Design & Construction

Since its initial launch many years back, the original HomePod has cemented itself as the best smart home speaker for IOS users. This year, the HomePod is reviving some of its hype form from its yesteryears for the second iteration. However, in some case, some may say the 2nd generation is a downgrade from the first looking at the specs sheet alone. Is it really the case though? Well, there is only one way to find out. Diving straight into the design, the HomePod looks nearly identical to the original. The familiar cylindrical body covered in seamless fabric mesh that is crafted in two monochromatic tones of Midnight and White. The white mesh indeed does looks splendid out if the box may see some yellowing in the next few years of use. Hence, those who don't maintain their products that often should just opt for darker variation for longevity. Comparing it to its predecessors, the top touch surface is slightly recessed into the mesh to give it a refined look. At the back, the new HomePod finally features a removable woven figure-8 power cable, making it user replaceable should the cable be chewed by pets or accidentally snagged by furniture. Underneath, the speaker is fitted with a rubber base pad to keep the set up stable. Moving onto the controls, the HomePod now uses the backlit touch surface at the top of the speaker for all its settings. A single tap will play/pause, a  double tap skip forward, and a triple tap will skip backward, while tapping and holding will bring up Siri. The volume buttons are indicated too for easy adjustment. Of course as a smart speaker, Siri is very much the front and centre of the smart home experience. With the four microphone design for far-field Siri, you can be assured to be heard. A simple command lets you bring up bring essential information like the weather, time, set a reminder, timer or alarm and even broadcast a message through intercom to all the HomePods on the same network, skip a song or change volume and much more. However, that does not solves Siri biggest issue being its slow responses to commands and giving wrong answers due to not recognising voices and command correctly. One of the most convenient features has to be Handoff which basically continues playing your music from your headphones to the HomePod when you have reached home. And the experience is very seamless too, working almost instantaneously as soon as you hold your phone near the top of the speaker thanks to ultra wide band technology. With sound recognition up to 6 voices, you can be assured that each family member gets their request across to the HomePod with personalised recommendations and answers. Now better than ever, the HomePod can effectively recognise a smoke alarm and send you an alert to your IOS device should you not be at home when it detects it. Adding to that, the built-in temperature and humidity sensor measures the indoors so that blinds can be closed and fans can be turned on when the temperature rises to keep the room cool and maintain a certain temperature throughout. With the announcement of Matter support, more compatible devices can now be connected and controlled. One of the most important features of building a smart home ecosystem is scenes and with updates to the Home app, you can create scenes to complete a chain of tasks through a simplified command set up in the app. Find My on HomePod will also makes it possible for you to locate your IOS devices by playing a sound on the misplaced device. Using Siri, you can also ask for the location of those share their location via the app.

Sound Quality

Moving on to sound quality, the HomePod (2nd Gen) features a 4 inch high excursion woofer for deep, boomy and bass-heavy sound. The bass in fast-paced EDM songs sounds powerful and slightly over-the-top which creates a V-shaped sound signature that is found on most speakers today. There are internal low-frequency calibration microphones monitoring for automaitc bass correction but I would still consider it a little bit much for mainstream music genres like Pop, R&B, Rap and Jazz. Meanwhile, the array of 5 horn-loaded tweeters produces a crisp and sparkling highs with good detail and surround in the mids. Vocals come off clean with a wide soundstage as well as distinct 360° soundscape. You are able to achieve distinct left and right stereo output if you have 2 same generation of HomePods paired together. Since the HomePod's sound is omni-directional, its sound field outputs evenly and automatically compensates for the room it is in. With the new S7 chip, the audio is now tuned in real-time with Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio equipped too. If you have previously invested in the first generation of HomePods or the HomePod Mini, you may also link all of the devices up for multi-room home audio, or use them separately to play different songs in different rooms. To top off the Apple ecosystem integration, pairing the HomePod with Apple TV 4K is the best option ofr movies alongside eArc support to enable the HomePod to become a centralised audio source for any device connected to Apple TV 4K. One of the built-in features from IOS devices is the choice to play background music should you get a little tired of listening to music. There are sounds such as Balanced, Bright and Dark Noise, Ocean, Rain and Stream to choose from. These can all be easily played via the tab on control centre of your IOS device through AirPlay or Siri voice command 

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Connectivity & Portability

In terms of connectivity, the HomePod (2nd Gen) supports AirPlay 2 for all its input content for IOS devices. There is built-in Bluetooth 5.0 support but you cannot use it to play music with non-Airplay compatible devices still. As mentioned earlier, the power cord is now removable and user replaceable. However, there is no 3.5mm audio-in port should you wish to use it wired. The redeeming feature to that is eArc support with Apple TV 4K as well as no latency playback for movies and video watching via AirPlay 2.

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PROS​

• Energetic Sound Signature

• Iconic Design

• Home App Configuration

• 360° Sound

• Room Sensing Playback

• Humidity & Temperature Sensors

• AirPlay 2

• Handoff

• Intercom

• Scenes & Automations

• Multi-room Audio

• Stereo Pairing

• eArc Support

• Matter Support

• Two Colours Available

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CONS​

• No Audio-In Port

• No Bluetooth Audio Playback

• Not Dust and Water Resistant

• Not Compatible with Non-IOS Devices

 

The Bottom Line

All in all, the HomePod (2nd Generation) is a slight refresh of its predecessors. The top features why its the number one choice for IOS users include its timeless design, seamless IOS ecosystem integration, dynamic sound signature with backward compatibility with the first generation HomePod. Two colours of Midnight and bWhite are available to fit houses of different interior furnishings and styles.