Samsung is planning to announce its Galaxy Home Mini smart speaker on Wednesday, just after its Unpacked event. But we just got a huge sneak peek in the form of images, videos, and screenshots posted to Twitter.
Features galore —
The leak is more than just photos; it also shows off the Galaxy Home Mini’s slew of features. For example, the Home Mini comes set with an IR blaster, which can control TVs and set-top boxes from up to 40 feet away. Most other smart speakers don’t come with IR capabilities — except for some of Amazon’s Fire products — so this could be a good selling point for Samsung.
It looks like the Galaxy Home Mini will have most of the other features smart speakers have become known for, such as playing music on Spotify and setting alarms. Notably, the Home Mini doesn’t have a 3.5-mm line-out port to connect it to another set of speakers — but the leak mentions that it can stream to other speakers via Bluetooth.
The leak also claims you can make Bixby say just about anything. In one video, the Galaxy Home Mini is shown saying, “At least I’m better than Siri.”
Hey Alexa — I mean Siri — I mean Bixby —
Samsung’s entry into the smart speaker arena is powered by Bixby, the virtual assistant found on Samsung’s flagship phones. Bixby hasn’t exactly become a household name in the way Alexa or Siri have. Samsung might hope a smart speaker will bring Bixby closer to the competition, but that will be tough in such a saturated market.
Even if it had a recognizable assistant, Samsung’s Galaxy Home Mini would be entering a market filled to the brim with competition. Amazon has plenty of inexpensive Alexa-powered devices, and the Google Home Mini has also become very popular. Introducing a smart speaker in 2020 is a risky move; Samsung will need to bank on its loyalists for it to sell well (or at all).
