Samsung Bixby smart speaker said to launch in August for $300

TL;DR

• Samsung will reportedly release a Bixby-powered smart speaker next month.
• The product is said to cost around $300 and Samsung would market it as a high-end music player.
• This would put it in competition with the Apple Home Pod and the Google Home Max.

The Wall Street Journal says the speaker will be bowl-shaped with legs on the bottom and lights on top (hope those lights are shaped like eyes for the proper Batteries Not Included experience). It will also apparently have a sound shifting feature that will be able to play audio in the direction of the person talking to it. It might work something like the S-Ray concept Samsung demoed at CES earlier this year; see the trailer for the tech below.

The speaker will presumably use the upcoming Bixby version 2.0. The new version of Samsung’s AI assistant has long been rumored to feature on the Galaxy Note 9, so it would make a lot of sense that the speaker would also come with the latest version (if they launch simultaneously).

While previous rumors suggested Samsung would release different versions of its smart speaker at different prices, this wasn’t mentioned by The Wall Street Journal in the latest report. However, considering both Google and Amazon have released cheaper versions of their respective smart speakers, it wouldn’t be surprising if Samsung eventually does the same.

Apple HomePod review

If the $300 price-tag is correct, the speaker would be competing with —although slightly cheaper than — high-end devices such as the Apple HomePod ($349.99) and Google Home Max ($399). As well as a more attractive price, Samsung could give its speaker an edge by integrating its wealth of existing products.

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