Two years ago the Samsung Galaxy Home was unveiled Unpacked 2018. Released alongside the Note 9, it was a beast that promised superb sound features and robust smart home integration. Over the next two years release times were set and missed. It is still yet to grace our homes with its gargantuan presence. We want to know what happened.
Unpacked 2018: The Samsung Galaxy Home is Revealed
Perhaps I am so obsessed with the fate of the Samsung Galaxy Home because I felt it under my very fingertips in New York back in 2018. I was so close. Little did I know how far it truly was.
The Ballad of the Galaxy Home was an odd one from the start. During the live stream of Unpacked 2018 it was memed into oblivion due to its comically large size and uncanny similarity to a Weber BBQ.
Bixby can help cook BBQ#GalaxyNote9 #Unpacked #GalaxyHome pic.twitter.com/Ri1ErsAnIr
— ตอตัวอ้วน – ง่วงนัก ก็นอนเถอะ (@itua) August 9, 2018
Others preferred to call it the Bixby Urn.
Give us the speaker that was promised and free me from the burden of mentioning the elusive Bixby Urn in every Samsung article I write #IFA pic.twitter.com/D4CqZXzyob
— Fergus Halliday (@Cvamped) September 5, 2019
Considering how little we’ve been hearing about Bixby lately, perhaps that’s apt.
Just a few short months later was IFA, one of the biggest consumer technology shows in the world. Samsung is such a big deal there that it has a hall all to itself. And yet, the Galaxy Home was not there. I found this strange, but went on with my life.
In early 2019 it was was spotted in the wild once again, thus renewing my faith in humanity. This time it appeared CES in Las Vegas. I touched it. It was glorious.
But then … nothing.
2019 release
The Samsung Galaxy Home never received a hard release date. However, Samsung CEO DJ Koh told CNET it would be arriving in April 2019. This window came and went, something Galaxy Home stans would become accustomed to. In May 2019 a Samsung representative told The Verge that it would be on shelves sometime in the first half of 2019. Sadly, it wasn’t.
June comes. Summer in the Northern hemisphere. A time of of sunshine and hope. Samsung’s Consumer Electronics CEO, Kim Hyun-suk gave the Korea Herald a new release period — Q3 2019.
“The Galaxy Home speaker, which will be the centre of Samsung’s home appliances, is planned to be launched in mid-second half of the year,” he said.
Samsung now had until the end of September to deliver.
The Samsung Galaxy Home Mini
August 2019 rolls around and alongside it another Unpacked. The Galaxy Note 10 is unleashed on the world. But there is naught a whisper of the Galaxy Home during the event this year.
There had been rumours, though. Since may there was talk of a smaller Galaxy Home being in the works. And now it was confirmed.
A beta programme for the Galaxy Home mini kicked off in South Korea on August 29, 2019. This sounded promising and made sense. After all the flack Samsung caught for the size of the OG Galaxy Home, a petite version tracked.
And so we waited again.
2020, a cursed year
Nothing much was said about the Galaxy Home, or the Galaxy Home Mini, for another six months. Then something weird happened.
On February 4, 2020 the Galaxy Home Mini was officially announced for a February 12 release. Samsung South Korea put out a press release with the date as well as a 99,00 KRW price tag. This is roughly $124 in Australian dollars.
Finally, our day had come! Alas, no.
The announcement was removed from the site later that day.
Six months and one pandemic later and we have arrived back where it all started — Unpacked. We now have a new Note 20 to bask in, but no Galaxy Home.
Considering its odd journey and the state of things, perhaps we never will be blessed by its presence. Perhaps its just too pure for this world.
I wish I could let this go and allow my BBQ Boi to peacefully fade into the realm of vapourware. But I crave closure. Please Samsung, bring my tortured heart some peace. Let the Ballad of the Samsung Home have its final stanza.