We’ve been waiting a heck of a long time for the Samsung Galaxy Home Mini, and even longer for the larger version. But at last, it seems like we have a vague release window for the smaller of the Bixby-powered devices ” even if we’ve been let down before.
The Samsung Galaxy Home speaker was originally announced wayyyy back in August 2018, with the Mini announced the following January (yep, a whole year ago) despite the first speaker having failed to appear. A year on from the first announcement, both speakers were still MIA, despite reassurances that they were totally still coming. Then we got a bit more info on the Mini, followed by a preview at the Samsung Developer Conference in October.
Now, even though Samsung has fibbed about Galaxy Home release dates before (when it promised the main speaker in Q3 of last year), we’re choosing to believe they actually mean it when they say the Galaxy Home Mini is coming in “early 2020.”
We have zero new information on the bigger speaker, so whether that’s still on the way is anyone’s guess. Maybe it depends how well the smaller version does, although it’s unusual to release the ‘mini’ version of a smart speaker before the full-fat ” both Alexa and Google Assistant devices went big first, then little.
The Galaxy Home Mini isn’t going to be exactly the same as those speakers, though: the idea is for it to be a kind of hub for controlling all your smart stuff. A Samsung Exec apparently has one controlling 63 separate devices in his home.
In contrast to other smart home hubs, the Galaxy Home Mini can send and receive infrared signals, meaning anything that uses a remote control is fair game.
Of course, the natural assumption is that we’ll now see the Galaxy Home Mini at the launch of the Galaxy S11 on the 11th of February, perhaps as a gift with purchase. Or perhaps it’ll disappear into thin air again. One thing’s for sure: we’re not asking Bixby. [Pocket Lint]
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.