Samsung Galaxy Home Mini smart speaker to go on sale early this year

Samsung ventured into the smart speaker with the Galaxy Home back in 2018 but the company hasn't commercially launched it yet. Samsung instead showcased a Galaxy Home Mini speaker at its developer conference last November. The company now confirmed the Galaxy Home Mini will release early this year.

Samsung's Hyunsuk Kim told Bloomberg the company plans to release the Galaxy Home Mini in early 2020. The company is also touting the Galaxy Home Mini to complete its smart home ecosystem by making it the best controlling device. This is despite being unable to launch the Galaxy Home smart speaker.

Like the first version, Galaxy Home Mini is also powered by Samsung's virtual assistant Bixby. The smart speaker is equipped to control home appliances and IoT devices through Bixby and SmartThings. The smart speaker also has IR blasters to control offline home devices. Galaxy Home Mini uses AKG sound technology for audio.

Prior to the official unveiling of Galaxy Home Mini, Samsung started its beta testing programme in South Korea. The beta testing period for Galaxy Home Mini concluded on October 4 after which it was unveiled by Samsung. The company is yet to share more details on the Galaxy Home Mini other than what we already know.

Samsung's Galaxy Home Mini would be competing with Amazon and Google's mini smart speakers which are powered by Alexa and Assistant respectively. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are both leading smart assistants in the smart product range at least. Samsung's Bixby hasn't been able to take off as expected.