Update 02/21: In response to the information below a Samsung representative reached out to confirm “Samsung is planning to launch Galaxy Home in the first half of 2019.” End of update.
Samsung’s Galaxy Home speaker is reportedly set to launch either in April 2019 or before then.
The company did not publicly confirm this information, but did reportedly confirm as much to CNET following the unveiling of the Galaxy S10 series.
The Galaxy Home speaker has been a long time coming as in spite of reports surfacing even earlier, the Galaxy Home speaker was properly unveiled and announced in August of 2018.
Since then, there’s been effectively no word on when the speaker would arrive. This includes Samsung’s presence at various tech events throughout the year, as well as the company’s dedicated events such as the Galaxy Note9 launch later in 2018, and the Galaxy S10 launch earlier today.
Although there was zero mention of the product at today’s event, the company did announce four variants of the Galaxy S10 including a 5G model, as well as a foldable smartphone, new earbuds, a smartwatch and fitness trackers. So it remains to be seen how much more difficult it would have been for the company to provide an on-stage update on the availability of a speaker that was unveiled months ago. Therefore the confirmation to a media outlet that the Galaxy Home speaker is actually nearing its release is significant news.
Of the new device arrivals, the foldable smartphone is easily the most noteworthy as it goes well beyond the parameters of what a smartphone can currently do thanks to its ability to be opened up and used in a tablet form as and when needed. Interestingly, the now-named Galaxy Fold foldable phone was said to be arriving to market in April of this year – based on the two launch dates coinciding like they do, it could be the case the Galaxy Home speaker will launch alongside the Galaxy Fold.
It is equally possible that the company also has another event planned for around that time. This is due to another report surfacing a few weeks back which suggested the company is preparing to launch a second Galaxy Home speaker. One that’s designed to be a more affordable option. So it might be the case the company has yet another event planned between now and then designed to specifically highlight the home audio products. It is also possible more information will be revealed during MWC 2019 – due to take place next week.
As per the previous report, like the original Galaxy Home speaker, the new one is expected to land as a ‘Bixby speaker’ but will be more aimed at taking on the standard versions of Google’s Home and Amazon’s Echo products.
This means that unlike the original speaker, the new one probably won’t come with as many bells and whistles as this will help to differentiate the two on price points.
For example, the original Galaxy Home speaker has been positioned as a premium product due to it not only coming with the necessary hardware to facilitate a heightened listening experience, but also a number of mics for an improved voice assistant support, as well as the ability to direct sound towards the user.
At present, and even when taking into consideration the latest update today, there’s still no word on how much the Galaxy Home speaker will cost – other than a lot.