Govee's Dazzling Smart Light Turns Boring Ceilings Into Skies, Maps and More

Smart lighting company Govee prepared new ways to illuminate your home for CES 2026, and we were especially wowed by its latest colorful idea: Smart ceiling lights designed to look like real skylights or other inventive displays.

The biggest and boldest version is the Govee Ceiling Light Ultra, featuring a 616-pixel LED matrix, which makes it look more like a TV screen than the average light. It's also reported to have up to a 5000-lumen brightness, which seems particularly high, considering even home floodlights rarely approach those levels. That's enough to light a large space, but with the Ceiling Light Ultra's extra capabilities, you could easily hang it on the wall as an art display, too. CNET's editor Ajay Kumar got a close look at CES.

"What most impressed me was the customizability. I'm usually not a big fan of ceiling lights or recessed lighting. They almost always look bad and cast a light that's too harsh. I think the customization options that make it a more subtle art piece add a lot," Kumar said.

"They showed me one which was a map of the world, and I could see myself using it in a living room or foyer as more of an art statement rather than just a light," he said. "It's also a lot bigger than I expected in person, and could easily cover a larger room."

Govee's visuals including moving patterns that simulate a real sky.

Ajay Kumar/CNET

The second ceiling light Govee brought was the Sky Ceiling Light, a more modest display designed specifically to mimic the look of an actual skylight looking over a clear skylight with natural, day-like transitions. It may be a better option if you prefer to give a dark area a digital window that makes it seem more connected to the outside.

Govee is pairing its new ceiling lights with Lighting Bot 2.0 software, made to provide lots of customization options while also providing optimization if you don't want to mess with things too much. It can generate visuals according to your directions or offer ideas you can experiment with -- and we can't wait to experiment when these ceiling lights are released, although there's no pricing and availability info at this time.