Samsung are building a smart speaker with their own voice assistant Bixby - what's the price like and how will it cope with Apple, Alexa and Google?
It was only a matter of time before Samsung wanted to join the smart speaker market and compete along side Apple's HomePod, Amazon's range of Alexa voice controlled products and the Google Home and Google Home Mini from Google.
Voice wise, Amazon's Echo range have voice assistant Alexa, Apple's HomePod uses Siri (the same as your iPad, iPhone and now even the Mac). Google Home is controlled by the Google voice assistant. Just say "Ok, Google" to wake it up.
With the Amazon Echo say "Alexa", and the Apple HomePod, speak the words "Hey Siri". For Bixby, you can say (or shout - it's up to you) "Hi Bixby" to wake the speaker up and start saying commands.
Bixby is Samsung's voice assistant and comes bundled with the Samsung Galaxy s8, s8 Plus, s9 and s9 Plus. There is even a dedicated button on the side of the handset to activate Bixby. Some people like it, others not so much. Thankfully, on the s9, you can disable the Bixby button. There are even some third party apps that allow you to program the button to whatever you want.
The speaker is expected to hit online stores and shops someone next month, or possibly a month after that. The price is a big one, so get your credit card out. It's expected to cost at least £299 - $300 in the US.
Here are the prices of the other smart speakers out there:
Google Home - £129
Amazon Echo - £90
Apple HomePod - £319
Yes, the Apple HomePod does cost a lot for a speaker. Google and Amazon offers up smaller and more affordable versions of their speakers: the Amazon Ech Dot and the Google Home Mini.
We understand that music is going to be at the heart of Samsung's smart speaker, and it'll have a sound shifting feature. This means the person listening will have a more direct music experience as it'll be able to work out where the person is saying commands.
We'll bring you more Samsung smart speaker news hot off the press when we get it!
For more tech news and reviews, follow us on Twitter @Hart_Pro_Tweets #HartleyProductions and Like us on Facebook and Instagram @HartleyProductionsOfficial. As always, keep checking back on hartleyproductions.uk for more.