(*two*)
Samsung is reportedly working on the Galaxy Home Mini 2, a new entry in its mysterious line of stop-start smart speakers.
If the name Samsung Galaxy Home Mini doesn't ring a bell and you're wondering why there's a '2', then you're not alone: the original Home Mini was only available in South Korea with purchases of the Galaxy Phone S20. while the standard Galaxy Home smart device was announced in 2018 but never released.
Despite this, Samsung has another shot at the smart speaker game according to leaker Max Jambor, who recently tweeted "Galaxy Home Mini 2 (SM-V320) isn't too far off."
In a follow-up tweet, Jambor added, "In other words: production has started," indicating an announcement could happen sometime this year.
Adding fuel to the fire, website SamMobile reported late last year that their sources told them a new Galaxy Home Mini was in the works.
While we should always take rumors with a grain of salt, the fact that we've now seen several reports suggests that we can indeed expect a new smart speaker from Samsung, but how could that be?
There aren't many detailed leaks so far, but we can venture some predictions.
While it's easy to imagine the Galaxy Home Mini 2 taking inspiration from its South Korean-only predecessor, which resembled a more spherical Google Nest Mini and relied on the Bixby assistant, we think a new speaker from Samsung would also incorporate a screen, but not like the ones on the Google Nest Hub or the Amazon Show.
Instead, we think it would be a foldable screen like the one we mentioned in September 2021. At the time, we talked about a video from South Korea's IMID exhibition showing a Samsung-made prototype for a smart speaker with a flexible OLED screen. . .
The implemented design would allow the device to transform between a sleek and compact speaker and a bulkier device with a screen capable of displaying a variety of useful information and offering video playback.
In its most compact form, the curved screen would still display certain information, such as the time and weather, and a Galaxy Home Mini 2 could also include touch controls.
It's not just wild speculation, either: SamMobile's report on the Galaxy Home Mini 2 rumors also mentioned that the speaker will come with any screen.
We'll probably have to wait a bit longer before we know for sure what, if anything, Samsung has in store for us, but we're excited to see if its third attempt at a smart speaker proves more successful than the last.