Forget the HomePod — Huawei just launched a more affordable wireless speaker

(Image credit: Huawei)

Now that the Apple HomePod is discontinued, at that place'due south plenty of room for new products aiming to join the all-time Bluetooth speakers. Every bit if on cue, Huawei just unveiled the Huawei Sound: a more meaty, and affordable, version of terminal year'southward Audio X speaker.

Bachelor now in the U.K., the £199 Huawei Sound lops a 3rd off the original Sound X's £299 toll. Simply it still comes certified for Hi-Res Sound, along with a handy NFC tag for pairing Android phones at a touch on.

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For the sound, Huawei once again collaborated with audio specialist Devialet. This new speaker, therefore, features a four-inch 40W woofer and iii 5W drivers, all designed by the French visitor, along with two passive radiators in a push-push configuration to cancel out unwanted chassis vibrations. The Sound may be smaller than the Sound 10, only a single-driver, Amazon Repeat Dot-style smart speaker this is not.

At 7.iv inches tall and 5.eight inches wide, the Huawei Sound is actually a teeny flake bigger than the HomePod, but it shaves both height and width off the Sound 10. The drawback is it only having one-half the woofer and speaker count of the Audio X, though the cheaper speaker all the same promises 360-caste audio playback.

A more notable omission is the lack of a vox banana — despite similar styling to the HomePod and certain Amazon Echo devices, this is not a smart speaker in the usual sense. You tin can't control playback with your voice and you certainly tin can't use the Huawei Sound to control whatsoever smart home devices you might ain.

All the same, information technology does have some smashing tricks, similar NFC pairing and universal plug 'n' play (UPnP) back up. The latter lets you transfer Hi-Res music from your preferred UPnP streaming apps to the Sound's 8GB of onboard storage. Bluetooth is the master means of connection, though y'all tin use the 3.5mm aux input as well.

Every bit Huawei is effectively banned from doing concern in the U.S. it seems unlikely that the Sound volition ever make its way stateside, though interested U.K. parties can society it directly from Huawei. It'due south also bachelor in Australia, Cambodia, Republic of chile, China, Colombia, French republic, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russian federation, Espana and Turkey.

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James joined Tom's Guide in 2020, bringing years of experience in consumer tech and product testing. Every bit Audio Editor, James covers headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he as well covers the occasional spot of calculating and gaming news, commonly relating to how hard information technology is to find graphics card stock.