Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. News

Huawei’s new A.I. speaker looks an awful lot like the Apple HomePod

AJ Dellinger
By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Huawei really has a thing for design. Unfortunately, its preferences seem to run toward the designs of other companies. At an event in China last week, the Chinese tech giant introduced its latest smart speaker, called simply the Huawei A.I. Speaker, according to Engadget. You might notice a few similarities between the speaker and a certain one from Apple.

Yes, the Huawei A.I. Speaker looks pretty darn close to Apple’s HomePod. It has a short, sturdy, and cylindrical design just like the HomePod. It has physical controls right on the top of the speaker just like the HomePod. (Apple’s only has a clear “+” and “-” button on its top but those can be used to input a number of touch and gesture-based controls, while the Huawei A.I. Speaker has a “+” button, “-” button, mute button, and a button to accept calls.) And it has a mesh fabric cover just like, you guessed it, the HomePod.

Recommended Videos

There are a few ways the Huawei A.I. Speaker separates itself from Apple’s offering. First, it uses Huawei’s own artificially intelligent assistant Xiaoyi to handle all of the voice commands. Xiaoyi makes it easy to integrate the A.I. Speaker into existing Huawei products as part of the company’s HiLink system for connected devices. Perhaps more importantly, the A.I. Speaker has a much different price tag than Apple’s HomePod. While the HomePod goes for $350, Huawei’s speaker will be priced at 399 yuan ($60). That’s a much friendlier approach to your wallet.

Related

This isn’t the first time that Huawei has drawn inspiration from a competitor’s design when creating a smart speaker. The company’s A.I. Cube, which is one part speaker with voice assistant and one part Wi-Fi router, looks pretty darn similar to the Google Home, Google’s initial offering in the smart speaker market. It also looks nothing like a cube. In addition to offering extra connectivity with its built-in router, the Huawei A.I. Cube also had Alexa on board.

Huawei has apparently decided to depart from third-party voice assistants with its newest smart speaker, which is great if you’re already in the company’s ecosystem but less ideal if you like to keep your options open when it comes to A.I. assistants.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
AJ Dellinger
AJ Dellinger
Contributor
AJ Dellinger is a freelance reporter from Madison, Wisconsin with an affinity for all things tech. He has been published by…
Apple reportedly working on a new iPad-like smart home display
Someone holding the 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro (2022).

Apple recently announced a new HomePod with support for Matter, but it seems the company might have bigger smart home plans for the rest of 2023. According to the latest report from Bloomberg, Apple is allegedly working on an iPad-like device that could directly compete with Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub Max.

Details on the rumored product are scarce, but it seems the device would feature a touchscreen and function similar to an iPad. Magnets would allow it to be mounted to a wall, and HomeKit would give it access to all your smart home products. It’s unclear at this time if the device would feature a stand, allowing it to sit on your countertops like the Echo Show and Nest Hub. What is clear, however, is that Apple wants to gain a stronger foothold in the smart home market -- and this could serve as a great alternative to using the HomePod Mini as a HomeKit hub.

Read more
HomePod Mini vs. Echo Dot: which is better?
Apple HomePod mini on table

The Apple HomePod Mini and Echo Dot are two of the best smart speakers of 2023. Both clock in at less than $100, offer eye-catching designs, and give you all the versatility you’d expect from top-of-the-line smart speakers. But which speaker is more deserving of a spot in your home?

Before picking up the HomePod Mini or Echo Dot, you’ll want to do a bit of research. It's hard to go wrong with either product, but one might be a slightly better fit for your household. From pricing and compatibility to sound quality and more, here’s everything you need to know about these two smart speakers.
Design

Read more
Sorry, there’s no new HomePod on the way
Customers inspect the new Apple HomePod at an Apple Store on February 9, 2018 in San Francisco, California.

Today's Apple event had the rumor mills filing for extra overtime pay in hope that a new HomePod or HomePod Mini would be announced, but HomeKit users once again find themselves out in the cold. Although Apple announced quite a bit of information about upcoming products, no mention was made of its smart home presence.

The original HomePod was discontinued last year around this time, with the idea that Apple would focus all of its future efforts on the HomePod Mini. The latest announcement Apple has made regarding the Mini is the launch of new colors -- yellow, orange, and blue -- but even that was in November of last year. Since then, there's been no news.

Read more