Let's take a look at the updated SberBoom smart speakers
On August 6, 2024, the SberDevices team presented the smart speakers SberBoom Mini 2 and SberBoom Home. I had two weeks to take a closer look at them and test them. In this article, I share my assessment and observations.
SberBoom Mini 2
SberBoom Mini 2 is an update to the compact smart speaker from Sber. The company decided to keep the form factor, but slightly redesigned the design and improved the sound. The device is perfect for those who are just starting to get acquainted with the Sber smart home ecosystem and children.
The speaker is round with a ribbed edge made of transparent plastic. If you try, you can see the internal elements of the device through the holes in the lower part of the case. And on the inner part of the edge you can see the SberBoom Mini 2 logo. The audio system power is 5 W.
The bottom of the speaker is made of thick silicone, so the device does not slide on flat surfaces. There is also a mount for placing the speaker on the wall. It seems to me a convenient way to not take up much space on the table or nightstand, especially if you make a hidden installation of the power cable.
All controls are located on the top of the speaker. These are physical buttons with a quiet click. There are five buttons in total:
Wave – turn on an endless wave of tracks.
Heart — add the track to your favorites.
Circle — call a virtual assistant.
Plus/minus — control the playback volume.
SberBoom Mini 2 is available in four colors: Quantum Black, Neon Gray, Titanium Blue, and Electric Yellow. The first three are neutral colors that will fit into almost any interior and will not attract attention. In terms of equipment, everything is minimalistic: the speaker itself, a power supply, and instructions. SberBoom Mini 2 will cost 4,490 rubles.
SberBoom Home
SberBoom Home is a new device in the line of smart speakers from Sber. As the name suggests, the gadget is designed to become the center of a smart home. The speaker is larger than the SberBoom Mini 2, and the front part of the case has a screen for displaying useful information.
The speaker is slightly larger and heavier than the miniature version. Among the special features in the appearance, one can note the monochrome LED matrix of 5×17 LEDs. This allows you to display weather data, voice assistant emotions, animations, time, timers and an equalizer on the front part. It is especially nice that if you ask the speaker the name of the song being played, a running line with the artist and track title will appear on the body. Sometimes voice assistants do not pronounce words in English very skillfully, so this function is useful.
The LED matrix backlight level is adjusted automatically, based on the lighting level in the room. Thanks to this, the symbols are visible on a sunny day, and they do not blind at night.
Some icons and animations on the SberBoom Home matrix
The speaker is available in five colors: sea, fog, pistachio, terracotta, and sky. The edges of SberBoom Home are wrapped in acoustic wear-resistant fabric. The company notes that the fabric is treated with a special impregnation that repels dirt. I could not pass by this statement and tested the level of protection from dirt. For the experiment, I chose ketchup, since tomatoes are very difficult to wash off. I splattered the fabric with ketchup, waited about a minute, and wiped the body with a damp cloth. The stain really came off easily, while the fabric is tactilely very soft and does not feel plastic.
Testing wear-resistant fabric
Another advantage of SberBoom Home is the USB-C port for power supply – convenient and versatile. On the top of the case there are the same five buttons for manual control, and the sound is provided by an 8 W audio system.
The speaker is made the center of a smart home by the built-in Zigbee module, so you can directly connect smart gadgets to it. In addition, commands and scenarios without the Internet are supported, but there are nuances:
Network connection is still required for voice commands, as voice processing does not occur locally, and offline access can only be implemented with smart devices that are directly integrated into the SberBoom Home ecosystem.
Gadgets with cloud synchronization require network access, which is logical.
In other cases, you can control devices without offline. For example, assign a wireless button to turn on the light in the room. The developers noted that the speaker already has all the hardware necessary to operate the Matter over Wi-Fi protocol. In the near future, full support will appear, and more gadgets will be supported without the Internet. SberBoom Home will cost 7,990 rubles.
SberBoom Chips
The SberBoom Home and SberBoom Mini 2 speakers have several special features that can be useful in everyday use. I especially liked the mode of transmitting messages from one speaker to another. For example, you can ask to transmit a message to the nursery or living room, the main thing is that the speakers are connected to the same SberID account. A similar function is available in Apple HomePod and is useful for large private houses.
The speakers can also work in a stereo pair not only in streaming mode, but via Bluetooth and with TVs and TV set-top boxes controlled by Salut TV. In this case, the sound is distributed across the panorama, which is always nice when watching movies.
With TVs controlled by Salut TV, it's a different story. Smart speakers have learned to control the TV interface with your voice. You can: press buttons and select menu items without having to point at the element itself, in any player you can pause playback and switch to the next video or track, and in YouTube and Okko you can rewind to a specific time code. At the same time, you don't have to say something like “three times to the left, once down, four times to the right, and now turn it on.” You can ask to turn on a video by its title or number on the screen.
The contractive mode is supported. If there are several speakers at home, then the request will not be answered by all at once, and not even by one random speaker, but by the one that is closer to the user.
It is also important to note that both speakers are equipped with the Magnetic Sound function, which combines hardware and software innovations. Firstly, the company's engineers have improved adaptive sound processing algorithms. Secondly, they replaced the ferrite magnet with a neodymium one. Thanks to this, the sound has become richer and bass has appeared. It is safe to say that both speakers sound very good for their class. I lacked volume and a bit of midrange, but in general – decent sound for a compact smart speaker.
“Firework”
I had my first experience interacting with the voice assistant “Salut”. The first thing to note is that “Salut” has three voices with different characters:
“Sber” is a collected male character, addresses “you” and always answers clearly and briefly.
“Athena” also addresses people formally, but behaves more energetically than “Sber”.
“Joy” is the most cheerful voice, addresses “you” and shows a lot of emotion.
The idea of different voices and personalities seemed interesting. I immediately realized that I liked Joy better. I tried talking to Sber for a while, but our relationship with it never worked out. All assistants can whisper to whisper. For me, this is a very useful function so as not to disturb others at night.
The GigaChat language model is integrated into Salute, so the voice assistant can create content on request, for example, compose fairy tales. For me, this is not the most popular mode, but it is interesting. Sometimes the language model hallucinates, but in the context of fairy tales, it even looks interesting. It will also be useful for parents to know that Salute recognizes a child's voice, so the child will not be able to turn on something on the speaker that he should not hear yet.
Otherwise, it is a functional voice assistant that, thanks to different voices, can “find an approach” to all family members.
