HomePod Mini review: tiny but bully

Apple has released the long-awaited HomePod mini, a reduced version of the original HomePod that surprises with its performance and improper sound quality of a speaker of its size and price. We test it and tell you about it.

Fixing the HomePod problem

Launched almost three years ago, the HomePod is a speaker that from the beginning has been admired for its sound quality, but also criticized for its price. It arrived in Spain almost a year later for € 349, a price that was later reduced to € 329, which placed it in the high-end range of speakers. This classification was not undeserved, because its sound quality certified it, but its price left it out of the market for many users, and therefore left Apple out of the world of smart speakers as there was no other alternative. Great sound, central to HomeKit, integrated virtual assistant, with all the advantages and disadvantages of Siri, perfect integration into the Apple ecosystem… but at a high price.

It has been a long time, Siri has been improved and Apple has opened the HomePod to third-party applications and services, which has made the HomePod a more attractive device, but another more affordable alternative was seen as absolutely necessary, and therefore after From many months of rumors Apple has released its HomePod mini. This little speaker solves all those problems from the original HomePod, because By keeping all the functions of the HomePod in full, its price is reduced to € 99, and although the difference in sound is obvious (and logical), its quality is superior to that of other similar speakers in size and price.

Design and Specifications

Apple has changed the form, but maintains its essence. The HomePod mini is a small sphere flattened by the poles, covered with the same fabric mesh as its older brother. At the top we have the touch surface that serves as physical control, with the luminous LEDs that indicate the different states (playback, call, Siri, etc). Inside there is a single full-range translator with two passive radiators, very different from the original HomePod, plus four microphones to pick up our voice. An S5 processor (the same as that of the Apple Watch Series 5) is responsible for analyzing the sound 180 times per second to always offer us the best possible sound.

Its connectivity is WiFi (2,4 and 5GHz), and although it has Bluetooth 5.0 it cannot be used to send sound, but almost no one remembers this anymore, something highly criticized in the original model. The sound quality and the possibilities offered by WiFi and Apple's AirPlay 2 protocol are light years away from what we can do via Bluetooth, and if we ever want to use the HomePod without the internet, we can do it without a hitch. It also includes a U1 chip that we will later reveal what it is for, and it is compatible with Thread, a new protocol that will improve the connection of home automation devices that we have at home.

Listening to music

The essence of a speaker is music, although with smart speakers this function may seem increasingly residual. From the moment you finish setting up HomePod, which takes just a couple of minutes, you can start enjoying your music. Much easier if you have Apple Music, of course, because you won't need your iPhone at all. You can ask Siri to play your favorite albums, playlists, or custom stations based on your favorite artists. If you use another streaming music service, the good news is that Apple has already opened the HomePod so that they can be integrated, although all that will depend on which services want to do it. Surely you are thinking about Spotify, which has been crying around the corners for months because it cannot be integrated into the HomePod, so it is to be expected that it will not take long to be compatible.

If you want to listen to music from a service that is not compatible, you can do it without the slightest problem, but you must do it from your iPhone, iPad or Mac and send the music through AirPlay. It is not a serious problem, but that integration magic that Apple Music does have is lost. AirPlay 2 also allows you to use speakers from different rooms simultaneously (multiroom), controlling them all as if they were one, with the music perfectly synchronized, or even sending different audios to each one of them. There is also the possibility of combining two HomePod minis to create a stereo pair, greatly enhancing the listening experience. What you can't do is combine a HomePod mini with a HomePod, of course. In addition, now the Apple TV allows you to define the audio output to the HomePod, which added to the compatibility with Dolby Atmos can turn your two HomePod mini into an excellent solution to the sound of your television, for less than € 200.

Apple has improved a feature that it recently added to the original HomePod: transferring audio from iPhone. By bringing the iPhone to the top of the HomePod, the audio you are listening to on your smartphone will be passed to the speaker, without having to do anything. It is so in theory, and when it works it is magic, but in practice it fails relatively often. The HomePod mini includes a U1 chip, as do the iPhone 11 and later models. Thanks to this, the transfer is finally a reality 99,99% of the timeSimply bring the top of the iPhone closer to the top of the HomePod mini, and audio will go from iPhone to HomePod or vice versa in an instant.

HomeKit on HomePod mini

One of the functions of the HomePod that has nothing to do with music is being an accessory hub for HomeKit. This is the case with the HomePod mini too, in fact it is the cheapest accessory center that you can buy right now, and curiously It is also the best control unit you can buy right now. Apple has added support for the Thread protocol to improve connectivity for HomeKit accessories, so you can forget about bridges and repeaters to fix coverage issues.

Thread and HomeKit
Related article:
HomePod Mini and Thread connectivity: forget about repeaters and bridges

Controlling HomeKit through the HomePod is Siri's great strength. Apple's setup process is unbeatable by the competitionAs is the fact that you buy the brand you buy, if it has HomeKit certification it will work yes or yes, and in the same way as any other brand, something that (for me) is the big problem for Amazon and Alexa. There are no skills here, you don't have to wait for the developer to launch the Spanish version, there are no surprises. If a product has the "HomeKit" seal, it will just work. And Siri in the control of your home automation fulfills perfectly. We can argue about which is the most advanced assistant, the one who tells the best jokes or the one with whom you play the best games, but when it comes to home automation… there is no color.

Virtual assistant

Siri also has assistant functions, and here it also does its job well, if you have an iPhone, of course. Using Apple services automatically makes Siri have access to your calendar, notes, reminders, contacts, etc.. You will be able to make calls, answer them, send messages, know the weather, schedule your route to work, create your shopping list ... All these are tasks that at first you do not take advantage of on the HomePod, until one day you try them and you feel the comfort of using Siri for it. Yes, we must admit that if we get out of these tasks that I have mentioned, Siri is behind the competition: you cannot order a pizza, nor buy tickets to the cinema, nor can you order your favorite perfume on Amazon, nor play Trivial Pursuit. If these tasks are essential for you, look outside of Apple, because you will not find them here. But after almost 3 years using a HomePod, and more than two with several Amazon Echos at home (less and less), my frustration with Alexa is much greater than with Siri, a matter of habit.

Amazing sound quality

Now is the time to talk about the sound of the HomePod mini, its great strength. If you don't have a speaker like the HomePod or similar at home, you're going to be amazed by the sound. If you already have a HomePod and are used to its quality, obviously the surprise will be less, but there will also be. For how small it is, its sound quality is excellent. It is not comparable with the HomePod, not even close, but for power, for nuances, for bass ... this HomePod mini will not disappoint you. Even with the volume at 100%, which Siri herself advises against when you ask, there are no distortions, "no peta" as my son would say. Of course at that volume you will not be able to hold, nor your neighbor. The power of this speaker is enormous, the bass is important and although you don't notice that "abundance of nuances" of the HomePod, you do manage to differentiate the voices, the instruments well ... although we must never lose sight of their size and their obvious limitations.

A big bet from Apple

The same Apple that removes the charger from an iPhone of more than € 1000 is capable of launching a speaker of this quality for only € 99, ​​and include the charger in the box. They are the classic contradictions to which this company has us accustomed, and which show that the bet it has made with this HomePod mini is enormous, making it one of the products with the best value for money in the entire catalog of the company, even from the market we could even say. If you are an iPhone user, if you want to start with home automation, or if you simply like the sound quality in a speaker, this HomePod mini is very difficult to resist.


Follow us on Google News

Be the first to comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: AB Internet Networks 2008 SL
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.