Today, Apple lifted the lid on its HomePod 2 speaker, and while there are some major upgrades that look great, I can’t help but feel a pang of disappointment when I look at the device.
To be clear, this is not because I think it will be bad. Look at our reviews of the first-gen HomePod and cheaper HomePod Mini and you’ll clearly see that our reviewers approve of Apple’s smart speakers.
Both the original HomePod and Mini received perfect 5/5 scores, and both delivered the best mix of audio quality and smart functionality we’d seen on a smart speaker at the time.
Plus, despite the fact that the Apple HomePod 2 looks identical to its predecessor, with a similar coffee table and a bookshelf-friendly cylindrical chassis with a woven-finish grille – which is apparently made from “100 percent” recycled materials – it has some major upgrades. under the hood.
First, it’s meant to sound better, with a new speaker setup that combines a single 4-inch woofer with five tweeters, which Apple says delivers “rich, deep bass, natural mids, and clear, detailed highs.” . Given the praise we gave the older HomePods, this should be a great sounding speaker if these claims are true.
Then there are the smart beamforming and Spatial audio capabilities. This should allow the speaker to use its new A7 chipset to intelligently scan its environment and optimize audio settings to deliver immersive sound regardless of placement.
And finally, and most exciting to me, there’s support for the Matter smart home standard. This is big because it means that unlike the first-generation HomePod, the new model should play around with technology from other smart home makers such as Google, Samsung and Amazon – although this is more from a networking and control perspective.
The reason I’m upset is that the new HomePod 2, like the first HomePod, is launching with almost no competition.
Let’s take stock of the market. The only direct rival we tested recently is the Amazon Echo Studio, which has a similar 360 audio design. But as you will see in our review, it is not a perfect product. While it’s cheaper, we gave it 4 out of 5 stars, falling short in two areas where the older HomePods excelled: wonderfully accurate low-end performance and excellent audio.
Google doesn’t really have an equivalent rival, and the only other semi-comparable product we’ve reviewed is the Sonos One. Although this isn’t a comparable comparison in my opinion, as the Sonos is more of a multi-room speaker and a potentially reliable companion to the HomePod 2, thanks to its advanced smart features.
This is a problem for me because, as we’ve seen time and time again, a lack of competition inevitably leads to stagnation and a lack of innovation in the market, with companies like Apple having no real incentive to innovate. This was what happened to the first-generation HomePod, which sold well past its sell-by date in 2020, when it was finally discontinued.
In the current landscape, I can see the same thing happening with the HomePod 2, with Apple choosing to leave it on the market and not upgrade with new features or technology until it absolutely has to.
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