifests explicitly as a need to buy excessive amounts of glowy RGB products for my desktop gaming setup, I’ve been quite excited to try Govee’s Gaming Pixel Light panels ever since they were revealed at CES 2025. I’m also a sucker for nostalgia, so the 8-bit-styled animations they can conjure up via an LED array also had an instant appeal.

Having tested both the larger, rectangular version and the square model (each sent over by Govee for review), I can tell you that they’re wildly impractical and could use some fine-tuning on the software side, but they are overall a pretty fun way to add some flair to your PC or console setup.

Pixel-tastic desktop flair

Oliver Cragg / Android Authority

The Gaming Pixel Light comes in two distinct sizes with the same individual LED dimensions on each — a compact square 32 x 32 pixel model (1,024 LEDs) and a wider 52 x 32 pixel rectangular version (1,664 LEDs). I personally prefer the square one as it’s easy to fit on my cramped desk, but the wider option does make it more compatible with landscape images/clips you want it to show (more on that later), and separates it from most of its competitors, which are predominantly square. Because the LEDs are the same size on each model, you’re not losing out on image quality.

Each one comes with a little plastic stand to hold the display in place, and you can also choose to wall mount it with an included attachment. It also comes with an AC/DC adaptor, which has a fixed barrel jack cable. I sorely wish this were USB-powered — power adaptor space around my desktop is already at a premium, so occupying another plug with the Gaming Pixel Light was a pain. Here’s hoping future versions can be run through a PC port or a desktop charger.

The Gaming Pixel Light is outfitted with the same gamer-tastic border frame no matter which size you opt for, and this is the most contentious part of the design for me. I quite like a minimalist aesthetic (outside of all the bright lights, obviously), and these borders look like they’ve been awkwardly grafted on from spare parts of a knock-off Evangelion mecha. The angular sections, matte gray with green accents, and a few words in white (like “Loading” and “Game”) are all far from offensive, but the frame’s overall aesthetic does detract slightly from the real attraction: that display.

With animations at 30 frames per second and impressive color vibrancy, the Govee Gaming Pixel Light certainly stands out. It comes pre-loaded with a library of over 150 scenes, many of which evoke retro gaming classics or other nerdy references (such as an obvious Spider-Man template). My daughter is obsessed with the colorful fish scene, but if you want something more low-key, there are effects like dynamic color shifts and other screensaver-type animations that are a little less distracting and a lot more moody, in a good way.

With a library of over 150 pre-loaded scenes, sketching tools, and community sharing, the Gaming Pixel Light will never become boring.

It also has real-time displays, which update automatically when connected to Wi-Fi (2.4GHz only). This includes a clock, weather, NBA/NFL scores (soccer next, Govee!), and even stocks and Bitcoin price tracking. You can access these with a quick tap of a physical button. I found the clock and weather relatively useful, but you might get more mileage out of the rest than I did.

These and other scenes can also be accompanied by audio clips via the built-in 3W speaker. It’s clear enough for 8-bit beeps and boops, and timers, but not much more than that. You can also upload your own musical snippets in .wav, .mp3, and .ogg formats, which is a nice touch for customization. The display animations can also dynamically match the audio, which can make for some cool ambient effects.

Get creative (or cheat with AI)

Setting up the Pixel Gaming Light was fairly painless via the Govee Home app, though it did take a couple of tries for the device to register. After that, you’re ready to dig into all of the many, many customization options on offer. Aside from the pre-loaded scenes, you can upload your own images and GIFs or sketch new pixel art creations using the in-app tools.

There’s also a Share Space where you can show off these DIY images and animations to other users and download other people’s creations. Again, Govee’s broader ecosystem is a boon here, as it’s likely this will fill out pretty quickly as more people get their hands on the Gaming Light and start creating. The only downside right now is the lack of useful filters; there’s a search feature, but no way to rate submissions or view by popularity.

The whole artistic process is aided by the feature Govee really wants you to use: the AI Lighting Bot. This lets you enter prompts, and Govee’s chatbot will create something that tries to match your description (and with very little care for IP infringement in my experience — check out the Chelsea Football “Clug” logo). I personally found this to be quite hit and miss, and I couldn’t get it to create animated images, only static ones. I’d stick to your own sketches, or the image/animation uploads.

The latter can also occasionally translate poorly, but that’s only when you try to feed it complex images — it’s an 8-bit-style LED array after all, so if you pick simple pictures and GIFs with bold colors and lines with good spacing, you’ll get great results. Just be aware that I had to reload the app a few times when the device idled for the AI creations, sketching, and DIY modes. Hopefully those bugs get squashed soon.

Oliver Cragg / Android Authority

One thing I didn’t get to test is the connection to Govee’s HDMI 2.1 Sync Box, as I don’t have one. If you are in the Govee ecosystem, that’ll let you create real-time DreamView experiences and pair the effects with other Govee lights. Smart home users without the Sync Box can still connect the device(s) to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for voice commands/automations. It also supports IFTTT and Matter.

Govee Gaming Pixel Light review: The verdict

Oliver Cragg / Android Authority

At $99.99 for the square model or $129 for the rectangular version (or $79.99/$103.99, respectively, for a limited time launch sale), the Govee Pixel Gaming Light is a quirky display piece that can give any gamer’s desktop some funky retro flair. Is it a novelty? Absolutely, but sometimes you don’t need a reason to get something beyond pure aesthetics.

If there’s ever a second-gen model, I’d love to see the gamer-fied border eliminated (or at least made optional) for something a little more unassuming, and I’d really want to see a USB power and/or charging option to save my desk management headaches. Before then, I hope Govee can iron out some of the software quirks on the first-gen models.

The Govee Pixel Gaming Light is a quirky display piece that can give any gamer’s desktop some fun retro flair.

The most popular competitors to the Pixel Gaming Light come from Divoom, such as the Pixoo-Max and the Pixoo64. The former is another 32 x 32 LED panel, while the latter cranks the number of LEDs up to a whopping 4096 total for even more impressive designs. The Pixoo64 also costs almost double, while the Pixoo-Max is $30 more expensive than the square Pixel Gaming Light. Govee has an ecosystem advantage in this emerging category, and considering the reasonable pricing, it is definitely worth a look if you want to pixel-up your gaming space.

Govee Gaming Pixel Light

Bright and rich LED display • Pre-loaded with 150+ scenes and animations • Versatile customization tools

MSRP: $99.99

LED display for creative gamers.

The Govee Gaming Pixel Light lets users easily create and display their favorite pixel art and GIFs. With over 150 preset scene modes, a diverse range of DIY tools, and an AI Lighting Bot, this LED display (available in 32 x 32 or 52 x 32 pixel models) is a perfect desktop addition for 8-bit obsessives.

Positives

Bright and rich LED displayPre-loaded with 150+ scenes and animationsVersatile customization toolsEasy-to-use Govee appReasonable price

Cons

AI creations are hit and missShare Space needs filtersNot USB poweredDivisive frame designSome connection bugs



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