At its Mate 20 smartphone event in Shanghai, China today, Huawei has revealed its forthcoming smart speaker, as reported by Engadget(viaEngadget China).
The elephant that must have been in the room: its aesthetic likeness to the Apple HomePod, with its slightly squashed cylindrical form and top-panel controls.
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Smart speaker hunters on a budget will be pleased to know it’s about a sixth of the price of the Apple rival, though. The report states the ‘Huawei AI speaker’ (the translation of its Chinese name) costs 399 yuan, which is equivalent to under £50.
Perhaps surprisingly, Dynaudio has reportedly had a hand in the acoustic design, which looks to be built around 2.25in drivers and two passive bass radiators from a hardware point of view.
The AI speaker also utilises Huawei’s ‘Histen’ algorithm, the music EQ feature which appears inside the brand’s smartphones.
Rather than base the speaker on a third-party smart platform like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, the voice control smarts are instead provided by Huawei's ‘Xiaoyi’ voice assistant.
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Further technical details are slim, and information about a global rollout is even slimmer. We hope to have more information soon.
Becky is a hi-fi, AV and technology journalist, formerly the Managing Editor at What Hi-Fi? and Editor of Australian Hi-Fi and Audio Esoterica magazines. With over twelve years of journalism experience in the hi-fi industry, she has reviewed all manner of audio gear, from budget amplifiers to high-end speakers, and particularly specialises in headphones and head-fi devices.
In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.
