Extend your hand to Sony’s extravagant Xperia Hello! smart speaker

If the likes of the Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod and indeed Sony’s LF-S50G are being classed as ‘smart speakers’, then we’d consider Sony’s Xperia Hello! nothing short of a brainbox.

For one, it is actually robot-like – not just in functionality but physical form too. It utilises a swivelling camera as the robot’s head and features a 4.6-inch 720p display as its body. And it's not just a body, the display can display information such as messages, weather and time.

Sony claims the Xperia Hello! can not only respond to voice control but is able to recognise different family members and adapt its responses specifically to that person. This is possible thanks to its microphones and sensors, which can detect people within three metres and then swivel by 340 degrees to turn and face them.

We imagine it also plays music too, but Sony is clearly pushing its more interesting selling points here.

Sony doesn’t expect to shift “a significant volume” of Xperia Hello!’s – the 150,000 yen (around £1000) price tag won't help – and currently only has plans to release it to the Japanese market before deciding whether to let it loose on the world. Either way, it certainly puts a new spin on smart speakers...

Read more:

Here are all the many, many smart speakers

Smart speakers - everything you need to know

How to choose the right wireless speaker

Sony LF-S50G hands-on review

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Becky Roberts

Becky is the managing editor of What Hi-Fi? and, since her recent move to Melbourne, also the editor of Australian Hi-Fi magazine. During her 10 years in the hi-fi industry, she has been fortunate enough to travel the world to report on the biggest and most exciting brands in hi-fi and consumer tech (and has had the jetlag and hangovers to remember them by). In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.