Samsung has finally decided to enter the smart speaker market with the Galaxy Home. It’s a high-end speaker meant to go head-to-head with Google Home, Apple’s HomePod, and Amazon’s Echo and with a promise of higher quality audio. Samsung said the speaker is meant to combine “amazing sound and elegant design.”
The Galaxy Home looks like a strange vase or pot or statue that might go on a table in the corner of your home. It’s wrapped in fabric and elevated by three stout metal legs. It has a flat top with control buttons on it for skipping tracks and changing the volume.
The speaker is supposed to deliver 360 degrees surround-sound style audio using six built-in speakers and a subwoofer. It also includes eight far-field microphones for detecting voice input. You’ll be able to say “Hi Bixby” to activate Samsung’s assistant and ask it to start playing music or a number of other tasks — Samsung indicated it’d be able to do many of the same things Bixby can do a phone.
Powered by Bixby and a Spotify partnership
One of the big questions hanging over the speaker is how well its smart functions will hold up. It includes Samsung’s Bixby assistant, which few have seemed to particularly enjoy using so far. If Samsung wants this to be seen as an equivalent to an Echo, it’ll need an assistant that’s about as smart as Alexa. And right now, it isn’t clear the company has that.
The company has also announced a partnership with the world’s largest music streaming company Spotify to help integrate Samsung’s slew of devices with one music experience.
