Samsung partners with Fraser Residence in Singapore to pilot AI-enabled smart hotel rooms, marking a significant step in the adaptation of connected home technology for commercial use amid broader tech industry innovations.
Samsung is pushing SmartThings beyond the living room in a pilot that brings its connected-home platform into hospitality. In partnership with Fraser Residence River Promenade in Singapore, the company has fitted three AI-enabled smart rooms that coordinate lighting, entertainment, appliances and other connected devices during a guest’s stay. The rooms, which are due to be bookable from 1 October 2026, are designed around preset routines for arrival, daytime use, entertainment and evening wind-down, rather than simply adding more gadgets to a hotel room. According to Samsung, the setup links TVs, audio products, home appliances, Galaxy devices and compatible third-party kit through SmartThings, turning the software into the main control layer for the room rather than a collection of separate smart features.
Alibaba used its 2026 Apsara Conference to present a much broader AI plan, one that stretches from proprietary chips to cloud infrastructure, foundation models and enterprise deployment tools. The company said Qwen 4 is now in training, with Qwen 4.5 and Qwen 5 planned after it, and it expects later versions to reach between 5 trillion and 10 trillion parameters. That places Alibaba’s ambitions well beyond model development alone. The group is also building what it calls an agentic cloud, with separate layers for training and inference, enterprise agent management and a context engine intended to provide memory and real-time data. Hardware is part of the same strategy, with T-Head’s Zhenwu V900 accelerator expected in commercial form in the first quarter of 2027. Alibaba Cloud also said it plans new regions in Türkiye, Finland and the Netherlands over the next 12 months, alongside more capacity in several existing markets.
HONOR, meanwhile, has taken the battery race to an extreme with the X9e Pro, a handset now on sale in Malaysia that pairs an 11,000 mAh battery with a 203g frame and an 8.08mm body. Reports from Gizmochina, Technave, Beebom and IDN Times say the device is built around endurance, but not at the cost of the usual mid-range essentials. It uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 chip, a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 108-megapixel main camera. HONOR also claims up to 66.8 hours of video playback, 80W wired charging and 27W reverse charging, while positioning the phone as unusually tough, with IP68, IP69 and IP69K ratings and drop resistance of up to three metres. Malaysian pricing starts at RM1,899 for the 256GB model, with pre-orders running until 8 October 2026 and bundled gifts offered in the launch period.
Taken together, the three announcements point to very different parts of the technology market, but each one shows a clear attempt to push familiar categories further. Samsung is trying to make connected devices feel more useful in a commercial setting. Alibaba is trying to control more of the AI stack, from silicon to software. HONOR is betting that battery life and durability can still be a differentiator in a crowded smartphone market.
Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes only. Readers are advised to exercise their own judgement, conduct due diligence, or consult a qualified expert before acting on any information provided.
