Apple - HomePod Mini - Space Grey
HomePod mini delivers unexpectedly big sound for its size. Multiple HomePod mini speakers around the house let family members communicate using Intercom and make a connected sound system.1 Complete everyday tasks with Siri. the familys intelligent assistant. Use HomePod mini to control your smart home.2 All working seamlessly with your Apple devices securely and privately.3 Key Features Surprising sound for its size Five colours to brighten up any space Create a stereo pair with two HomePod mini speakers for more immersive listening4 Use Intercom to quickly communicate with family members Works seamlessly with Apple devices; hold iPhone close to HomePod mini to hand off audio3 Siri is the familys intelligent assistant. helping with everyday tasks Home hub to connect and control smart home accessories2 Designed from the ground up to be private and secure Legal Setup requires Wi-Fi and iPhone or iPad with the latest software. 1. Requires multiple HomePod speakers or AirPlay-compatible speakers with the latest AirPlay software. 2. Requires a HomeKit- or Matter-enabled accessory. Smart home accessory sold separately. 3. Requires a U1-equipped iPhone. 4. Creating a HomePod stereo pair requires two of the same model HomePod speaker. such as two HomePod mini. two HomePod (2nd generation) or two HomePod (1st generation).
HomePod mini delivers unexpectedly big sound for its size. Multiple HomePod mini speakers around the house let family members communicate using Intercom and make a connected sound system.1 Complete everyday tasks with Siri. the familys intelligent assistant. Use HomePod mini to control your smart home.2 All working seamlessly with your Apple devices securely and privately.3 Key Features Surprising sound for its size Five colours to brighten up any space Create a stereo pair with two HomePod mini speakers for more immersive listening4 Use Intercom to quickly communicate with family members Works seamlessly with Apple devices; hold iPhone close to HomePod mini to hand off audio3 Siri is the familys intelligent assistant. helping with everyday tasks Home hub to connect and control smart home accessories2 Designed from the ground up to be private and secure Legal Setup requires Wi-Fi and iPhone or iPad with the latest software. 1. Requires multiple HomePod speakers or AirPlay-compatible speakers with the latest AirPlay software. 2. Requires a HomeKit- or Matter-enabled accessory. Smart home accessory sold separately. 3. Requires a U1-equipped iPhone. 4. Creating a HomePod stereo pair requires two of the same model HomePod speaker. such as two HomePod mini. two HomePod (2nd generation) or two HomePod (1st generation).
HomePod mini delivers unexpectedly big sound for its size. Multiple HomePod mini speakers around the house let family members communicate using Intercom and make a connected sound system.1 Complete everyday tasks with Siri. the familys intelligent assistant. Use HomePod mini to control your smart home.2 All working seamlessly with your Apple devices securely and privately.3 Key Features Surprising sound for its size Five colours to brighten up any space Create a stereo pair with two HomePod mini speakers for more immersive listening4 Use Intercom to quickly communicate with family members Works seamlessly with Apple devices; hold iPhone close to HomePod mini to hand off audio3 Siri is the familys intelligent assistant. helping with everyday tasks Home hub to connect and control smart home accessories2 Designed from the ground up to be private and secure Legal Setup requires Wi-Fi and iPhone or iPad with the latest software. 1. Requires multiple HomePod speakers or AirPlay-compatible speakers with the latest AirPlay software. 2. Requires a HomeKit- or Matter-enabled accessory. Smart home accessory sold separately. 3. Requires a U1-equipped iPhone. 4. Creating a HomePod stereo pair requires two of the same model HomePod speaker. such as two HomePod mini. two HomePod (2nd generation) or two HomePod (1st generation).
HomePod mini delivers unexpectedly big sound for its size. Multiple HomePod mini speakers around the house let family members communicate using Intercom and make a connected sound system.1 Complete everyday tasks with Siri. the familys intelligent assistant. Use HomePod mini to control your smart home.2 All working seamlessly with your Apple devices securely and privately.3 Key Features Surprising sound for its size Five colours to brighten up any space Create a stereo pair with two HomePod mini speakers for more immersive listening4 Use Intercom to quickly communicate with family members Works seamlessly with Apple devices; hold iPhone close to HomePod mini to hand off audio3 Siri is the familys intelligent assistant. helping with everyday tasks Home hub to connect and control smart home accessories2 Designed from the ground up to be private and secure Legal Setup requires Wi-Fi and iPhone or iPad with the latest software. 1. Requires multiple HomePod speakers or AirPlay-compatible speakers with the latest AirPlay software. 2. Requires a HomeKit- or Matter-enabled accessory. Smart home accessory sold separately. 3. Requires a U1-equipped iPhone. 4. Creating a HomePod stereo pair requires two of the same model HomePod speaker. such as two HomePod mini. two HomePod (2nd generation) or two HomePod (1st generation).
in 12 offers
The lowest price for Apple - HomePod Mini - Space Grey right now is $99.00 at The Good Guys, compared across 10 retailers.
The all-time low was $99.00 on 5 June 2026. That's the lowest price we've ever tracked — a great time to buy.
Prices last updated 8 June 2026.
Last updated at 08/06/2026 00:36:09
Apple HomePod mini - Space Grey
Free 30-day returns
Apple HomePod Mini [Grade A]
Free delivery
Apple HomePod Mini [Like New]
Free delivery
Apple HomePod Mini - Space Grey, B
Free delivery
HomePod Mini - Space Gray | iPowerResale
Delivery between 10–16 June $138.07
Apple HomePod Mini MY5G2X/A Space Grey [Refurbished] - Excellent
Free next-day delivery
Apple HomePod Mini MY5G2X/A Space Grey [Refurbished] - Excellent
Free delivery between 11–19 June
Apple HomePod Mini Smart Assistant Speaker A2374
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Apple HomePod mini Smart Speaker - Space Gray
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Apple HomePod mini 2021 - Space Gray - Smart Speaker with Siri - Pristine - Refurbished
Free delivery between 12–22 June
originally posted on stationerypacks.co.uk
I absolutely love my original HomePod the big one, so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multiroom audio experience. The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like theyre going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output They can get really loud too The bass is present, but not roomvibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV. Since these are purely wireless speakers there are no inputs ... MoreI absolutely love my original HomePod the big one, so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multiroom audio experience. The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like theyre going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output They can get really loud too The bass is present, but not roomvibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV. Since these are purely wireless speakers there are no inputs other than the attached power cable, I have fairly frequently had issues with audio cutouts or lag when casting music through Airplay. Sometimes the music just stops completely and starts playing through my phone instead. Not a super seamless experience, but could come down to router issues. There are times when I cannot even select the speakers because they disappear from my Airplay menu, even though I am connected to the same Wifi network they are on. Important note too If you cant cast audio through Apples Airplay protocol so basically only through Apple Devices, you wont be able to get these to work they lack bluetooth audio functionality Plus, Siri is not very helpful when asking for requests. I would say 60 of the time it will be able to 1. Recognize what I say and 2. be able to do the request I asked. Lots of hmmm, Im not quite sure or could you say that again responses. After a couple of years of software updates, you would think the experience would be slightly better, but smart home assistants still have a lot of evolving to do. They still dont work well with music streaming services other than Apple Music at least when asking to play a certain song or artist, so that is a continuous burden since I do not use Apples services. For these reasons, I basically only use these for the purpose of listening to music or casting through my Apple TV audio. They sound great, but there are a lot of software optimizations that need to be made for these to work as seamlessly as they are advertised to.
originally posted on bestbuy.com
I've been deep into the Apple ecosystem since my first iPod in the early 2000's. We have multiple Apple TV's, iPads, iPhones, 5 Homepod Minis and Airpods.We bought 2 of these to link them as a stereo pair in a room where we are using an Apple TV as our video source on an Epson projector and these were to provide our sound without being an eyesore. These 2 are nestled at the top of our sectional where the couch meets the wall and are barely visible due to the white matching our light grey sectional.Sound quality is good, but not very powerful. I wasn't expecting these to replace home theater speakers, rather just provide the same level as a built in TV speaker. We have 2 children and we find ourselves running these at max volume just to watch a TV show on ... MoreI've been deep into the Apple ecosystem since my first iPod in the early 2000's. We have multiple Apple TV's, iPads, iPhones, 5 Homepod Minis and Airpods.We bought 2 of these to link them as a stereo pair in a room where we are using an Apple TV as our video source on an Epson projector and these were to provide our sound without being an eyesore. These 2 are nestled at the top of our sectional where the couch meets the wall and are barely visible due to the white matching our light grey sectional.Sound quality is good, but not very powerful. I wasn't expecting these to replace home theater speakers, rather just provide the same level as a built in TV speaker. We have 2 children and we find ourselves running these at max volume just to watch a TV show on Peacock.Aesthetics-very nice looking, small footprint.Functionality/Cool factor: We really enjoy being able to use Hey Siri for weather, creating timers, adding tasks to lists, playing movies etc. Very high marks in this category.Reliability: I bough this in July of 2021 and we just noticed that the left speaker of our stereo pair was not working, Had to take to Best Buy for repair. Luckily we are within our 1 year factory warranty period. I've never had an Apple product die on me, not once in 20 years.In summary, these are cool little speakers to play some music on. We have 4 in our downstairs and when people come over we are able to stream the same source to all of the speakers to get that immersive sound effect. Nice integration with the Apple TV for audio source although we do have to manually select them each time. Overall these are really cool speakers that are lacking only in the power category. I wish they hadn't discontinued the original Homepod
originally posted on bestbuy.com
I absolutely love my original HomePod (the big one), so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multi-room audio experience.The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are! Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like they're going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output! They can get really loud too! The bass is present, but not room-vibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV.Since these are purely wireless speakers (there ... MoreI absolutely love my original HomePod (the big one), so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multi-room audio experience.The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are! Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like they're going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output! They can get really loud too! The bass is present, but not room-vibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV.Since these are purely wireless speakers (there are no inputs other than the attached power cable), I have fairly frequently had issues with audio cutouts or lag when casting music through Airplay. Sometimes the music just stops completely and starts playing through my phone instead. Not a super seamless experience, but could come down to router issues. There are times when I cannot even select the speakers because they disappear from my Airplay menu, even though I am connected to the same Wifi network they are on.Important note too – If you can't cast audio through Apple's Airplay protocol (so basically only through Apple Devices), you won't be able to get these to work – they lack bluetooth audio functionality!Plus, Siri is not very helpful when asking for requests. I would say 60% of the time it will be able to 1. Recognize what I say and 2. be able to do the request I asked. Lots of "hmmm, I'm not quite sure" or "could you say that again?" responses. After a couple of years of software updates, you would think the experience would be slightly better, but smart home assistants still have a lot of evolving to do. They still don't work well with music streaming services other than Apple Music (at least when asking to play a certain song or artist), so that is a continuous burden since I do not use Apple's services.For these reasons, I basically only use these for the purpose of listening to music or casting through my Apple TV audio. They sound great, but there are a lot of software optimizations that need to be made for these to work as seamlessly as they are advertised to.
| Connected home device type | Smart speakers |
| Wireless | Yes |
| Networkable | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Yes |
| Bluetooth | v5.0 |
Apple HomePod mini - Space Grey
Free 30-day returns
Apple HomePod Mini [Grade A]
Free delivery
Apple HomePod Mini [Like New]
Free delivery
Apple HomePod Mini - Space Grey, B
Free delivery
HomePod Mini - Space Gray | iPowerResale
Delivery between 10–16 June $138.07
I absolutely love my original HomePod the big one, so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multiroom audio experience. The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like theyre going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output They can get really loud too The bass is present, but not roomvibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV. Since these are purely wireless speakers there are no inputs ... MoreI absolutely love my original HomePod the big one, so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multiroom audio experience. The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like theyre going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output They can get really loud too The bass is present, but not roomvibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV. Since these are purely wireless speakers there are no inputs other than the attached power cable, I have fairly frequently had issues with audio cutouts or lag when casting music through Airplay. Sometimes the music just stops completely and starts playing through my phone instead. Not a super seamless experience, but could come down to router issues. There are times when I cannot even select the speakers because they disappear from my Airplay menu, even though I am connected to the same Wifi network they are on. Important note too If you cant cast audio through Apples Airplay protocol so basically only through Apple Devices, you wont be able to get these to work they lack bluetooth audio functionality Plus, Siri is not very helpful when asking for requests. I would say 60 of the time it will be able to 1. Recognize what I say and 2. be able to do the request I asked. Lots of hmmm, Im not quite sure or could you say that again responses. After a couple of years of software updates, you would think the experience would be slightly better, but smart home assistants still have a lot of evolving to do. They still dont work well with music streaming services other than Apple Music at least when asking to play a certain song or artist, so that is a continuous burden since I do not use Apples services. For these reasons, I basically only use these for the purpose of listening to music or casting through my Apple TV audio. They sound great, but there are a lot of software optimizations that need to be made for these to work as seamlessly as they are advertised to.
I've been deep into the Apple ecosystem since my first iPod in the early 2000's. We have multiple Apple TV's, iPads, iPhones, 5 Homepod Minis and Airpods.We bought 2 of these to link them as a stereo pair in a room where we are using an Apple TV as our video source on an Epson projector and these were to provide our sound without being an eyesore. These 2 are nestled at the top of our sectional where the couch meets the wall and are barely visible due to the white matching our light grey sectional.Sound quality is good, but not very powerful. I wasn't expecting these to replace home theater speakers, rather just provide the same level as a built in TV speaker. We have 2 children and we find ourselves running these at max volume just to watch a TV show on ... MoreI've been deep into the Apple ecosystem since my first iPod in the early 2000's. We have multiple Apple TV's, iPads, iPhones, 5 Homepod Minis and Airpods.We bought 2 of these to link them as a stereo pair in a room where we are using an Apple TV as our video source on an Epson projector and these were to provide our sound without being an eyesore. These 2 are nestled at the top of our sectional where the couch meets the wall and are barely visible due to the white matching our light grey sectional.Sound quality is good, but not very powerful. I wasn't expecting these to replace home theater speakers, rather just provide the same level as a built in TV speaker. We have 2 children and we find ourselves running these at max volume just to watch a TV show on Peacock.Aesthetics-very nice looking, small footprint.Functionality/Cool factor: We really enjoy being able to use Hey Siri for weather, creating timers, adding tasks to lists, playing movies etc. Very high marks in this category.Reliability: I bough this in July of 2021 and we just noticed that the left speaker of our stereo pair was not working, Had to take to Best Buy for repair. Luckily we are within our 1 year factory warranty period. I've never had an Apple product die on me, not once in 20 years.In summary, these are cool little speakers to play some music on. We have 4 in our downstairs and when people come over we are able to stream the same source to all of the speakers to get that immersive sound effect. Nice integration with the Apple TV for audio source although we do have to manually select them each time. Overall these are really cool speakers that are lacking only in the power category. I wish they hadn't discontinued the original Homepod
I absolutely love my original HomePod (the big one), so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multi-room audio experience.The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are! Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like they're going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output! They can get really loud too! The bass is present, but not room-vibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV.Since these are purely wireless speakers (there ... MoreI absolutely love my original HomePod (the big one), so when Apple released the mini, figured it would be great to have additional wireless speakers to place wherever and try out a multi-room audio experience.The sound quality is surprisingly good considering how small they are! Comparable bluetooth or smart speakers I have heard sound like they're going to blow up when they get close to reaching their upper volume limit, but the HomePod minis have barely any distortion at their highest output! They can get really loud too! The bass is present, but not room-vibrating, and the sound is very balanced. I use a pair of HomePod minis connected to my Apple TV and the audio sounds great for casting music or watching TV.Since these are purely wireless speakers (there are no inputs other than the attached power cable), I have fairly frequently had issues with audio cutouts or lag when casting music through Airplay. Sometimes the music just stops completely and starts playing through my phone instead. Not a super seamless experience, but could come down to router issues. There are times when I cannot even select the speakers because they disappear from my Airplay menu, even though I am connected to the same Wifi network they are on.Important note too – If you can't cast audio through Apple's Airplay protocol (so basically only through Apple Devices), you won't be able to get these to work – they lack bluetooth audio functionality!Plus, Siri is not very helpful when asking for requests. I would say 60% of the time it will be able to 1. Recognize what I say and 2. be able to do the request I asked. Lots of "hmmm, I'm not quite sure" or "could you say that again?" responses. After a couple of years of software updates, you would think the experience would be slightly better, but smart home assistants still have a lot of evolving to do. They still don't work well with music streaming services other than Apple Music (at least when asking to play a certain song or artist), so that is a continuous burden since I do not use Apple's services.For these reasons, I basically only use these for the purpose of listening to music or casting through my Apple TV audio. They sound great, but there are a lot of software optimizations that need to be made for these to work as seamlessly as they are advertised to.
Conflicted on this purchase. I wanted a home hub that my kids could access music, timers and other resources. This provided that function well. I’ll just create a pro’s and con’s list to summarize the rest.Pros:The hardware itself is quality. The speakers, the voice recognition, the overall build quality is on par for what I’d expect from an Apple productBesides the features above, one amazing feature I find using more and more is the intercom function which allows you to announce to specified Apple products a voice recording. Time to eat is no longer yelling, I can call for kids if I’m upstairs, I recently went through a bout of strep so I could speak to them while remaining isolated. It’s simple but helpful.Can dual set up for tv speakers or surround sound ... MoreConflicted on this purchase. I wanted a home hub that my kids could access music, timers and other resources. This provided that function well. I’ll just create a pro’s and con’s list to summarize the rest.Pros:The hardware itself is quality. The speakers, the voice recognition, the overall build quality is on par for what I’d expect from an Apple productBesides the features above, one amazing feature I find using more and more is the intercom function which allows you to announce to specified Apple products a voice recording. Time to eat is no longer yelling, I can call for kids if I’m upstairs, I recently went through a bout of strep so I could speak to them while remaining isolated. It’s simple but helpful.Can dual set up for tv speakers or surround sound which is much better than most tv speakers.Acts as home hub, which is needed for automation features with series Home/HomeKitThe cons:Premium price compared to other similar items (echo dot etc), but is to be expected as quality is higher and it’s Apple. But price point is not terribleWhen multiple devices are around sometimes Siri doesn’t perform the action. It’s supposed to detect which device is closest by voice sound, but it’s funky at times. Especially since my charging rack is close by.The pod itself sometimes doesn’t complete shortcuts as it has to interact with other devices. Example is I have a remote start unit for our minivan which works with Siri. I can tell my phone or my watch “hey siri start my minivan” and it works 98% of the time. It works only about 50% of the time on HomePod. I understand why, but to make it almost always work would hamper other commands.Some simple commands cannot be done. Like “hey siri re-record a voice memo…” requires to push the red button. Other interactions with apps require a phone that shouldn’t need them. Apple is slow on working in some of the basic elements. While it is still better than most other assistants in many areas, it still has some glaring faults
The Apple HomePod mini surprised me - in a surprisingly and wholly unexpected way. By itself, the sound is good, I'd call it better than similar priced devices from Amazon, and in it's diminutive size it crushes a comparably-sized Amazon device. Set up was the usual wonderfully easy Apple experience and took only a few minutes.Where this sizzled for me, a wow factor I didn't expect - as I was playing with sound from my Sonos and Bose devices I discovered in a single click I had Sonos+Apple Mini! And WOW suddenly the HomePod mini took off as part my Sonos speakers and subwoofer. My home office, spot for the HomePod mini, suddenly had that extra level of depth. I'll admit I went from "hmm, I'm not sure" to "wowza, keeping this!"A fellow shopper in my local Honolulu ... MoreThe Apple HomePod mini surprised me - in a surprisingly and wholly unexpected way. By itself, the sound is good, I'd call it better than similar priced devices from Amazon, and in it's diminutive size it crushes a comparably-sized Amazon device. Set up was the usual wonderfully easy Apple experience and took only a few minutes.Where this sizzled for me, a wow factor I didn't expect - as I was playing with sound from my Sonos and Bose devices I discovered in a single click I had Sonos+Apple Mini! And WOW suddenly the HomePod mini took off as part my Sonos speakers and subwoofer. My home office, spot for the HomePod mini, suddenly had that extra level of depth. I'll admit I went from "hmm, I'm not sure" to "wowza, keeping this!"A fellow shopper in my local Honolulu store was also the typical enthusiast/salesperson. She saw me playing with the in store demo and came over and made sure I knew it was on sale and said to buy two, not one, and the music will take off. So I'll pay that forward - by itself, it's Good, especially if you already have Apple devices in general. But she had the right advice and I have to agree - if you have Sonos, click the button in your Apple phone or iPad to have it all come together. If not, get two of these little softballs to fill in great sound in a small space. That's why I give it 5 stars/Excellent - it's Good by itself, but the sizzle is when you bring in one more, then it hits Excellent.
The interface is clunky and not intuitive and you don't have any real access to advanced audio features or settings. As a pair thye're plenty effective for TV and movies and sound fine for casual music listening. Even with a pair I still wanted more power, and for 200 I think that it should have more, but all that considered the humidity and temperature sensors and out of the way design makes it easier to overlook the wall warts that take up too much space on any power strip or extension cord. I have a pair and may get another pair for casual listening to my wildly divers collection of music but for real listening for anyone with critical or particular ears you're going to want to stick with your reference monitors and higher end equipment. You get more bang for the ... MoreThe interface is clunky and not intuitive and you don't have any real access to advanced audio features or settings. As a pair thye're plenty effective for TV and movies and sound fine for casual music listening. Even with a pair I still wanted more power, and for 200 I think that it should have more, but all that considered the humidity and temperature sensors and out of the way design makes it easier to overlook the wall warts that take up too much space on any power strip or extension cord. I have a pair and may get another pair for casual listening to my wildly divers collection of music but for real listening for anyone with critical or particular ears you're going to want to stick with your reference monitors and higher end equipment. You get more bang for the buck in those product categories anyway. The intercom feature is neat but I live alone so pretty useless for me. for a bit of sound here and there I'd very much recommend these. As a primary device for truly listening I feel you'd be selling yourself and your music producers short. As a bedroom, kitchen, laundry, and maybe bathroom sound device it's a nice product. I'd have a pair in the bedroom and kitchen and singles in the laundry and bathroom. Firmware updating was uninformative and difficult to know what was happening. Once it had completed the udate the speakers worked nicely and reliably. I do recommend these (over the bigger version) for price, ease of placement, and fair enough quality.
This is another product that I really wanted to love, but didn't. I just don't feel the need to have a smart speaker at my beck and call.To be honest Alexa and Google Assistant are better at that than Siri. I'm a prominent Apple user, but I'm honest.What really hurts this cute little speaker is that it could be amazing, IF Apple allowed the user to determine how it connected, or improve the connectivity.Here is my rant: I have the Mac mini 2020. These don't have a mic and a poor onboard speaker. So, I looked into using this as an extension. You would think that APPLE, would have seen this coming, and made a no-brainer up-sale opportunity. NO.The mic won't sync, and, as an external speaker, the audio delay and anomalous behavior is enough to think that you've ... MoreThis is another product that I really wanted to love, but didn't. I just don't feel the need to have a smart speaker at my beck and call.To be honest Alexa and Google Assistant are better at that than Siri. I'm a prominent Apple user, but I'm honest.What really hurts this cute little speaker is that it could be amazing, IF Apple allowed the user to determine how it connected, or improve the connectivity.Here is my rant: I have the Mac mini 2020. These don't have a mic and a poor onboard speaker. So, I looked into using this as an extension. You would think that APPLE, would have seen this coming, and made a no-brainer up-sale opportunity. NO.The mic won't sync, and, as an external speaker, the audio delay and anomalous behavior is enough to think that you've time traveled to 15 years ago.Also, because what drives this speaker is AirPlay, it appears to have a mind of its own at times, playing what was left in its queue, vs what you want to play from your device--Assuming it is able to tell which device you want to connect to at the time.Ultimately I just found it to NOT be worth my time nor the money I spent and I returned it. Because my simple JBL Charge 3.0 Bluetooth speaker was far more reliable in terms of responsiveness with less quirky behavior.In my opinion, Apple really dropped the ball on a use-case scenario that they either didn't see coming, or didn't care to capitalize on.
I had the homePod for a couple months and unfortunately it wasn't for me. I feel that for the price it simply does not compare to a amazon alexa or google home. It really does way less than what any of those two can do and on top of that they are both cheaper. Before this I had a google home mini that I received for free and it did much more than what the homepod could do. After I gave away my homePod I got an alexa and to this day have it and I can say the same. My biggest issue with the homepod was the fact that it really felt incapable of doing things a assistant usually should be able to do without the requirement of using your iphone. Whenever I would try to ask it a fairly simple question that it could pull from the web easily like an alexa or google home ... MoreI had the homePod for a couple months and unfortunately it wasn't for me. I feel that for the price it simply does not compare to a amazon alexa or google home. It really does way less than what any of those two can do and on top of that they are both cheaper. Before this I had a google home mini that I received for free and it did much more than what the homepod could do. After I gave away my homePod I got an alexa and to this day have it and I can say the same. My biggest issue with the homepod was the fact that it really felt incapable of doing things a assistant usually should be able to do without the requirement of using your iphone. Whenever I would try to ask it a fairly simple question that it could pull from the web easily like an alexa or google home could it would always say something like "I found some results, would you like me to send them to your phone?" And yeah that is a great feature to have if I wanted to see the results on my phone but If I wanted that I really would've just picked up my phone and asked siri on there. It may just be my personal preference but I like it when the assistant can read out loud results for the question you ask them. Not force me to grab my phone to see them. I don't know if apple designed it like this on purpose or if there are people out there who prefer it to function like that but I don't really like it. It was the main reason I got rid of it. It really felt like it couldn't do anything I wanted it to. I know some people have a apple eco system that this device probably works very well to sync everything up together but if you plan on buying this thinking it's apple's version of the alexa I would suggest you take a good look at it or try it out first. It did not meet my expectations very well. I don't want to totally bash this thing, I do believe it is a good device for certain things and that there are probably good reasons to buy this device apple probably would've discontinued it if there wasn't. Since then I've gotten myself into ring security which was bought by amazon so I got kinda forced into the amazon eco system which Is why I bought an alexa. Overall the device has it's pros and cons like every other device but this one in particular has room for improvement. I would buy an alexa over this. (I gave it to my brother and I'm not sure what he thinks of it but I'll add some pictures of it.)
I got tired of Alexa's "by the way! advertising", among other things, and got lost trying to configure Google's whatever-they-are-calling-it-this-week voice activated service.Having a lot of Apple gear already, I decided to give HomeKit a try. I use HomeKit (now Apple Home) via HomeBridge in a Raspberry Pi to control a lot of devices that are not Home(kit) compatible. It runs fine; all the more reason I am pleased.I am VERY pleased with the build quality and appearance, and the ease of setup if you have an iPhone. Not sure how it would set up otherwise, but with an iPhone, and I presume with an iPad, setup is easy as falling off a log.The sound quality is good, but be advised: I am not using my HomePod Mini for music. Just voice activation, weather reports, ... MoreI got tired of Alexa's "by the way! advertising", among other things, and got lost trying to configure Google's whatever-they-are-calling-it-this-week voice activated service.Having a lot of Apple gear already, I decided to give HomeKit a try. I use HomeKit (now Apple Home) via HomeBridge in a Raspberry Pi to control a lot of devices that are not Home(kit) compatible. It runs fine; all the more reason I am pleased.I am VERY pleased with the build quality and appearance, and the ease of setup if you have an iPhone. Not sure how it would set up otherwise, but with an iPhone, and I presume with an iPad, setup is easy as falling off a log.The sound quality is good, but be advised: I am not using my HomePod Mini for music. Just voice activation, weather reports, and answering questions. Example: "Hey, Siri, what is 274 pound converted to kilograms?"My ONE cause for four stars rather than five: there is no means to keep Siri from being a bit verbose. I would like to say "Hey, Siri, turn on piano area floor lamps", and it just does it. Maybe with a little beep or double tone like Alexa does. Instead, Siri is a bit wordy at times, other times, either nothing, or "done!" (I am using the Irish male Siri voice.)If you are using Lutron for lighting, or are buying devices labeled "HomeKit Compatible", you are all set. If you are already dialed in to, say, a bunch of cloud-based devices, or, like me, a lot of Z-Wave and Zigbee items, HomeKit may not be for you unless you use something like HomeBridge or Home Assistant to join it up.
| Connected home device type | Smart speakers |
| Wireless | Yes |
| Networkable | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Yes |
| Bluetooth | v5.0 |
