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Apple’s ‘cheap’ speaker offers amazing sound

If you’re interested in entering the intelligent Apple ecosystem or have an Apple Music subscription, that’s the talker. The packaging of powerful sounds and a stylish design for less than $100/100/AU$150’s is far cheaper than some could have expected. But even years after launch, Siri and the intelligent home experience still need to be worked.

advantages

• Incredible sound
• Sleek design
• Useful functionality

disadvantages

• Needs Apple Music for full function
• Siri and the smart home features need work
• Music handoff not available

HomePod mini price and release date

When launched on November 16, the HomePod Mini will cost $99/ £99 / AU$149 and can now be pre-ordered from Apple.

This is way cheaper than the Apple HomePod, which was launched in 2018 at $349/$319/AU$497, and with the launch of the new HomePod mini, you can expect some great Apple HomePod discounts from the Black Friday deals or cyber sales on Monday.

The pricing places HomePod mini in direct competition with the new Amazon Echo (2020), costing 99.99 dollars per 89.99 dollars per AU$ 139.

It’s not like Apple pricing its products at the cheaper end of the range. Maybe the company expects people to purchase more than one unit – as mentioned, two you can stereo sound with.

Quick Review

Finally, Apple returns to the clever game of the speaker, reducing his ghostly HomePod and bringing us the new, more compact HomePod Mini.

It’s one of Apple’s cheapest devices ever: it’s pretty affordable at $99 / £99 / AU$149, though it’s head on, with sometimes a fifth of that price – with the Echo Dot of Amazons or Google Nest Mini seen as his leading opponents.

Nevertheless, Apple thinks that the day will be won by a combination of Siri’s voice support and excellent sound quality – and this small speaker has many impressive things to offer.

The first of these is the set-up process – for the HomePod mini you will need an iPhone or iPad and your device is just close to the new HomePod mini and the connection is instantaneous.

All wireless internet passwords and accounts All Wi-Fi passwords, and accounts are synchronised, and they are automatically paired when you set up two speakers together (after that is what you want to do, you have confirmed it). The time to get up and running takes almost seconds.

It’s also a very inoffensive speech, which takes much less space than the original HomePod with a small spherical design.

They’ll automatically pair them (when you’ve confirmed that’s what you want to do), if you’re putting in place two speakers together. The time to get up and running takes almost seconds.

This is also a very inoffensive speaker, which takes a much less space than the original HomePod.

Apple HomePod mini design and specifications

• HomePod Series’ ‘mini’ nomenclature is as accurate as iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini; the HomePod mini has less form factor, but has more features than the larger HomePod.

• Apple has changed its shape, however, quite a bit because the smaller device has a spherical body instead of the bigger housepod cylindrical form.

• The shape suits the size quite nicely, and the HomePod mini is easily the nicest looking compact smart speaker you can buy today. The outer side of the speaker has a soft, mesh-like fabric cover which adds to the attractive design.

• The HomePod mini needs an iOS device to be set up and controlled and I have used my iPad mini (2019) to complete it with the Home App. Although it has taken a while for the process to be successful, the HomePod works well for me.

• Apple sent me two HomePod mini drives, so I could have a stereo pairing mode set up and tested. If you choose, you can also use multiple units for conventional multiroom connectivity.

Apple HomePod mini performance

• Like other audio products from Apple, the HomePod Mini meets all its sound quality limits from Apple. It is the compact speaker you can buy with the best sounding effect, and its strictly controlled services and features ecosystem keeps sounds and performance quality.
• While its price does not so highly as other speakers, it is loud enough for desktop use and provides sufficient oomph on the system using a second HomePod mini in a stereo-paired setup.
• As mentioned, the HomePod mini can only be used with the limited Apple protocols and services. That means there is no old-fashioned Bluetooth audio playback and AirPlay must be used for source device connectivity.
• You have everything you need to use the HomePod Mini if you have a Mac computer, iPhone or iPad. I played a great deal of music in my laptop or tablet using Apple Music on the speaker, but also tried to stream audio systems from my laptop to the speaker on my iPad and AirPlay regularly.