A smarter way to light up your yard

Designed for outdoor use, the fun, highly customizable Govee Lynx Dream String Lights feature multicolor LEDs that you can control with your phone or voice.

Light strips are ideal for subtle effects, but if you want a more festive way to illuminate your patio, porch, or any other outdoor space, you're better off with string lights like the Govee Lynx Dream. Available in 48 feet for $69.99 or 96 feet for $119.95, each string has dimmable multicolor LED bulbs that you can control with your voice or phone. They also support IFTTT applets, and you get a generous selection of preset lighting scenes and a fun Music Sync mode that's great for parties. We would have preferred tighter spacing between the bulbs, but the Lynx Dream String Lights still earn our Editors’ Choice award for outdoor smart lighting.

Govee sent me the 96-foot kit, which is simply two 48-foot strings in the same box that you connect with a coupling at the end of each one. Each 48-foot string contains 15 lights that are 3.7 inches tall and 1.7 inches wide; they use white translucent covers that resemble S14 party bulbs. Govee says that the lights should last for up to 20,000 hours with normal use. They carry an IP65 weatherproof rating, which means they can withstand rain and other inclement conditions.

The bulbs sit 35 inches from each other on the string, which I think is a bit too far apart, but you can always shorten the gap between bulbs manually with a bit of electrical tape or plastic zip ties. Each bulb has a clip at the base for hanging on nails, stringing on a rope, or attaching to a soffit or frame.

The main (lead) string contains a 6-foot power cord with a 3.6-by-1.7-by-0.5-inch (HWD) control box that houses a power button. It also has Bluetooth and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radios for connecting to your home network and mobile device. When you press the button twice, the lights enter Illumination mode (more on this in a bit). You can control each bulb individually, and each one is capable of displaying the full RGB color and white color spectrums. 

As mentioned, the lights respond to Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands. They also work with IFTTT, but they don't support Apple's HomeKit platform.

You use the Govee Home mobile app (available for Android and iOS) to controls the lights. The product appears in a dedicated panel on the My Devices (home) screen. The panel shows the name of the lights, the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signal status, and on and off buttons.

Tap the panel to use the Effects Lab to select colors, add them to your My Colors database, and create custom lighting effects. The Timer settings allow you to set usage schedules with gradual brightening and fading options, while the Brightness slider lets you specify the brightness level for all bulbs.

You can also choose between four Mode settings. Music Mode uses your phone’s microphone to sync the lights to whatever is playing and offers Energetic, Rhythm, Spectrum, and Rolling tempo options. Color Mode lets you select a hue from a color wheel or the My Color database. Here you can also use a slider to set white color temperatures from warm (yellowish) to cool (bluish). Tap the Scene Mode button to select a preset lighting scene such as Illumination (all bulbs are solid white), Candy (bulbs rapidly flash through all the primary colors), Christmas (bulbs flash red and green), and Carnival (bulbs pulse yellow, green, orange, and red). Use the DIY Mode button to create custom scenes.

To access Wi-Fi settings, update the firmware, and view a user guide, tap the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

The Lynx Dream String Lights are easy to install and configure. I have a covered patio area in my backyard with wood framing, so I grabbed a box of small finishing nails and a ladder, and set each nail 34 inches apart from one other. Making sure to start in a spot that was close to a power outlet, I hung a bulb on each nail until I went through the entire 96-foot string. The entire process took around 20 minutes.

Next, I downloaded the Govee Home mobile app, created an account, and tapped the plus icon in the upper right corner of the home screen. I plugged in the string, selected Outdoor Lighting, and tapped H7021 LED String Bulbs. The app immediately detected the light. On the next screen, I gave the lights a name, connected them to my Wi-Fi network, and entered my Wi-Fi password. To complete the installation, I installed a quick firmware update.

The lights performed flawlessly in testing. They responded instantly to mobile app and Alexa commands to turn on and off, change color, and dim in brightness. An Alexa routine I created for the lights to turn red when a Ring Floodlight Cam detected motion worked every time. They also synced up perfectly to Elvis Costello’s "Pump It Up" in Music Mode, and adhered to my schedules without issue.

The Govee Lynx Dream String Lights are an excellent choice if you want to add colorful lighting to the outside of your home. Available in 48 or 96 feet, the strings are weatherproof, easy to install, and support remote control via voice commands or the flexible Govee Home mobile app. They work with scores of third-party devices through Alexa and Google routines, as well as through IFTTT. They also look great and are simply fun to use, earning them our Editors’ Choice award.

Designed for outdoor use, the fun, highly customizable Govee Lynx Dream String Lights feature multicolor LEDs that you can control with your phone or voice.

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As a Contributing Editor for PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networking and smart home gear, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for almost 20 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the Labs technical staff, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of the Labs testing machines and procedures. Prior to joining Ziff Davis, John spent six years in retail operations for Federated Stores, Inc. before accepting a purchasing position with Morris Decision Systems, one of New York's first value-added resellers of the original IBM PC. For the next five years, he was responsible for buying and configuring IBM PC, XT and AT desktops for many of New York's financial institutions. He then worked for the now defunct ComputerLand chain of PC dealers before joining PC Magazine in 1987.

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