Samsung announced details about its smart speaker.
It’s called Samsung Galaxy Home and this is just preliminary info, more will be
unveiled at the Samsung Developer Conference (set for early November). The speaker takes aim at Apple’s
HomePod as well as the larger Amazon Echos, Google Homes. Because of its
beefier speakers – powered by AKG – it will be used for music listening, not
just as an assistant like an Echo Dot or a Home mini.
Speaking of, Samsung announced a partnership with Spotify,
which will be the default music streaming provide for for the Galaxy Home. The speaker is going to have a
whopping 8 mics forming a far field microphone array (the Amazon Echo has 7
mics). The Galaxy Home will hear you at a distance and you’ll hear it too. A
feature called SoundSteer will aim the audio at you so you get loud sound
without having to pump up the volume.
The smarts come from Bixby, of course, and thanks to
the built in SmartThings hub, it will be able to turn on and off lights and
control compatible smart appliances at home. There’s no word on pricing or
availability yet. The price tag will probably be closer to the Apple HomePod
(US$ 350) and Google Home Max (US$ 400) than a regular Google Home (Us$ 130) or Amazon
Echo (US$ 100). A non-smart Samsung VL350 (with 55W AKG speakers) is US$ 250.
