Apple unveiled its second-generation HomePod on Wednesday, nearly two years after discontinuing the first HomePod. CNET attended the company’s New York event to hear the new speaker in person.
So first, what changed? The new version is a full-sized smart speaker with “enhanced acoustics” and new smart home capabilities, including temperature and humidity sensors and the ability to notify you if it hears a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm.
Both the new HomePod and the existing HomePod Mini rely on Siri, the company’s voice assistant, to listen and execute “Hey Siri” commands.
Dubbed the HomePod like the previous model, the new speaker is now available for pre-order at the Apple Store for $299 (£299, AU$479) and will be available on February 3. Available in black or white.
Apple/CNET
Apple’s second-generation HomePod is still in the pre-order stage, though we’re now seeing it listed at several third-party retailers in addition to Apple itself. The device starts shipping on February 3rd.
The design is very similar to the original full-size HomePod. At 6.6 inches tall and 5.6 inches wide, the new speaker is roughly the same size as its predecessor. But the new HomePod has a set of key upgrades.
Inside, there’s a custom woofer and five tweeters that use beamforming to direct sound and improve immersion, according to Apple. You can connect two HomePod speakers to create a stereo pair, although this requires two HomePods of the same model. You can’t combine an original HomePod and a new one to create a pair, for example. Multiple HomePods can be connected throughout the home for multi-room audio with AirPlay 2.
The speaker also supports spatial audio, Apple’s term for 360-degree effects that include Dolby Atmos music available on Apple Music. Atmos is a surround sound standard used both in movie theaters and at home, and more recently, it’s also being used for remixing albums.
Inside the new Apple HomePod is an internal bass-EQ microphone with tweeter and beam-forming five tweeters.
An apple
The speaker also has a few new smart home goodies up its sleeve. A feature called Smart Recognition, coming via a software update this spring, “can monitor for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send a notification directly to the user’s iPhone if a sound is detected,” according to Apple. The column also has temperature and humidity sensors, and you can set triggers to close the blinds or automatically turn on a fan when the room reaches a certain temperature.
A temperature and humidity sensor and smart recognition features were also announced as coming to the HomePod Mini.
In addition to Apple’s HomeKit support, the full-sized HomePod also supports the new Matter standard, an open-source protocol that works with a variety of smart home devices.
Bringing your iPhone close to the HomePod lets you stream songs, voice calls, and more to the speaker.
An apple
You can move your iPhone near the speaker to stream anything that produces sound, from a song to a podcast to a voice call, to the speaker. (This feature requires iOS 16.3.) The phone will also display personalized song and podcast suggestions when held close to the speaker. HomePod supports Apple’s Find My feature, so you can ask Siri to play a sound on a lost device or request the location of friends or family who share it through the Find My app.
Owners of an Apple TV 4K streaming device can make the HomePod their TV speaker for all devices connected to the TV thanks to eARC connectivity via HDMI. Siri voice commands heard from HomePod can also control Apple TV hands-free.
Feel yourself with the new HomePod
CNET’s Ty Pendlebury attended Apple’s event and offered a personal perspective.
It’s always difficult to ascertain the sound quality of a speaker in a canned demo like this, and I’ll reserve any final thoughts until I get a review unit to test myself. Overall, though, the snippets of songs I heard sounded good, and the speaker should appeal to people who already have, had, or are interested in the original.
The company kicked things off in the Tribeca loft with some pop music — including The Weeknd — and I was initially surprised to hear how small the speaker sounded. Despite offering 360-degree surround sound, I found the audio to stick pretty tightly to the speaker itself. With the next song Boomerang from Yebba, the company wanted to emphasize the spatial audio compatibility of the HomePod. And while there was a spin effect in the 30 seconds they played, it wasn’t very obvious.
The most impressive part of the demo, however, was when the company added a second speaker, making the HomePod a stereo pair. When you play Mystery Lady by Masego and Don Toliver, the palette immediately expands – and not just by creating a stereo field. A percussive effect could be heard on the far left outside the physical location of the cabinets.
Finally, I heard the original HomePod in 2017, when company representatives used a live version of The Eagles’ Hotel California to highlight its bass response. However, when the bass drum came in about a minute into the song, the sound was unintentionally awful. The huge drum seemed to overload the speaker and resulted in a “blurry” sound.
There were no such issues at today’s event, and the drum sounded just as huge and deep as the company would have hoped.
Entering a competitive market
Apple has been rumored to be working on a “HomePod 2” since at least June 2022, and it will be only the company’s fourth speaker in 20 years. The company has released just three other speakers — the iPod Hi-Fi, the original Apple HomePod for $350, and the HomePod Mini, which remains on sale for $99.
The new $299 HomePod will compete directly with higher-end smart speakers like the Amazon Echo Studio and Sonos One, both of which cost $200. Meanwhile, the current HomePod Mini is competitive in price with Google’s larger Nest Audio, though it’s undercut by the $49 Google Nest Mini and most Amazon Echo models.
Apple’s Siri voice assistant may be dominant in mobile devices, but the company is struggling to translate that success into smart speakers. In terms of competition, Amazon’s Echo series and Google’s Nest speakers are fighting for first and second place.
I expect to review the new Apple HomePod soon.
CNET’s Sean Keen contributed to this report.
Add Comment