Another WWDC has arrived, and while it will have delighted many Apple aficionados with its series of announcements, major updates, and promises for the future, many of us wonder what could have been. After all, part of the fun of listening to a memorable keynote speech is lamenting all that was left out instead of praising the things we actually saw.
We certainly wanted more audio news, and while the Apple Adaptive Audio reveal will be good news for AirPods Pro 2 owners, WWDC 2023 was pretty thin on the ground when it came to news about headphones, sound quality and the HomePod smart speaker.
The latter is a surprise, especially considering that the original HomePod Mini is fast approaching its third birthday with no sign of an upgrade or new model. The five-star Mini impressed us when we reviewed it a few years ago and even got one Which Hi-Fi? Price; so isn’t it about time we saw another model approaching on the horizon?
If we do get a new Mini, we’d definitely like to see a few tweaks and tweaks to make it an even better smart speaker than it is right now. This is our wish list:
A newer, faster processor
The current HomePod Mini uses Apple’s S5 chip which you’ll be familiar with if you own a Series 5 Apple Watch or an Apple Watch SE. That’s all fine and decent and has certainly served the current generation well, but it’s a step down from the S7 chip that currently powers the larger HomePod 2.
It’s not rocket science to say that a new processing chip would lead to an improved experience, including better audio and a faster, smoother level of performance. A more advanced chip could also upgrade Siri and make it much smarter.
It’s unlikely Apple would equip the smaller, cheaper model with the same chip as its larger, more powerful companion, though, so we might be somewhat hopeful asking for a new Ultra Wideband chip in the second-generation model.
Even better sound quality
There’s no question that the HomePod Mini is a really strong performer musically, comfortably giving you more detail, texture and loudness than you’d probably expect from its diminutive size and price (£99 / $99 / AU$149).
Still, there is always room for improvement, even for the best in class. After all, that’s what Which Hi-Fi? is all about, so forgive us for being overly demanding. We’ve seen other brands take audio performance to new heights (the Sonos Era 100 improved the Sonos One in every way, for example), and Apple’s more serious take on sound – as evidenced by an improved HomePod 2 performance – means that the performance of HomePod Mini could certainly take a step up.
The newer generation could offer even richer details and delve into even finer textures, or else go louder without distortion creeping in and offer smoother dynamic swings. Even looking at incremental upgrades to a model that is already well above its pay scale would be worth the time for Apple.
Perhaps such improvements can be achieved by strengthening the internal hardware of the new model. For example, both the Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen and Sonos Era 100 smart speakers offer multiple drivers to radiate sound in a wider arc. The current HomePod Mini only offers a single full-range driver that fires sound down and out of the 360-degree waveguide around the bottom. It’s a setup that has worked well for its ultra-compact size, but might look to its bigger brother HomePod 2 to see how (if possible) it can implement a multi-driver setup to produce a wider, fuller sound .
A better Home app
Admittedly, only with the HomePod Mini this is not a problem. All HomePods come equipped with the rather bland Home app, a rather sparse and boring platform for controlling your smart devices that, surprisingly for Apple, is a bit of a letdown.
Not only does it look cheap and feel poorly laid out, but there just isn’t much depth or intuitiveness in the app itself. There are only three tabs at the bottom telling you where to go (Home, Automation, and Discover), there are hidden settings that aren’t easy to find, and almost nothing about the experience is what you could call “user-friendly”. Instead, everything feels disjointed and not where you’d expect, like no one really thought about designing it in an ergonomic or user-friendly way.
It’s even worse when you compare the Home app to Sonos’ much more intuitive and user-friendly app, or Amazon’s excellent efforts with the Alexa app. The latter is a more detailed, intuitive platform that offers five tabs at the bottom (including a handy “More” button), not to mention shortcuts to most of your Amazon device’s useful functions, such as device search, device settings, music settings. Apple wants to keep up with Amazon and Sonos, it has to redesign its Home app from scratch.
Even smarter Siri
Siri is great, but we know Apple’s AI virtual assistant can do even better. This isn’t pure speculation: the California tech giant recently confirmed at WWDC 2023 that improvements to Siri were rolling in on nearly all mainstream devices, including iPads, iPhones, and the Mac laptop series.
As Apple revealed, Siri’s trigger phrase has been shortened from “Hey Siri” to simply “Siri”. It also now has the ability to use back-to-back commands, so Siri can do multiple tasks at once instead of having to be approached twice for two tasks, for example.
We can reasonably speculate that such upgrades will find their way to Siri, but we’d also like to see the usual range of improvements incorporated into a new HomePod Mini: faster response times, a wider range of responses, and better third-party support. The best Siri experience is still tied to Apple’s own apps and ecosystem, and while that works great for Apple Music subscribers, other music apps aren’t quite as easy to use with Siri.
Voice assistant compatibility is a big reason for choosing a smart speaker in the first place, so if Siri responds to our commands in a more intuitive way for a wider range of tasks and apps, the hypothetical second-generation Mini could come in very handy. come, if and when the time finally comes.
Minor design tweaks
Let’s be clear from the start that the HomePod Mini looks and performs great in its current guise. It’s a stylish little item, with that thick speaker mesh and perfectly spherical shape that makes it look good alongside its great sound and great range of features. And it also comes in multiple colorful finishes.
There are just a few design tweaks Apple could make to make the next-generation Mini perform even better. For starters, a non-slip rubber sole with more grip on the bottom would provide a bit more peace of mind. If there’s a way Apple can make the Mini more stable without increasing its overall size, so much the better.
Second, while the top-panel touchscreen interface that activates when invoking Siri looks nice, it’s not always useful. First, you need to look at the device from above to confirm whether or not Siri is activated. Apple increased the amount of lighting over the glossy top panel in the HomePod 2, so we’re hoping Mini Gen 2 gets a more all-encompassing lighting system that can be seen from a distance.
Finally, one feature that stood out with Amazon’s Echo Dot (5th Gen) is that you can tap anywhere on its surface (in theory, at least) to get a response, so it might make sense for the Mini to become fully interactive regardless where your poking fingers land.
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