Govee X JBL Table Lamp 2 Pro Review: The perfect party starter

Introduction

With a JBL speaker embedded into its futuristic chassis, the Govee x JBL Table Lamp 2 Pro is not only a visually impressive lamp, but a pretty good Bluetooth speaker too.

While it won’t replace your Amazon Alexa or Google Home, it not only adds character to a room with its advanced (and highly customisable) lighting effects, but also delivers crisp, clear audio perfect for both music playback and podcasts. 

It’s a charming smart table lamp and speaker combo that’s hard to fault, especially when found at a discount. 

Design

• Futuristic, premium design
• 210 RGBICWW LEDs
• Over 100 presets, but you can also make your own

Take a look at the Govee x JBL Table Lamp 2 Pro and you might mistake it for the regular Table Lamp 2. Both share the same slightly futuristic, sci-fi appearance with a transparent bottom for downfiring LED effects, but this JBL edition is wider and heavier. It’s 34cm tall with a 19cm circular base and weighs a fairly lofty 2.3kg – for good reason. 

As you’ve probably guessed by this point, this variant of the Lamp 2 Pro has a built-in JBL speaker and a fairly decently sized 5200mAh battery that allows for portable, on-the-go use. It’s not weatherproof, so it’s probably best to move it around the home, not outside.

The upfiring speaker is housed on top of the device, so as not to interfere with Govee’s top-notch light show at the bottom, and is surrounded by buttons to control not only media playback and volume but also light mode switches and power. 

Of course, the wraparound 360-degree illumination is what makes the Table Lamp 2 Pro just so visually impressive. Beneath the smoky exterior are a whopping 210 individually controllable RGBICWW LEDs, which is essentially a fancy way of saying that the lighting effects are among the best around. 

As such, this isn’t just a solid-colour light; in fact, it looks its best when displaying a variety of colours. The default rainbow ring I saw when I powered the lamp on for the first time genuinely took my breath away, and it proved pretty popular when I posted it on my Instagram.

It consistently delivers a calming, captivating light show that can even display low-res animated scenes, with presets including a train chugging along a train track and a rocket blasting through space. 

In fact, with over 100 presets found on the app, there’s something for every mood – and trust me when I say that it’s a talking piece. Every person who has seen the Lamp 2 Pro in my office has asked what it is and where to buy it – and I can’t say that about much of the tech I have at home. 

You can even go full-on DIY and create your own custom images to display on the lamp via the Govee app. There’s also a music sync mode that allows the lamp to react to music in near real-time, with a latency of just 32ms. Govee really has thought of everything here.

Of course, not every mood calls for a complex light show; the lamp also offers a range of white light temperatures from 2700K to 6500K, making it just as useful for focused work as it is for creating a ‘vibe’, as the kids would say. 

Features and performance

• App is packed with features
• Speaker delivers crisp, clear audio but lacks bass
• No smart speaker functionality despite Wi-Fi on board

While there are a few buttons on the Lamp 2 Pro itself, you’ll find yourself using the Govee companion app for iOS and Android most of the time. It’s a good thing that it’s a very easy-to-use app then, with plenty of features available to get the most out of the smart lamp. 

It allows for quick selection of block colours and colour temperatures, the latter via a simple slider, but those are pretty bog-standard features. More interesting is the Scene tab, which is where you’ll find the massive range of light effects for the Lamp 2 Pro, handily split into different categories like Natural, Universe and Life.

Some of these presets have an associated sound that’ll play via the JBL speaker, but I found these to be fairly low-resolution. It’s a shame too; if Govee had spent a little more time sourcing high-quality audio, it could double up as a white noise machine in the bedroom. I ended up disabling the sounds – something that’s pretty easy to do in the app.

Finger Sketch is a nice addition that ties well with the design of the speaker; it essentially lets you sketch out an image on your phone (in suitably retro-style blocky artwork) and display it on the lamp. It’s not a complete 1:1 recreation – the version displayed on the lamp is much softer with the light-diffusing cover – but it’s a fun way to customise it for a particular event. 

My only complaint about the app is the inability to select favourite effects. I’ve settled on switching between Rainbow, Weeping Willow, and Starry Sky depending on what I’m doing and the time of day – but I can only do this by searching for them in the app. What I’d really like is a shortcut that doesn’t require me delving into multiple menus – but that’s nowhere to be found, as far as I can see.

A nice workaround would’ve been the ability to save your favourite light shows to the lamp itself, and use the preset button to switch between them. As it stands, however, the button will only cycle through a preset selection of modes with no way to edit this. A little bit of flexibility here would’ve gone a long way. 

Of course, you can get all that with the regular Table Lamp 2 Pro – what about the all-important JBL sound? 

Lamps with speakers are usually more about the ‘vibe’ than sound, but that’s not JBL’s style. 

Instead, the 2.5-inch, 10W JBL-tuned speaker packed within the light delivers a surprisingly clean and confident audio experience. The clarity is most notable, with vocals sitting right where they should be, and the treble has a bit of sparkle without veering into harsh territory. That clarity is maintained, even as the audio levels increase. 

I wish there was more oomph in the low-end, however. The bass is there, but it never quite lands with any real authority, feeling more like a polite nod to bass rather than anything that really anchors the mix. 

If you end up investing in two units, you can pair them up for a proper upgrade. While the low-end issue doesn’t change – the drivers just aren’t big enough to deliver that proper weight of a high-end speaker – you do get a big jump in overall immersion. 

Having proper left-right separation makes the soundstage feel wider and more engaging, to the point where I happily paired the speakers with my office PC for a bit of evening Netflix binging (with the bonus of nice ambient lighting). 

It also works brilliantly for gatherings and parties, both in terms of volume and overall sound quality, especially if you sync the lamps into matching or complementary light shows. 

That all said, it’s important to note that, despite the lamp offering support for Alexa, Google Home and Matter, allowing the smart assistants to control the light, the speaker is simply Bluetooth-connected. 

For some reason, it doesn’t work with the lamp’s built-in Wi-Fi to enable support for the likes of AirPlay, Chromecast or Spotify Connect. It also would’ve been great if Alexa or Google Home were baked into the system, allowing me to ditch my Echo Dot altogether for a cleaner desk look – but alas, that’s not to be. It’s still a great Bluetooth speaker, but it could’ve been smarter. 

With a sizeable 5200mAh cell hidden within its stylish exterior, the Lamp 2 Pro can last around 4-5 hours away from the plug, with both the speaker and light in full use. You can extend that a little by using it as one or the other, or by lowering the brightness, but it should do the job for most impromptu parties. 

Should you buy it?

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