Samsung Launches New Galaxy Watch, Reveals Bixby-Powered Galaxy Home Smart Speaker, More

Along with the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung is launching a new smartwatch and revealing a smart speaker at its Unpacked event today. The company is ditching its Gear brand for the new Galaxy Watch.

Galaxy Watch comes in Onyx Black, Deep Ocean Blue, and Basalt Grey. The design is supposed to resemble an actual watch, and sports an AMOLED touch-display protected by Gorilla DX+ glass. The device supports LTE connectivity for more than 30 carriers across 15 countries so you don’t need a phone to use the smartwatch all the time.

It also charges wirelessly and promises to offer up to several days of battery life thanks to the 427mAh battery. It comes in multiple different sizes to match your wrist’s size, too. The device features the usual set of health-related functionalities, but it now comes with a new stress management tracker that will prompt you to relax when it detects any level of stress. And lastly, it features 21 new indoor exercises, offering a total of 39 workouts. The device starts at $329.99, and it’ll be available from the 24th of August in the United States.

Samsung is getting into the smart speaker market with Bixby. The company today unveiled its new Galaxy Home smart speaker, though it isn’t revealing many details about the speaker yet. The device includes six built-in speakers and a subwoofer, plus eight far-field microphones. The device will also work with Spotify for streaming music as part of Samsung’s new partnership with Spotify. Galaxy Home will act as a SmartThings hub as well, letting users control their supported smart home devices with their voice. It’s not clear when the speaker will be available for purchase, but Samsung is expected to reveal more details at its developer conference in November.

Samsung announced a bunch of other things at the Unpacked event today. It’s Bixby personal assistant is getting more conversational, with integrations for Google Maps, and more. The company’s partnership with Spotify will also make the music streaming service work better across all devices, including Samsung’s TVs — in fact, Samsung is going to include Spotify as a pre-installed on its new devices, too. And lastly, the firm today announced the new Wireless Charging Duo charger, the company’s take on Apple’s delayed AirPower charger which is capable of charging your phone and smartwatch at the same time. It’s not as powerful as the yet-to-be-released AirPower, though.