Huawei’s Sound speaker dabbles with Devialet’s audio expertise

The Tories and the Lib Dems, Pineapple and pizza, Shaggy and Sting; some collaborations can be heinous, but Huawei has a clever knack of partnering with top companies, and no more so than on its Huawei Sound smart speaker co-engineered with Devialet. Just as the Chinese tech giant aligns with Leica on its superb smartphone cameras, it enlists the help of French audiophiles Devialet on its speakers, resulting in last year’s Apple HomePod-rivalling Huawei Sound X. The Huawei Sound (£199.99) is smaller than the X, but still manages to pack in a four-speaker acoustic design and 360 degree ‘surround’ sound. That array is made up of three full-range 5W drivers and a 4-inch 40W woofer for pleasing wobbles. Devialet’s Push-Push configuration figures here, where two passive radiators reinforce each other to counteract backwave vibrations and reduce an audiophile’s kryptonite – distortion. Huawei says this means high volume sessions at up to 90 dB should still sound pristine. You can also toggle a wealth of sound settings in the Huawei AI Life app, including spatial sound depending on the location of the listener in the room. Bluetooth LDAC for hi-res audio and auxiliary connections are included, plus a tap-to-transfer feature for sending your Enya megamixes from phone to speaker in an instant. The Huawei Sound is on sale from April 1 and anyone buying between now and April 13 will get £50 off as a sort of early bird offer – don’t knock it, it’s ‘cheep’, like the budgie.