At IFA 2018, Huawei unveiled the HUAWEI AI Cube, a two-in-one speaker and 4G router with Alexa built-in, marking its official entry into the smart speaker market.
As told by the company, it represents a natural and convenient way for consumers to connect to the internet and control smart devices, while delivering high-quality audio in a compact form factor.
The Huawei AI Cube supports Wi-Fi on 4G LTE. Setup for the router is also claimed as easy — it requires a 4G SIM card plugged in to establish the internet connection at LTE Category 6 speeds (300Mbps downlink). Huawei AI Cube is also compatible with the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, meaning the router is dual band, capable of working on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels and transmitting data over LAN at up to 1,200Mbps. Huawei AI Cube also features Alexa built-in, enabling users to play music and control smart home devices.
In terms of speaker performance, Huawei AI Cube is built with a 400ml sound cavity and an aluminum diaphragm. The audio is also enhanced with Huawei’s proprietary audio solution: Huawei Histen. Also featured on a range of Huawei devices, Huawei Histen is said to enrich the AI speaker’s set of features by including virtual bass, linear phase equalizer, adaptive gain control, far-field voice recognition and more as part of its repertoire.
All the aforementioned technologies supported on the Huawei AI Cube are packed in small matte white body with a seamless 3D mesh base. Moreover, the AI speaker is designed in a way that the ports are hidden underneath the base which Huawei says allows it to blend in with any home decor easily.
Alongside the Huawei AI Cube, Huawei also launched Huawei Locator, a small form factor location beacon supporting long operation and standby times as well as four major global navigation satellite system (GNSS) standards, namely GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou. Compatible with nano SIM and eSIM, the device supports global roaming with near-real-time location reporting and provides services including SOS button, Geofence and BLE Found, a proximity-based service that triggers a buzzer alarm on Huawei Locator when a paired smartphone is within 10 meters from the device.
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