PRICE: 319 Euro (RS 54912.76)
Huawei AI Cubefull review
Huawei surprised us at IFA 2018 by announcing AI Cube, its response to Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod and Google Home. And yes, it looks a lot like the latter.
Nor is it a cube, despite the name. Is AI Cylinder a better name? No, not really. Huawei's obsession with the term AI will not disappear.
But to give it all, the AI Cube is three products in one: smart speaker, sound system and 4G / Wi-Fi router. We put ourselves into practice at IFA to see if it can compete with similar speakers that are already in the market.
Huawei AI Cube: price and availability
The release date of AI Cube to be confirmed. Strangely, Huawei told us that the price will not be announced until it goes on sale; This could be in line with a potential pre-order date, which you could not tell us either.
There are no plans to launch the speaker in the US. UU., Where Huawei phones are virtually banned for general sale.
Huawei AI Cube: design and construction
The cube is not a cube. It is an almost cylindrical tower that looks a lot like the home page of Google Home with a white plastic top section and a colored speaker cloth at its base. In a briefing, we saw gray and red versions.
And while the body is quite Google, the blue circular light that surrounds the upper edge of the AI Cube reveals the fact that this is an Amazon Alexa speaker, since this light is inspired by Echo devices.
The interior of the Huawei AI Cube has a volume of 400 ml and uses an aluminum diaphragm to enrich the sound it can emit. At the top there are volume buttons and a mute switch if you don't want the microphone to hear your voice at all times. A buttons on the back are for 4G and Wi-Fi connections.
It is a step up from other popular smart speakers with this router function, so there is also an Ethernet port and a SIM card slot on the bottom of the AI Cube. It is a clean and well done look, but it is very difficult not to compare it to the Google homepage.
But, again, it is difficult to make these speakers look very different from each other in this form factor.
Huawei AI Cube: features and specifications
While it is a router, the AI Cube is a voice assistant and a keynote speaker. When asked if Huawei had done something to differentiate or improve Alexa in the AI Cube of other Alexa devices, Huawei spokesmen said "yes" but did not give more details.
In our brief time with the speaker (which was set in German), Alexa responded accurately to commands the way we expected, but not differently from other Alexa products.
The sound quality seemed to be above average and perhaps a little more rounded than that offered by Google Home and Echo regular. But it was still remarkably not as surprising as HomePod sounds.
The music was heard at a decent volume without distorting, but since we only had about ten minutes with the AI Cube, we will have to reserve the full audio trial for our full review.
It is also difficult to judge what to expect from the sound quality of the AI Cube without knowing the price. The Amazon Echo has no room audio, but you don't expect it when it costs £ 90 (RS 15492.63). The £ 319 (RS 54912.76) HomePod justifies its high price with exceptional sound.
Huawei said it is using its patented Huawei Histen audio solution to improve the sound quality in the AI Cube. He said he does it by adding functions such as virtual bass, linear phase equalizer, adaptive gain control and far-field voice recognition.
With a SIM card inserted, Huawei says the AI Cube will be able to reach LTE Cat 6 downlink speeds of 3000Mbps. It is also compatible with 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and you can run this channel with speeds of up to 1200Mbps.
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