Huawei will release its Sound X smart speaker in Europe following its Chinese release back in the fall. CNBC reports specifically that Huawei intends to sell the speaker in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
The Sound X is a pretty typical smart speaker, looking a lot like Apple’s HomePod in particular. Huawei designed it in partnership with French audio company Devialet and says it packs 360-degree sound and a 60W double subwoofer.
Don't call it smart —
Of course the elephant in the room is that the Sound X will not use Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant due to the U.S. ban on American companies working with Huawei. In fact, the Chinese company offers its own assistant called Xiaoyi, but that’s more geared towards its home market and Huawei won’t be offering it on the European version of the speaker at launch. The Sound X will instead function just as a Bluetooth speaker for now, meaning it won't really be smart at all.
While Huawei hasn’t announced pricing or a release date, the company sells the speaker for 1,999 yuan ($284 USD) in China, so it may be priced similarly in Europe. It likely won't be coming to the U.S., especially after the Department of Justice recently indicted Huawei on a litany of charges including racketeering and flouting sanctions on Iran. Huawei denies the charges.
Reviews of the Sound X have found that the sound quality is good, but doesn't make up for the lack of smarts in the Western world. So unless you're in the market for a pure speaker I don't think you should bother with the Sound X.
Huawei has managed to perform well despite intense pressure from the Trump Administration thanks to strong growth in its massive home market. That might be starting to crack, however, as new phones from Huawei begin to hit Europe without support for any Google apps.
