At the start of January (2022) I put out a video on YouTube entitled, Dear Apple….Should I buy the HomePod Mini, go check that video that in the link below before you carry on reading otherwise you’ll miss out on the spoiler.
I wanted a speaker, primarily for use on my Mac Mini, because this was an Apple branded speaker I thought that it would be ideal for use with another Apple product in the Mac Mini (as well as use with the iPhone).
When I did my initial research (which usually consists of watching loads of YouTube videos and reading online reviews), I kept coming back to very distinct issues that were most likely going to hinder (what I would consider to be) my primary use of the HomePod Mini.
The 1st issue that kept coming up was the delay. If you’re playing something, whether that be music, YouTube videos or anything else, there would anyways be a mismatch between the picture and the sound. Something that you don’t really want if you do a lot of video editing.
Secondly, because of this issue, you would have thought Apple would have put in external support via an aux port (just like the Amazon Echo Dot has). But no. My main emphasis of my first “Dear Apple…” video centred around the fact, that at the time of writing the HomePod Mini is the only speaker that Apple make and with just a few alterations to the design of the HomePod Mini, I thought they (Apple) could be even better and attract a different group of people.
Adding external support would mean, other devices (would benefit greatly). I mean, Apple like creating products that mutually benefit other Apple products within the ecosystem, right (maybe with exception of the Apple Watch)? The HomePod Mini (prior, to what happens later in this article) doesn’t cater fully for anything other than the iPhone.
Now, let’s fast forward to June (2022), an opportunity presents itself and I’ve got vouchers for a shop in the UK (called John Lewis) which the only thing in there that I would want is the HomePod Mini (and believe me I looked).
But if you’re thinking that I’d put my issues towards the HomePod Mini to side, I hadn’t, and also in that time nothing (software wise) had changed about the HomePod Mini. It’s still the same HomePod Mini with the same issues.
I’m guessing that you’re reading this and asking yourself, why did I buy it then? The answer to that is mainly because I wanted a mini speaker and if I was going to buy one I’d be spending £30-£50, so why not spend a bit more money and buy one, and with the HomePod mini (as with any other Apple product), it’s going to fit seamlessly in and compliment my existing Apple devices.
I purchased the space grey HomePod because it goes nicely with the aesthetic of the room it’s going in (my office) and it seems to be Apple’s go to generic colour that goes with most things, I like things that blend in, which the Space grey is perfect at.
Out of the box, you get the general bits of useless paper that never see the light of day when they do go back in to box, an Apple sticker (does anyone ever do anything with the sticker), and a 20W USB-C power adapter (the same power adapter that I’d bought for my iPhone 13 Pro at a cost of £20).
Apart from its flat surfaces on the top and bottom, it’s almost the perfect snowball size at 3.3 inches tall and 3.9 inches wide, making it a little bit smaller than the Amazon Echo Dot and it fits so well and comfortably, at 345 grams, in my hand.
Surrounding the HomePod is a fabric mesh that as well making this smart speaker look like a premium product also aids in its ability to produce its uninterrupted 360 degree sound field. This HomePod Mini reminds me of those knitted bean bag seats, if you’ve got one of those, imagine how nice this would be on a table next to it.
On the bottom, the surface, not quite fully non slip, but it’ll prevent the speaker from being easily moved. On the top, the only input surface on the speaker, a backlit touch interface that allows you to control Siri and the HomePod mini’s functions which are mainly music control.
One issue with the Space grey one and the coloured ones except the white one, is that this surface is a fingerprint magnet, so if you don’t want fingerprints to always be seen I’d probably suggest getting the white one.
When the HomePod is active or when Siri is processing or listening to what you’re saying, you’ll get the uniqueness of the pulsing orb of coloured light displayed.
And my bug bear of the design of the HomePod Mini (one of the issues mentioned in my first HomePod Mini video), the undetachable USB-C cable, the only thing nice about this, is that braided cable although the a white power adapter at the end of it doesn’t exactly go with the nice Space Grey aesthetic. Seeing what Apple is doing with the matching braided cables on the M2 MacBook Air’s, it would have been nice to see this adopted here, maybe in the next reiteration of the HomePod?
If you’ve ever set up any Apple accessory before like AirPods, then you’ll know just how easy it can be to set them up and the HomePod Mini is exactly the same. Unfortunately, you’ll have to own an iPhone or iPad to set one of these up, but if you do, all you’ll need to do is get close to the HomePod Mini with the iPhone and press connect and now it’s available to any of your Apple devices like your iPad, Apple TV or even your Mac’s.
What I would have liked to have seen is a dedicated app just for the HomePod and its features but you can access it in the Home app. Within the Home App, long pressing on the HomePod icon brings up the what’s playing, scrolling down shows you any alarms or timers that have been set and either further scrolling down or pressing the cog icon in the corner will give you access to the settings of the HomePod where you can make all of the regular Apple like changes to the speaker and its accessibility.
One of the main interaction features between the iPhone and the HomePod mini is the handoff feature, where if you’re listening to music of your iPhone and come into the room with the HomePod in it, by simply placing your iPhone next to the HomePod Mini, you’re able to automatically transfer the sound output from the iPhone to the HomePod’s speakers, flawless, most of the time.
And you’re also able to do the reverse, grabbing the sound back from the HomePod Mini to the iPhone, by once again putting the iPhone next to the speaker, but instead of it automatically doing it, you’ll get a pop up on the screen asking if you want to transfer the sound back to the iPhone. Doing this in both instances is almost instant.
If you’re already familiar with Siri then you’re going to get the same experience here that you’ll get with using Siri on any other Apple product, if you plan to use this as a speaker mainly playing music with direction from your iPhone then you may never use Siri any more than you do now, but if you’ve got an Apple Music Voice plan for example where everything is controlled and directed by asking Siri without the use of a iPhone because the HomePod is connected to Apple Music via the cloud, then this is perfect, aided by that touch surface for quick control.
And if you’ve got HomeKit compatible devices also within the Home App then you’ll also be able to control everything via the HomePod, as well those basic tasks like creating reminders, settings timers, writing messages, sending and receiving phone calls and supporting any shortcuts you’ve created that are initiated by Siri.
I’m always finding that if I say “Hey Siri” then it’s always the device that I don’t want to respond which wakes you, up as long as the HomePod is active it will always be the dominant instructor.
As you would expect, the HomePod with Siri works best and most intuitively with Apple apps, unsurprisingly, it’ll play music and HomePod directed music best with Apple Music but I sometimes wish with most Apple integrations that there was a little bit more third party app support as well.
Spotify (which I have an active subscription to) with this level of interaction would make using Siri a much more enjoyable experience because currently if you are playing music from Spotify then you’ve only got the basic commands and playing anything other than your current playlist would have to be directed from your phone making this nothing more than of glorified speaker rather than a smart speaker.
If you’ve got more than one around the house and you don’t want to be shouting through the walls just to get the kids to come downstairs for dinner then you can use the intercom feature to either a specific HomePod or to all available HomePods, by saying “announce “kids its time for dinner” and the message will get relayed to the others HomePods.
While you can’t get the HomePod to announce to anything other than another HomePod, if you’ve got an Apple Watch or iPhone or you’re using your connected AirPods or CarPlay, then asking to announce your message will get transmitted to the HomePod.
If you’re lucky enough to own two HomePods (not only around the house, but in the same room) then you can also Stereo pair the two (same room) HomePods and use them as left and right channels for the sound playing Apple devices.
The sound quality for such a small speaker is quite big and booming and it definitely fills a small to medium room with a full sound. At maximum volume, which is really loud, you’re still getting clarity in the sound produced thanks to the S5 chip inside which is constantly making fine tuning adjustments to deliver the best loudness and dynamic range for the environment.
I mainly use the HomePod to listen to podcasts and there has never been a time that the voice of the presenter is distorted in any way, it’s always delivered in a fine and clear way.
You can definitely tell the difference between music played on Apple Music, for example, that takes advantage of the Spatial Audio features because they sound awesome, full of bass, giving you that immersion from all directions while allowing you to hear those layers within the song, and if you compare that to songs that aren’t taking advantage of those features then, while still sounding big and good, they just aren’t as forfilling but you’ll always be getting that good consistent output coming that of the speaker, no matter which way it’s facing, although I don’t really know how many people would be facing it that way you’d most likely have the wire side facing the wall, wherever it is in the room.
This is first and foremost, a speaker, but what’s it like when you connect it with something other than an iPhone (my main issue and what stopped me from getting one previously). Your experience of this will depend of what you use it with, as we know, the HomePod Mini works well with Apple apps, this is definitely where you see that in action.
Having purchased it, I couldn’t resist and I connected it to my Mac Mini via Airplay, just to see and the issue I’d heard about this when connecting it to something like this, is the delay. And I can confirm the delay is real.
When you press play or pause on the song or video on the Mac, then is a couple of seconds delay before you even hear any sound coming out of the HomePod and during this delay your clip or song is still playing, obviously without sound. And when you end the clip, it’s playing for the couple of seconds at the end before stopping, frustrating at times.
All because of how it’s getting the input, with Apple Music it’s grabbing the music directly from the cloud while connecting via Airplay, the source has to transmit that sound to the HomePod first. All these issues could be solved with a simple aux input in the back of the HomePod.
But when it does play it’s fine. I definitely wouldn’t use this if you’re reliant on audio editing, but it’s certainly better than the Mac Mini’s own speaker.
The HomePod Mini, mini by name but certainly not mini by the nature of the sound that comes out and you’ll notice that from the first moment you press play on the first song you play when you’re testing it out straight out of the box, it’s definitely something you could solely use in an outdoor setting, like garden party in the sun (funnily enough, exactly what I’m doing right now, enjoying the (very) hot British weather, with some mild mannered music playing on the HomePod Mini).
Definitely a good addition to your ecosystem if you’re looking for a smart speaker that you want to play your music which is going to sound the part, and sometimes sound, just as the artist wants you to hear it, in which ever room you put it in and if you’ve got HomeKit compatible devices, then you’ve got a handsfree device that controls them all without the need to use your phone and with Siri, only likely to get better in the future narrowing the gap between the current Alexa and Google smart assistants then the HomePods position should be only enhanced within the market.
The HomePod Mini is definitely aimed at someone with an iPhone or iPad definitely not an android phone because you can only connect to this via Apple’s Airplay, and maybe an Apple Music subscription, optional not essential and maybe someone planning to or has got homeKit compatible devices around the house, once again optional not essential.
Do I regret buying it, of course not. It’s sounds great, is really useful around (and outside) the house and it looks good especially for something of this size, which for me, as the overall package beats the Amazon and Google offerings around this price purely because of the way the sounds pour from its speaker. Yes, there are things that Apple could and probably should do to improve this software and hardware wise, especially as it is currently the only smart speaker they sell, but don’t let that take anything away from what it is good at.
Will Apple ever make another HomePod or HomePod Mini.
If you want to see the video to my words above, check out my YouTube review video.