Apple HomePod Review - Review 2022

Apple's HomePod ($349) sounds great, just it's shortsighted. It's a loftier-quality smart speaker for your Apple Music account and iTunes library, with some Siri voice assistant features that help specially with smart home usage. The hardware is excellent, just right at present, Apple doesn't have the broad vision for voice-assisted living that the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant platforms show.

Looking at voice platforms as the next world of computing, the HomePod seems very lonely. Alexa and Google Assistant are systems, and they become more powerful as they spread through your house. Your living room Home Max is complemented by your kitchen Home Mini, which y'all apply to broadcast, "Information technology's dinnertime," to the kids' rooms. Your bedside Echo Spot wakes you lot upwards to music, and then you tell the Echo Dot in the foyer to turn off the lights when you head out on your commute. The HomePod is priced, sized, and skilled to be a living room music speaker for other Apple devices.

In that context, the HomePod comes off as more like the Apple Sentry or the Apple Television: not a new, core production category, merely an accessory to enhance your iPhone ownership and make sure you keep paying that Apple tree Music subscription fee. Since other voice-assisted speakers can't play Apple tree Music, the HomePod is the obvious choice if you're an iPhone possessor and Apple Music subscriber and don't want to pay an extra tithe to Amazon, Google, or Spotify.

From an audio standpoint, the HomePod delivers a rich, balanced audio signature that highlights the mids and highs. At superlative volumes, it doesn't distort, and its bass depth is impressive for its size. It can fill a room, simply it doesn't get quite as loud or deliver quite as much deep bass response every bit the slightly pricier Google Home Max.

And nosotros tin't recommend information technology as a wide solution—at least non yet—for people who are considering diving more deeply into habitation phonation administration. The HomePod plays music. It sounds keen. It controls your smart lights. But unlike Alexa and Google Assistant, it doesn't still take the ambitions for more.

Design and Setup

The HomePod is smaller than you probably think, and covered in a sort of mesh fabric, except for its sleeky, touch-sensitive summit panel. It's 6.8 inches high, 5.6 inches wide, and weighs 5.5 pounds. Sitting alongside the Google Dwelling Max, the HomePod looks rather small, while it'south slightly larger and wider than the Sonos I. Regardless of size, all three speakers look like they come up from the same Black Mirror prop shop, which is actually an across-the-lath compliment.

Apple is now alert that the white silicone base of operations of the HomePod can leave rings on some wooden surfaces, which it says can be wiped or polished abroad. We didn't see this happen after trying the HomePod on a wooden IKEA table or several woods-paneled surfaces in our lab, but nosotros've seen plenty photos of it elsewhere to know that it'southward a existent problem.

The only visible controls are book buttons on top, although tapping the panel in diverse patterns also works to command play/interruption, fast forward, and rewind. An animated LED waveform appears on elevation when you speak to Siri—this signifies that Siri is listening to you lot. There'southward no mic mute button, but you tin say, "Hey Siri, terminate listening," to turn off the mic, and tap on the elevation when y'all want to turn it dorsum on.

Apple tree's delivery to portless elegance goes likewise far, in our view. At that place'southward no aux input for wired playback. In fact, in that location's not a unmarried connection on the speaker. Even the power cable is hardwired, and then if information technology goes bad downwardly the road, yous'll have to send the whole speaker in for servicing rather than just go a new cable. 9to5Mac says, later seeing an internal Apple memo, that a cablevision replacement costs $29.

Internally, the speaker uses an assortment of vii tweeters firing in all directions, each ane individually amplified, and an upward-firing woofer with its own distension too. The product's specs list all sort of exotic features ("internal low-frequency calibration microphone for automatic bass correction," "transparent studio-level dynamic processing") that basically add up to the aforementioned thing: The HomePod uses digital indicate processing (DSP) to alter its sound output.

More often than not, this means that information technology will limit dynamics and bass response when the speaker is blasting at high volumes. This is a means to prevent distortion, primarily, and it's the established norm with wireless speakers in this cost range and lower.

Like some soundbars and home theater systems we've tested, the HomePod also measures the room it's in and adjusts the sound according to its acoustics—that'due south what that scale mic is for. All of this, as well as the streaming and buffering of sound, is powered internally by the Apple A8 chip. The mics are sensitive, and had no problem hearing, "Hey Siri," over loud music.

To set upwardly the HomePod, y'all need an iPhone 5s or later, an iPad Air or later on, an iPad mini ii or later on, or an iPod touch. You too demand to be in a place with a Wi-Fi network; it won't run without Wi-Fi. Y'all tin can't set it upward without an iOS device, even if you take a Mac.

Setup is dead simple—easier than Amazon or Google, and far easier than Sonos. Simply wave your phone near the speaker, and it'll borrow your telephone's settings and get going.

Playing at Abode

The HomePod is designed to exist used with an Apple Music subscription. Without a subscription, it can play Beats 1 radio, music you bought from Apple tree, podcasts in Apple'southward library, or anything via AirPlay. If you have an iTunes Friction match subscription but not Apple Music, it will also play the uploaded or matched music in your iCloud Music Library. Information technology does non have Bluetooth or a 3.5mm input. (The speaker itself has Bluetooth, only only uses information technology for pairing.)

Technically, it supports HE-AAC, AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, and FLAC music, but that's all processed through AirPlay or Apple's deject.

If you're an audiophile, remember that if you play your synced music through the cloud from your iCloud library, it will play at 256kbps AAC. AirPlay is 44.1kHz lossless streaming, though, and you can AirPlay whatsoever file that iTunes tin play. We even AirPlayed from a Windows PC without a problem. If you lot desire to play from an Android device, though, you'll struggle; there are third-party AirPlay apps for Android, just they're unreliable and fall in and out of compatibility.

With iOS 11.4 or later, you tin can set up pairs of HomePods to piece of work as stereo speakers. Keep in mind this puts your full price at $700, though; if you lot really desire stereo audio, consider instead the Audioengine A5+ Wireless, a Bluetooth-enabled (non AirPlay) stereo pair bachelor for $500, and our current Editors' Option.

If you have even more HomePods, or a mix of HomePods and Apple TVs, y'all can use them every bit a multi-room sound system—similar Sonos—playing music in different rooms, playing it beyond the whole house, or moving music from one room to another. Equally that'south a feature of Apple's new AirPlay 2, information technology will also work with third-political party AirPlay two speakers when they go bachelor.

Different with other voice banana speakers, the HomePod will simply let you request songs from Apple by vocalisation—not from Spotify or other radio services. But y'all can AirPlay other streaming services from your iPhone or estimator. We tried Google Play Music, Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube Music, all on an iPhone 10. They all let you lot say things like, "Next track," to skip a track, pause and resume songs, and ask the name of a song. But they had a few bugs. YouTube Music would sometimes beginning in the middle of a song when I said, "Side by side track," and Pandora had a noticeable delay in fast forwarding.

Sound Performance

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, similar The Knife's "Silent Shout," the HomePod delivers a powerful bass thump that is impressive considering its size. At maximum volume, the bass doesn't misconstrue, and the speaker gets quite loud, though it's non as loud or powerful as the Google Home Max. The Home Max is able to provide more palpable subwoofer-like depth, while the HomePod sounds more mids- and highs-focused while still delivering some rich, full bass response. At moderate volumes, the bass response hither is oft stronger, as information technology'due south less affected by DSP.

Bass response is one surface area where the scale mic probably helps. Depending on where you lot place a speaker—how close information technology is to a wall, the vibrations of the surface it'south placed on—can really impact bass levels, sometimes in a positive mode, but most often non. The HomePod aims to regulate this variable and provide you with consistent bass depth, then that what you hear if you identify it in the corner shouldn't vary wildly from what you hear when y'all place it in the centre of the room. Theoretically, this is neat, but having no control over it at all is spring to drive some audio lovers insane.

Neb Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the HomePod'southward overall sound signature. The drums on this rails can audio overly thunderous on systems that heavily boost the bass, but through the HomePod, the drums sound more than modest—non at all sparse, but non as heavy equally some bass-axial speakers brand them. The more than obvious bass depth is instead found in Callahan's baritone vocals, which audio especially full and rich hither. This would make the HomePod'south sound signature muddy, were information technology non for an excellent high-mid and high frequency presence that adds some treble edge to the vocals and lends some additional brightness to the guitar strums and extra snap to the higher register percussive hits. This is a counterbalanced, rich audio signature—Apple's DSP may not be transparent, but it honors the basic intentions of the mix and doesn't overly exaggerate low frequencies or add besides much sibilance or brightness.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West'south "No Church in the Wild," the kicking drum loop receives the ideal amount of high-mid presence, allowing the loop's attack to retain its punchiness and button through the layers of the mix. The loop also gets some pleasant lower frequency depth added in, aught too intense, and mostly in the lows and low-mids. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with solid presence, but especially at higher volumes, we get less deep sub-bass from them and hear more of their raspy top notes. In other words, the DSP kicks in and limits the bass response in the sub-bass frequencies. At moderate volumes, the DSP does less of this, and and then the bass tin actually sound more full and deep than when you creepo things upwardly. The vocals on this track sound crisp and clear, and never veer into overly sibilant territory. By and large speaking, vocals sound great through the HomePod across the board—the DSP does a fine job of prioritizing high-mids and highs, and this results in a well-baked commitment.

Come across How We Test Speakers

For orchestral tracks, similar the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel Co-ordinate to the Other Mary, the lower-register instrumentation gets a modest amount of boosting, but the stage nevertheless belongs to the higher-register brass, strings, and vocals. This is one genre that seems to sound less adjusted by the DSP than others—there's fiddling in the style of sub-bass here, but when it appears in the mix, its presence is modest. The lower register strings on other classical tracks accept a lovely rich quality to them, and things more often than not audio quite natural on orchestral tracks across the lath.

Playing all of these tracks via Apple tree Music versus streaming them, say, from a phone with AirPlay, the difference in audio performance is almost too subtle to mention. If you're playing high-res lossless files over AirPlay (from an iOS device or Apple computer), you lot're technically listening to a college quality stream than when listening to Apple Music, but call up: It all goes through the DSP, and the DSP can't be disabled. Thus, the concept of "lossless" as far every bit the HomePod is concerned must be married to the concept of a somewhat sculpted sound signature—even if your source file is pure equally can be, it will be subject field to Apple's sonic sculpting. This is a negative for purists, but plenty of listeners will notice the overall audio operation and DSP to exist quite favorable.

Accept a look at our list of HomePod alternatives to see how it stacks up against other high-end options in the smart speaker market.

Get Sirious

The HomePod uses Apple'due south Siri every bit its voice banana, although its version of Siri isn't every bit powerful equally the one in your phone. It'due south very, very focused on what Apple thinks you lot should be doing with it, which is playing music and controlling your smart dwelling house.

According to a report from IFTTT, most people utilise smart speakers to stream music, control lighting, prepare timers, and become the weather. The HomePod does fine with three out of those four tasks; it'due south just lousy with timers.

Merely that makes sense, at to the lowest degree, considering the HomePod's size and cost. It'south designed to exist a music speaker at the focus of your living room. It'south non supposed to be a bedside alarm clock, different the Amazon Repeat Spot, or a kitchen timer, or a multi-room intercom system like Repeat Dots and Google Home Minis are.

Music Queries

I came up with 25 queries to ask the HomePod, Amazon Echo, and Google Dwelling, to cheque out the difference betwixt the systems.

All three speakers had no problem playing songs by name. When asked to, "Play 80s new wave music," or, "Play quondam-school hip-hop," all the speakers came up with custom playlists that worked with the genre. Fair enough.

Things got a little odder when I asked to "Play something upbeat," "Play something sleepy," or, "Play some placidity music." For upbeat, Alexa picked a poppy playlist, Google picked jazz, and Siri picked funk. For quiet, Alexa gave me Ed Sheeran, Google chose a Janet Jackson ballad, and Siri went with Steely Dan. And for sleepy, Alexa delivered nature sounds, Google had some relaxing electronica, and Siri gave up and played Wiz Khalifa.

Finally, I asked the speakers to, "Play something I'd like." Alexa and Google gave up there, trying to find songs by that title. Siri got the intent correct, but launched into an emo track past Rising Against, which I do not similar.

Home and Kitchen

HomeKit is 1 of the HomePod's great strengths. Anything you accept gear up up through your iPhone, you can now control by voice, including scenes and zones. We hands turned lights on and off using the HomePod, even with our iPhone turned off.

For timers, the HomePod falls brusk because information technology can only set i at a time. You lot can get around that by setting alarms for specific times of twenty-four hour period (for example, ask Siri what time it is, and then ready an alarm for three minutes later), simply Amazon and Google both support multiple named timers, which is much smoother.

Siri falls flat on recipes, too. Alexa and Google both read out a range of recipes and ingredients, step by pace. Siri only says, "I can't get the answer to this on HomePod." Don't utilize it in your kitchen.

News and Full general Knowledge

Here'south where Siri really starts to fail.

The HomePod gets its atmospheric condition data from conditions.com. All iii vocalization systems responded to, "What will the weather condition be tomorrow?," "Will it rain tomorrow?," "Exercise I need a glaze?," and "Do I need an umbrella?"

In terms of news, the HomePod is more limited than the competition. It'll play you lot a news cursory from CNN, Fox News, NPR, or the Washington Mail service. Both Alexa and Google have hundreds or thousands of news sources.

If you lot ask for agenda events, Siri says, "I can't access your calendar here." Alexa has various calendar skills; Google will tell you lot your Google calendar events, as long as you don't have a G Suite account.

As for general knowledge queries, which I'm lukewarm on testing anyway because they feel gimmicky, Google did much amend than either Alexa or Siri, spelling the world querulous correctly (the other two misunderstood what I was maxim), and telling me how many albums Belle and Sebastian fabricated.

Siri as well falls manner brusk when it comes to third-political party, branded skills. Alexa and Google tin can order y'all an Uber, for instance, or buy you picture tickets, or plug into third-party notes and to-do services. Siri, at to the lowest degree for now, can't.

Information technology really isn't clear how many 3rd-party services plug into Siri; Apple wouldn't give usa a list. Simply it's certainly many fewer than the 2,000 skills for Google Banana, or the 24,000 for Alexa.

…And More

The Repeat and Google Home devices tin can make outbound telephone calls; the HomePod cannot, although it tin exist used as a speakerphone for an existing telephone call on your iPhone. All 3 devices can send texts.

The HomePod will only connect to one Apple account, and it doesn't verify voices. (Google Habitation can automatically respond to up to 6 dissimilar people using their accounts; Alexa can be asked to switch accounts.) That ways if you hook up SMS messaging, anyone will exist able to send texts from your phone number through your HomePod if your phone is in range.

Also, unless you tell the HomePod to, "Plow off utilize listening history," anybody's music selections will be taken into account when you ask for custom playlists, which could add upward to some odd results if people in your house accept different musical tastes. Alexa and Google Home are much meliorate at balancing the needs of families.

Conclusions

The HomePod is a sonic success. Purists may thumb their noses at the DSP and overall inability to disable the room-adapting technology in favor of an unadulterated signal, but we can at to the lowest degree confirm that, while the audio operation may be steeped in digital processing, it nigh always sounds rich, full, and articulate. The speaker is easy to set upward and effortless to use, as long as y'all're playing Apple Music.

Only while the HomePod makes a great living room speaker for your Apple Music subscription, it'southward neither the core of a voice-activated home nor the best smart speaker bachelor. Our Editor's Choice for high-stop smart speakers, Google'south Home Max, is larger and more than powerful, with ameliorate volume, better bass depth, a improve vocalization assistant, and more flexibility with music services and inputs. The Home Max can also become function of a household system with various smaller Google Assistant speakers. Apple tree doesn't accept such a range bachelor. For now, the HomePod stands alone.

We're too irritated at how the HomePod doesn't play well with others. The lack of Bluetooth input, aux input, or support for more than music services feels to u.s. more similar a marketing motion to lock y'all out of non-Apple music sources than a consumer-friendly, quality-oriented option.

The HomePod feels unfinished, but we wouldn't count Apple out. The first iPhone felt unfinished, too, with its poor-quality phone calls, lack of 3G, and lack of apps. The commencement iPod didn't support Windows. The HomePod is an admirable first try. It's entering a realm where the competition has been working on its products for years. Permit's encounter how fast Apple can take hold of up.

Apple HomePod Specs

Channels	Mono
Bluetooth	No
Wi-Fi	Yes
Multi-Room	Yes
Physical Connections	None
Portable	No
Water-Resistant	No
Speakerphone	Yes
Vocalization Banana	Apple tree Siri

All-time Smart Domicile Picks

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Further Reading

• Smart Microgrids: The Future of Sustainable Ability
• Google Assistant Sensitivity Option Starts Rolling Out
• IKEA Finally Starts Selling Its Smart Blinds Online
• MIT's SprayableTech Creates Interactive Surfaces Anywhere
• How to Measure Home Power Usage

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/home-security-products/15975/apple-homepod-review

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