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Yes, Apple’s full-sized smart speaker is back and I’ve spent six days with the new HomePod. Specifically, two of them: one in the new Midnight shade and the other in White. It’s not the cheapest at $299—though the $99 HomePod Mini fits the role of that well—but what you get here is an audio-focused smart speaker that excels with rich, vibrant audio.
That’s paired with some fancier smart home capabilities like a built-in Home hub, new sensors for reading the room and a larger touch surface up-top. It’s all wrapped in a familiar design that is nearly identical to the first-generation HomePod, but it’s easily the best sounding smart speaker around.
So let’s start with the sound first and then dive into smart home features, an update to the top LED display, and if the HomePod is right for you.
Rich, Crisp Playback With Strong Bass
The most impressive feature of the HomePod is definitely the audio quality. Its chops in this category come from a range of hardware—a woofer and tweeters—and real-time processing that mixes the audio in the moment for your space.
What’s the end result? It’s clear, rich audio that gets quite loud and is really a joy to listen to. You’ll find clarity across all elements of the track and even the most packed ones, take a wall of sound track for example, don’t muddy or mix together. Over the original, it’s a bit more refined with clear separation of elements in a track. None of this buckles either when you’re listening at higher volumes, at close to either 80% or even full blast at 100% the audio produced is very clear. That goes for lows, mids and highs all within a track.
Related: Apple AirPods Pro (Second-Gen) Review
With “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus the ever-flowing beat and drums are clear and crisp with each tick of the track, while her vocals flow on top. Since it’s a Spatial Audio track, the HomePod does its best to cast this throughout your space with higher tones up-top centered and the bass tones at the bottom towards the back.
Powering all of this a four-inch high excursion woofer that drives a motor along with five horn-loaded tweeters. The woofer handles low and mids, while the tweeters work on the rest of the elements, namely higher tones. Controlling all of this is some Apple-made silicon just like AirPods Pro, the iPhone and iPad. Specifically, the second-generation HomePod features the S7 chip which is a big leap over the A8 in the original.
It offers enough power for the computational audio approach in which the HomePod has an internal microphone that looks at bass along with the remaining microphones listening to how it sounds. A custom algorithm and filters are applied in real time to ensure it’s an excellent mix in your space.
A packed, live rendition of “Born to Run ” by Bruce Springsteen particularly popped on a single HomePod, but really delivered a highly immersive listening experience with two HomePod speakers paired together. Yes, it’s a stereo mix with one HomePod handling left and the other tackling the right, but they also work in tandem to also extend the soundstage further. You can hear the crowd get mixed in the lower front, with drums coming from the rear, vocals centered, and other instruments like piano, saxophone, bass, and guitars throughout. It’s a dynamic listening experience at its best.
Two HomePod speakers sound better than one in a way that I was worried I’d get a noise complaint. At about 60% volume it easily filled my entire apartment and at 100% got closer to an in-person concert experience, albeit a bit more immersive with a custom mix.
As a whole, the audio quality here is some of the best available in a smart speaker. It goes beyond some other audio focused models like Sonos in that it performs the real-time mixing and for some tracks it really does make a difference. Given that the HomePod is designed for the Apple ecosystem, it’s likely not a surprise that it works best with Apple Music. Yes, other streaming services do support hands-free Siri control, but Spotify isn’t one of them for instance. Apple Music also supports the Spatial Audio listening experience.
It can also significantly step up your TV watching experience when you use two HomePods speakers in conjunction with an Apple TV 4K. These two working together can easily outpace a typical soundbar as well as some surround systems. The immersive mixing through Spatial Audio and just the beamforming array of producing audio takes movie watching to another level.
Related: Apple TV 4K Third-Gen Review
A Similar Look With Upgraded Smarts
Make no mistake about it, the new HomePod looks nearly identical to that of the original. It’s a wide, circular smart speaker with an outer mesh facing design. The difference? Well, that would be a larger touch surface up-top and a new color.
Apple said bye-bye to Space Gray and unveiled Midnight, which is pretty similar albeit a bit darker and when the light strikes it just right, you’ll get a splash of a dark blue. The mesh fabric here is also 100% recycled which is good news. The “White” color option is mostly unchanged, but now uses 30% recycled mesh weave. It’s still a seamless design, meaning no visible seams, and the vents here also help to guide audio out for that powerhouse audio.
On the rear side the power cable is now detachable and is using a standard “figure 8” port. Apple isn’t selling the cables on their own, but the included cable with HomePod is color matched and woven.
I’ll start with this, the HomePod still doesn’t have a true display so the dream of a HomePod mixed with an iPad is still a dream. Instead, the glowing touch surface that you tap to control is six-times larger than the previous HomePod. This means it will glow wider and brighter, but Apple also etched in the volume controls. It is much easier to manually raise or lower the volume with the touch of a button. HomePod is about the same height as say an Echo 4th Gen or a Nest Audio at 6.6-inches tall, and a bit wider at 5.6-inches as well.
Inside along with the upgraded hardware are some new smart home chops. The HomePod, like the HomePod Mini, boasts a temperature sensor and humidity sensor. You can easily access these readings from the Home app or just ask Siri. It’s handy for the smart home as you can trigger a routine based upon the data. For instance, if the temperature drops below or above a digit, it can turn the AC or Heat on.
Additionally, there is Matter support as the HomePod can be a smart home hub now. Within the Apple Home app—and ecosystem—you can add smart home gadgets and control them. Both when you’re on your Wi-Fi network and when you’re out and about. The HomePod also boasts Thread connectivity and essentially acts as a smart home hub.
The other big improvement isn’t necessarily hardware, but the fact that Siri is much more advanced than when the original HomePod debuted. The virtual assistant is quicker to respond to knowledge questions or ask, can more seamlessly control smart home devices, and still plays just as well with other Apple-made devices.
While Apple did reduce the number of microphones from six to four on second-generation HomePod, I did not encounter any issues with Siri picking up my voice. That goes with minimal audio playback or when the volume was close to 100% on dueling HomePods.
Bottom Line: Is The HomePod Worth It?
If you’re in the Apple ecosystem and want a louder, more impressive audio experience, the HomePod fits the bill. You’ll really get the most out of it with two paired together, but that does up the cost to essentially $600. Alongside a robust audio experience, you’ll get new smart home chops which add more value to the HomePod itself.
Those with the current first-generation likely won’t see a night and day improvement in the audio department, yes these can get slightly louder and will be a bit more refined, but the audio quality on the first-generation is not a slouch. You would benefit from the advanced smart home connectivity, but you can also get that from the $99 HomePod Mini.
Lastly, if you’re not in the Apple ecosystem the HomePod doesn’t make a ton of sense and you’d be better off looking at an Echo or Nest smart speaker for audio with additional connectivity. Or if you’re only after excellent audio, might I suggest a Sonos speaker.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
