Samsung is finally ready to enter the smart speaker market, as new details and images about the Bixby-powered Galaxy Home Mini have appeared online a day before Samsung unveils a slew of new devices at its winter Unpacked event.

Max Weinbach tweeted a series of videos and screenshots showcasing the Galaxy Home Mini's design, specs, and companion app. Samsung previously posted on its website that the new smart speaker would hit store shelves on February 12, but later retracted the announcement. Indeed, Samsung has sent mixed messages since launching the unreleased Galaxy Home (a large smart speaker also powered by Bixby) in 2018.

What makes the Galaxy Home Mini stand out is its built-in IR Blaster remote control. We have seen the Fire TV Blaster serve a similar purpose on the Amazon Fire TV Cube.

The voice-enabled Bixby speaker will go up against Google, Amazon, and even third-party smart speakers. It looks like a hybrid of the larger Echo Dot and Nest Mini, with its curved body, LED status ring, and top control panel. And while it will use Samsung's fairly robust SmartThings smart home platform, its reliance on Bixby rather than Google Assistant or Alexa could be a major impediment to widespread adoption.

Leaked images of the Galaxy Home Mini base show that the speaker will be powered from a micro USB and will not have a 3.5 mm line out. It will also only support 2.4 GHz WiFi, Weinbach said.

Given these considerations, the Galaxy Home Mini is unlikely to be a smart home device worth getting excited about. That's a shame, given the saga of Samsung's entry into the smart speaker category a few years back.

More details on the Galaxy Home Mini will probably be revealed at Unpacked tomorrow, where Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy S20 lineup, Galaxy Buds Plus, and a new foldable called the Galaxy Z Flip The Galaxy Z Flip is also expected to be unveiled.