Samsung smart speaker is coming in 2018

Samsung says its smart speaker, powered by the company's Bixby voice-assistant that appeared on the Samsung Galaxy S8, will be coming in 2018. That's according to Bloomberg.

The existence of a Samsung smart speaker isn't news - the company floated details of its codename Project Vega last July - but in a world where Apple's Siri speaker, HomePod, has been delayed indefinitely, any company putting out a competitor has a head-start.

(Details of the HomePod delay are scant, though Business Insider did catch Siri asserting John Travolta was deceased. Apple has now rectified that error.)

Samsung's device will apparently have a strong focus on sound quality and managing smart home devices, and is to be priced around the $200 mark (presumably £200 in the UK) to muscle in on the Sonos One's patch.

According to sources, one early version of the speaker is between the size of the latest Amazon Echo and the HomePod, and will come in a variety of colours. Samsung is also considering a touchscreen version, similar to the Echo Show.

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Simon Lucas is a freelance technology journalist and consultant, with particular emphasis on the audio/video aspects of home entertainment. Before embracing the carefree life of the freelancer, he was editor of What Hi-Fi? – since then, he's written for titles such as GQ, Metro, The Guardian and Stuff, among many others.