Apple at its 'Hi, Speed' keynote event on Tuesday unveiled a new lower-cost smart speaker dubbed the HomePod mini, which will retail for $99.
The device shares a design similar to the standard HomePod, but is spherical and less expensive. Although it's smaller, the HomePod mini still places a similar emphasis on high-quality playback with new "computational audio" features and audio hardware.
Like the full-size HomePod, the HomePod mini still features a mesh fabric exterior in both black and white colors, along with a small display on top to show the Siri waveform and volume controls. The new model is more of a short, spherical shape, however, instead of the oblong design of the original.
HomePod mini has a built-in Siri smart assistant, the busiest smart assistant in the world. Siri processes more than 25 billion requests per month on more than 1 billion devices. Even better, it can recognize different members of the family through voice and make personalized responses.
The new HomePod mini also features an Apple S5 chip, which Apple says allows for “computational audio” processing to adjust how your music sounds 180 times per second. Multiple HomePod mini speakers can play music in sync and “intelligently” create stereo pairing when placed in the same room.
If you have several HomePods, you can put them in different rooms and use the broadcast function to easily communicate with your family. You can ask Siri to send the message to everyone, or just send it to a certain room, and everyone can easily reply.
As for privacy, user requests will not be associated with Apple ID. With strong encryption, users can also choose not to save their voices.
One of the most significant new additions to the HomePod mini is a new feature that will allow it to act as an Ultra Wideband base station to precisely locate U1-equipped devices, like the iPhone and Apple Watch Series 6.
For example, it can be used with Apple Music and Apple Podcasts. Lift your iPhone to the speaker and they will respond to each other.
Although it's smaller, the HomePod mini still places a similar emphasis on high-quality playback with new "computational audio" features and audio hardware. It doesn't quite the same bill of materials as HomePod, but it still features a full-range dynamic driver and two passive radiators for advanced bass response. It also packs an acoustic waveguide to provide clear, 360-degree audio playback.
Additionally, Apple notes that HomePod mini will be compatible with third-party streaming services like Pandora, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio, but no Spotify.
HomePod mini will retail for $99 and will start shipping out to customers the week of Nov. 16.
