Don’t let the modest appearance of the HomePod mini 2 fool you. The audio quality is excellent for a speaker in this price range and size. It’s even better than its predecessor.
And the speaker is useful for more than music or podcasts. It really is smart — though not as clever as it will after the arrival of a future software update brings support for Siri AI.
As a long-time HomePod mini user, here’s what it’s like using the second-generation version.
HomePod mini 2 review: Electric Boogaloo
A HomePod makes much more sense for Mac, iPad and iPhone users than a Bluetooth speaker. The audio quality is really quite good, and the connection works seamlessly with your Apple devices. You can even make one (or a pair!) the default speaker on your Mac.
And, as a smart home hub, a HomePod can control your lights, thermostat and more. This is mostly accomplished via convenient voice commands.
The new HomePod mini 2 is better at all of this than its predecessor.
HomePod mini 2 delivers surprisingly big, 360-degree sound in a compact design. Siri AI brings personal, powerful assistance—managing tasks and controlling your smart home hands-free, privately, and securely. Add more HomePod speakers for multiroom audio and Intercom. Pair two speakers for stereo sound or four speakers with Apple TV 4K for surround sound.
- Sounds great, with better audio than original
- Useful smart speaker features
- Not portable
Table of contents: HomePod mini 2 review
- Same space-friendly design
- A touchscreen with Sound Glow
- Outsize audio performance
- A smart speaker for your Apple ecosystem
- No Siri AI … yet
- Four-speaker surround sound
- HomePod mini 2 review: Final thoughts
- Pricing
Same space-friendly design
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The HomePod mini 2 holds onto the spherical design of its predecessor, with its compact body wrapped in acoustic mesh fabric. At 3.3 inches (84.3 mm) tall and 3.9 inches (97.9 mm) wide, I find the speaker small enough to fit comfortably on my desk, a shelf or a nightstand.
Apple makes it in a range of colors to match your decor: pink, green, blue, white and midnight. I went for basic black, as the goal isn’t for the device to stand out.
The only way Bluetooth speakers beat HomePod is in portability. Apple’s speaker needs power constantly flowing through its built-in USB-C cable — there’s no battery. And it also must have a Wi-Fi connection. So taking it to a pool party really isn’t practical.
A touchscreen with Sound Glow
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The top surface of the HomePod mini 2 is a round touchscreen. Tap to play or pause a song, double-tap to skip tracks, triple-tap to return to the previous song, and use the plus and minus controls to adjust volume.
In the five years I used the original mini, I hardly ever touched it. I control it with my iPhone or with voice commands.
Apple added Sound Glow to this small display so it pulses and changes colors to match the song playing. It even draws its colors from the album artwork of the song you’re listening to, creating a miniature light show that reflects the music. (The original version can do this, too!)
I either don’t pay attention to Sound Glow or find it distracting, but that’s just me.
Outsize audio performance
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
When Apple’s original version came out in 2020, Cult of Mac Editor-in-Chief Leander Kahney said, “The round HomePod mini sounds exceptionally good for its size. The audio is pretty rich, well-balanced and clear.” But he went on to point out that bass is a bit weak.
To my ears, the new second-gen version sounds noticeably better. Especially the stronger bass. I did a side-by-side comparison with HomePod mini 2 and my original model, and the new version definitely came out ahead.
Apple touts the speaker’s support for computational audio that “analyzes music in real time to optimize dynamic range, loudness, and acoustic performance.”
But to manage your expectations… don’t expect a night-and-day difference from the new upgrade. As Leander pointed out, the first-gen HomePod mini already sounded quite good, so there’s not that much room for improvement.
And while Apple clearly has the skills to get a surprising amount of bass out of a speaker this small, do not expect floor-shaking sound. The follow-up model is an improvement in this area, but there’s only so much Apple can do with a device that’s about 4 inches across. (Which is probably better for your long-term hearing anyway.)
Also, this is not professional-grade audio equipment. The speaker is just right for you to listen to your favorite songs or podcasts, or provide great audio for an Apple TV 4K. Don’t expect more than that.
A smart speaker for your Apple ecosystem
You can listen to music or podcasts from your Mac, iPad or iPhone with any Bluetooth speaker. A HomePod offers so much more than that.
First off, it can now be the default speaker for your Mac, with a persistent wireless connection.
And that’s just scratching the surface. My HomePod mini 2 is now the central hub for my smart home, so I can control lights, my thermostat and other accessories with voice commands.
The real value is in setting up what Apple calls Scenes. Just one example: when going to bed, I tell the smart speaker, “Hey Siri, good night,” and every light in my home turns off and the thermostat setting changes.
This was true when I used my first-gen HomePod mini as my hub, but the new model really speeds things up. That’s because the earlier model is powered by an aging S5 chip, while the new version uses Apple’s much more powerful S10 processor. I notice a real-world difference in the performance. The irritating delay while the device thinks over what I said disappeared.
No Siri AI … yet
The S10 isn’t yet being given a chance to shine because it’ll provide the horsepower needed for Siri AI. But that’s not an option yet.
Apple promised Siri AI is coming to the HomePod mini 2 in a future software update, but it’s not yet even in beta. All that’s available now is Classic Siri [shudders].
That means that at this point I can’t test how well the smart speaker handles the sort of give-and-take conversations possible with the AI-enhanced version of Siri.
Four-speaker surround sound
A new feature of HomePod mini 2 is support for four-speaker surround sound when paired with the new Apple TV 4K.
However, that device is not out yet, so I cannot test this feature, either. The latest Apple TV 4K reaches customers on November 13.
HomePod mini 2 review: Final thoughts
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Thanks to my smart home, I interact with my HomePod many times a day. I use it as frequently as my Apple Watch, and more than my AirPods. It needs to work well. The upgrade to the S10 processor, which makes the smart speaker more responsive, stands out as my favorite feature of the new version. That’s not to downplay the improved audio quality, though.
My original model isn’t going into a box. It’s still plenty good enough that it simply got moved out of the living room and into my bedroom, where it will still get used, just not as much.
★★★★★
Pricing
The HomePod mini 2 costs $149, a $20 increase over the previous model’s most recent price.
HomePod mini 2 delivers surprisingly big, 360-degree sound in a compact design. Siri AI brings personal, powerful assistance—managing tasks and controlling your smart home hands-free, privately, and securely. Add more HomePod speakers for multiroom audio and Intercom. Pair two speakers for stereo sound or four speakers with Apple TV 4K for surround sound.
- Sounds great, with better audio than original
- Useful smart speaker features
- Not portable
Apple did not provide Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 26 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
