Does Huawei's new smart speaker remind you of something?

HAt its Mate 20 event in Shanghai, uawei on Friday praised a new smart speaker with artificial intelligence. Although it's a new device, it seems strangely familiar.

Translated into Chinese, the smart device is nicknamed the Huawei AI Speaker, according to Engadget. And if you have not noticed yet, it's more like a flagrant copy of Apple's HomePod.

It sports a rounded design covered with a fabric-like fabric, similar to Apple's high-end offer. While a Siri interface sits at the top of HomePod, the Huawei AI speaker has physical volume, mute and call buttons.

The device may look like HomePod, but it does not share its price. While HomePod costs 349 dollars, Huawei AI's speaker will offer 399 yuan to its customers (about 60 dollars in US currency).

As for other specifications, the smart speaker includes a 10W high fidelity 10W speaker and six microphones. It also contains Huawei's "Histen" music equalizer algorithm. It comes in gray and white.

Although the Huawei AI loudspeaker is not the company's first foray into the world of smart speakers, it is the first device to offer the company's Xiaoyi Digital Voice Assistant.

Xiaoyi will not work in English and, at present, the company does not seem to have any plans for a global release. But the Huawei AI speaker could represent a cheaper alternative to HomePod in the Huawei national market. There is no indication as to a launch date in China.

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This is not the first time that a Huawei speaker raises eyebrows because of its similarity with another device. In August, the Chinese OEM unveiled a smart speaker called AI Cube. Confusingly, the speaker is not at all in the shape of a cube. Instead, it looks vaguely like a reclining Google Home.

This speaker has loaded Amazon Alexa from his main assistant. Interestingly, in addition to being a smart speaker, the AI ​​Cube was also a 4G modem and a Wi-Fi router.

Huawei recently doubled Apple as the world's second largest maker of smartphones, but the Chinese company has not yet acquired a significant presence in the United States (partly because of concerns about espionage).

It is also trying to catch up with companies like Apple, Samsung and Google in the market of smart speakers. Judging by the first two speakers in society, it shows.