Earlier last month, a few rumors sprung up that suggested that Samsung might launch a smart speaker powered by Bixby. Today, at its Galaxy Unpacked event, along with the Galaxy Note9 and Galaxy Watch, the company also unveiled Galaxy Home, the firm’s first smart speaker that is powered its own digital assistant, Bixby, which will almost certainly take on the likes of the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod.
The Galaxy Home is built in collaboration with Samsung owned AKG and consists of eight microphones for far-field voice recognition. The speaker uses the “Hi Bixby” wake word and can direct sound at you depending on where you are in the room, just like the Apple HomePod. It employs Harman natural sound processing for improved surround sound experience and high-quality sub-woofers for rich bass. The speaker also works with Samsung SmartThings Hub as it is built right into the product, allowing for the speaker to connect to devices connected with SmartThings.
Samsung also announced today that it is partnering with Spotify and demoed how Spotify can easily be played across Samsung TVs, phones and the Galaxy Home speaker. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also added that Galaxy users will soon be able to control Spotify with Bixby. Spotify will be the default music streaming service on the Home speaker.
Though not much was shared about the device itself during the event, the South Korean giant did mention that it would share further details at its developer conference, which should take place sometime later this year.
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