A European trademark application appears to have revealed the name of Samsung’s upcoming Bixby smart speaker — ‘Samsung Magbee’.
Previously we’d heard that the speaker was being developed under the name ‘Lux’, and that it could join the Galaxy Note 9 at the company’s Unpacked event on August 9.
Related: Apple HomePod
Samsung is reportedly plotting a price point of around $300 for the device, which will have bowl-shaped appearance with legs at the bottom. According to the sources, Samsung may follow Apple HomePod’s lead and place a heavy emphasis on sound quality.
The report also claims that Samsung will use a technology dubbed “sound shifting”, to direct Bixby’s responses towards the user making the command. This would give Samsung’s speaker a unique feature over the the likes of the Amazon Echo and the Google Home ranges.
The major sticking point is likely to be the price. While its rumoured $300 (around £229) price tag isn’t as large as the HomePod’s £319/$339, it’s still a pretty hefty price premium over competing smart speakers from Google and Amazon.
Apple has proved that sound quality alone isn’t enough to justify a premium price, so Samsung needs to prove that Bixby is smart enough if it wants to charge that much.
Read more: IFA 2018
Previous rumours had suggested that Samsung was planning to release its own variant alongside the revamped Bixby 2.0 assistant. If that update is ready for the Note 9, it seems the stars are aligning for the speaker to also make its debut at the Unpacked event on August 9, which is just two weeks away.
If Samsung holds back, then the company will likely unveil the product at the IFA tech show in Berlin at the end of August, where it is also expected to reveal a new smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy Watch.
Would you buy a Samsung-branded speaker powered by the Bixby assistant? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
