Samsung to launch Bixby-powered smart speaker alongside Galaxy Note9

Samsung is reportedly prepping up to unveil the much-anticipated Bixby-powered smart speaker in August. According to The Wall Street Journal, the device will cost around $300 and will be promoted as a top-end music player.

This also corroborates with the comments that Samsung Mobile chief DJ Koh made back in February. He said the company is expected to launch a high-end Bixby-powered smart speaker alongside the Galaxy Note 9.

The report also says the speaker will be bowl-shaped with legs on the bottom and light on top. It will also have a sound shifting feature that will play audio in the direction of the person talking to it. It might work something like the S-Ray concept Samsung demoed at CES earlier this year. The speakers will certainly be using the Bixby version 2.0, which will be released alongside the Note 9.

Talking of the price, the company was previously reported to launch different variants at different prices. However, this wasn't mentioned in The Wall Street Journal report. But, considering that both Google and Amazon have their cheaper version in the market, it makes sense for Samsung to compete at all price segments.

Previously, few patents from the company surfaced, giving us a glimpse of how the smart speaker could look like. The patent, first filed with the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) last November was discovered by LetsGoDigital. It shows a device that comprises two ellipsoids stacked on top of one another.

The top half features seven microphones and can rotate full 360 degrees and pivot side to side to track sounds. The patent image also shows how the top half moves to face the user to improve recognition capabilities. Not just that, the smart speaker will also pack a display and a camera.

The report also suggests that the camera would be used to recognize specific users based on the biometric data. Apart from that, the display would also show text, photos, and other media. Additionally, the display could also have support for a stylus pen. On the connectivity front, the device will feature LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, USB, HDMI, and GPS connectivity.