If you’re a Wiim fan who likes the idea of a voice-enabled remote control, but doesn’t love the plastic remote that the company ships with many of its network music streamers, you now have a slicker, sleeker option. Glimpsed a few days ago, the Wiim Voice Remote 2 is an all-aluminum Bluetooth remote that bears a very strong resemblance to Apple’s Siri Remote. Wiim will begin selling it on its own website and on Amazon for $39 on April 8.
Technically speaking, this is just a cosmetic upgrade. Functionally, the Voice Remote 2 is the same as the Voice Remote that Wiim provides with every Wiim Pro Plus, Wiim Amp, Wiim Amp Pro, and Wiim Ultra. It lets you speak Alexa-powered voice commands when you press the side-mounted mic button, and the d-pad takes care of volume and playback controls.
There’s a dedicated set of buttons for muting and input selection, and four numbered buttons that can be assigned your favorite presets using the Wiim Home app.
The only thing that the Voice Remote 2 does differently is power. Inside is a rechargeable battery (as opposed to the two AAA batteries required by the first-gen remote). Wiim doesn’t say how long a charge will last as that’s highly dependent on how much you use it, but we do know that it has a 475 mAh capacity and charges fully in one hour via its USB-C port. For comparison, Apple’s current Siri Remote has a 398 mAh capacity.
The new remote can control any of Wiim’s streamers, but not its most recent product, the non-streaming Vibelink Amp (despite the fact that the Voice Remote 2 made its first appearance in some Vibelink press photos). However, Wiim tells me that if your Vibelink is paired with an Ultra, you’d be able to control the overall system through via the remote.
For the moment, Wiim hasn’t indicated if it will include the Voice Remote 2 with any of its existing or future streamers, but it seems like a logical move, especially for the company’s premium offerings.