Govee made a portable table lamp with a built-in JBL speaker, and it's very cool

Govee showed off plenty of cool devices at the start of the year, and they're now starting to become available. The new table lamp in particular is interesting; it has the usual lighting effects and high degree of customizability that you get with any Govee lighting product, and it also doubles as a portable Bluetooth speaker.

Govee collaborated with JBL over the product, and its official name signifies the same: Table Lamp 2 Pro x Sound by JBL. I'm just going to call it the Table Lamp 2 Pro, and it certainly ticks all the right boxes: it houses 210 RGB LEDs that can be easily controller by your phone, and there's a 2.5-inch JBL full-range driver that sounds good in its own right.

You also get a 5,200mAh battery, making the table lamp inherently portable. It is on the bulkier side, but the addition of a battery makes it that much more versatile. The Table Lamp 2 Pro retails for $179, and you can get two units and set up a stereo pair if you're interested.

There's clearly a lot going on here, so let's start with the design. The table lamp has an acrylic shell that diffuses light evenly, and the bottom quarter has a clear finish that accentuates the design. You get a set of controls at the top that let you power the device on or off, switch between lighting modes, and change the music playback and volume of the built-in speaker.

The speaker grille is also located up top, and it's easy enough to connect the table lamp to your phone if you just want to use it as a Bluetooth speaker. On that note, the sound quality is quite good; you get a good mid-range and decent treble, but it misses out on low-end energy — it just doesn't deliver the kind of rumble and vibrancy that you normally get on most portable speakers.

There's some mid-bass, but you don't get any sub-bass extension. This is likely to do with the design as there isn't much room to house the acoustic cavity, so if you want a Bluetooth speaker that has engaging bass, this isn't the best choice. Thankfully, there's no distortion when you increase the volume, so that's good to see. I didn't see any issues connecting to my Vivo X200 Pro, X200 Ultra, and Honor Magic V3.

Govee nailed the lighting side of things; the LEDs get bright, and you can choose from over a hundred different scenes. There's also the option to dynamically adjust lighting effects based on music that's currently playing, and the table lamp does quite well in this mode.

There's extensive customizability when it comes to adjusting the lighting, but you don't get the same flexibility with the sound — there's no EQ or presets, and you don't have the ability to tailor the sound quality to your tastes. That said, other the weedy bass, there isn't much wrong with the audio in general.

I wasn't able to test the stereo sound feature as I got just the one unit of this table lamp, but I wouldn't recommend it if you want a device mostly for listening to music. Outside of that quibble, there are no downsides here; the LEDs get bright enough that I didn't have to set it to over 50% most of the time, and the diffused light is the highlight.

Connectivity is rock-solid; you can use it as a Bluetooth speaker, and the lighting portion connects to your home network (over the 2.4GHz band). It has Matter integration, and it can be controlled by Google Assistant or Alexa. It has LAN control as well, so if you use Home Assistant, you can use the platform to control the device.

There's a 5,200mAh battery that lets you use the table lamp anywhere, and I'm hesitant to take this outdoors; it is good as a party speaker, but it doesn't quite have the rugged design that you get with most outdoor Bluetooth speakers. You get a set of lighting effects that have accompanying sounds, and I used it as an ambient light most of the time.

Ultimately, this is a table lamp that excels as a Bluetooth speaker, and the portability gives it a distinct advantage. It is costly at $179, but you're effectively getting a two-in-one device.