Apple HomePod (2nd era) hands-on: Off to a stable restart

Apple launched the unique HomePod again in 2017 when the good speaker arms race was nonetheless occurring. Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant had been vying for the appropriate to take up residence in your house, whereas the ill-fated Microsoft Cortana and Samsung Bixby good assistants toiled on the fringes. By most metrics, the HomePod was late to the social gathering and it tried to beat its tardiness with wonderful sound high quality and a complicated design you’d count on from the Cupertino crew. But it surely was quirky and lacked some options you’d count on from a high-end good speaker, particularly on the $350 price ticket. Now, for the 2023 mannequin, Apple has dropped the worth $50, rearranged the interior audio system, improved its good house chops, and added just a few intelligent capabilities that make it price contemplating, particularly should you’re already absolutely immersed within the Apple ecosystem. 

Listed here are some first impressions to carry you over till we’ve put collectively our intensive audio evaluate within the coming weeks. 

Establishing the HomePod (Gen. 2)

I’m absolutely spoiled by Apple’s setup course of for just about each system. I eliminated the HomePod from its meticulously designed packaging, plugged within the removable energy twine (a giant improve over the built-in twine within the first model), and touched my iPhone to the speaker’s prime. 

I wanted to use the most recent iOS replace to my cellphone however, disregarding the time that took, it was roughly 5 minutes from peeling again the tabs on the field to blasting Motion Bronson in my lounge in the midst of the evening. Whereas everything of the method is fast, the precise setup takes about two minutes, throughout which the HomePod performs a cool little chime again and again to let it’s working. It’s virtually lengthy sufficient to marvel if it’s frozen, however it will definitely simply labored. 

For good properties, Matter issues

One very notable addition to the brand new HomePod is its compatibility with the brand new Matter good house platform. We’re simply beginning to get Matter-certified gadgets that promise fast and simple setup whatever the good assistant ecosystem you’ve chosen. I primarily use Google Assistant for my good house, however I arrange the HomePod together with an Apple-provided, Matter-compatible good plug. 

The HomePod has come a good distance from its quirky roots in relation to controlling good properties. It units up simply and provides gadgets shortly and reliably. The one actual challenge I bumped into with good house performance stemmed from the truth that my Apple TV and the Sonos Beam II soundbar hooked up to it each have the title “Residing Room,” which confused issues sometimes. At one level, I used to be enjoying Chick Corea’s “Spain” by means of my Apple TV and it was enjoying from each the HomePod and the Sonos with a slight delay. It was a straightforward repair, but it surely may have been completely prevented with extra cautious naming. Don’t make the identical mistake I did. 

Inside the brand new HomePod, Apple has now included a temperature and humidity sensor, which may funnel data to a linked thermostat. So, you probably have scorching or chilly spots in your house, the HomePod may also help situation the local weather for no matter space you’re occupying. 

Speaking to the brand new HomePod is easy and the system responds promptly, even when there’s music enjoying or the TV is on. The second-gen. mannequin really provides fewer microphones than the first-gen, however its voice recognition is a minimum of pretty much as good and generally higher than earlier than. Siri additionally now acknowledges particular voices when speaking to the HomePod, so relations can get personalised performance particular to their apps and actions. 

First impressions: Sound efficiency

As I mentioned earlier than, we’re engaged on a extra in-depth dive into the sound efficiency, however I can inform you that it sounds wonderful in most conditions. The primary time you play music, the HomePod depends on its array of microphones to hear as sound bounces across the room, then adjusts playback for optimum efficiency. For example, placing it too near a wall may trigger an undesirable bass growth, however the HomePod is wise sufficient to keep away from it after a short hearken to its personal efficiency. 

The HomePod isn’t at all times listening and adjusting, nonetheless. The speaker’s built-in accelerometer waits to sense when the HomePod has moved, which triggers one other hear in case the acoustic properties differ from its earlier location. 

I actually just like the HomePod’s total sound. It pumps out ample bass more often than not. Ludakris’s pre-Quick and Livid traditional, “Roll Out (My Enterprise)” rattled my ground sufficiently that it will have garnered a grievance from my downstairs neighbors if I had any. Whereas there’s no approach to fine-tune the HomePod sound by yourself, there’s, nonetheless, a low-bass mode. It reduces the growth in an effort to maintain your fellow tenants completely satisfied. 

Placed on a observe like “Delia’s Gone” by Johnny Money and also you’ll actually get to see the HomePod shine. It doesn’t undercut the growth within the man in black’s deep voice, but it surely lets the delicate squeak of the guitar strings sneak by means of earlier than the miserable lyrics make you flip it off and hearken to DJ Khaled to cheer up. 

I did run into one tiny challenge, nonetheless, and it has to do with my curious (or neurotic, if you wish to be brutally sincere about it) canine. The rattle from the bass made her curious in regards to the speaker after I had it sitting on the ground. When she sniffed the speaker, she activated the top-mounted contact controls and paused the tune. This occurred 4 totally different occasions. Finally, I put it on prime of the TV stand.

So, who can purchase the HomePod?

In case you’re already a hardcore Apple consumer, that is the good house speaker you need. It sounds nice, units up in a breeze, and appears simply as slick as you’d count on. In case you’re not already purchased into Apple’s gadgets, it’s a tougher promote. The addition of Matter compatibility actually helps in relation to compatibility, however the $300 price ticket places it in distinctly luxurious territory in comparison with its competitors. 

It’s additionally price noting which you could purchase these in pairs to allow multi-room audio, true stereo playback, and even Dolby Atmos encompass sound when mixed with an Apple TV 4K. Whereas any HomePod (together with the first-gen. and the Mini) will work with the multi-room audio operate, you may’t make a stereo pair out of two totally different fashions. 

General, I like the brand new HomePod quite a bit. It solves lots of the quirks that got here with the primary mannequin and it performs as promised. Now I simply must maintain my canine’s nostril away from the contact controls.