Welcome home, pod
What is HomePod? The occasional hyperbole aside, Apple typically doesn't lie, and is often able to tell you what its products and services are capable of in the simplest of sentences. So before I embarked on this review, I went to Apple’s website to see how the company defines HomePod. Similar to how it introduced the original iPhone and Apple Watch, Apple broadly defines HomePod as these three things:
- A “powerful” speaker that “sounds amazing”, a result of Apple-engineered audio technology and advanced software.
- An “ultimate music authority” powered by Apple Music. The aforementioned great sound and Siri’s knowledge of your taste in music will bring out the best in Apple’s music streaming service.
- An “intelligent home assistant”, capable of handling everyday tasks and controlling your smart home.
These tentpole features aside, Apple claims HomePod is easy to set up and use. The easy to set up part is definitely true, and anyone who’ve had experience with the AirPods or knows how to tap on an iPhone’s screen will have no difficulty getting the “smart speaker” up and running quickly (that is, if you don’t encounter this -6722 error). The actual day-to-day usage part, however, can be frustrating, which I’ll explain further down.
Here's three of the eight screens you need to tap through when setting up the HomePod for the first time.
It’s well built, and looks discreet
I’m ambivalent towards HomePod’s industrial design. The 2.5kg fabric mesh-wrapped speaker, available in either space gray or white, is extremely well put together, stands somewhere between the Amazon Echo and Google Home, but has a bigger footprint than both of them. At a distance, it reminds me of the trashcan Mac Pro; but because it’s smaller and not shiny, it also looks more discreet. For something that’s supposed to blend in with any decor, this meh appearance is a good thing.
The speaker’s top surface is touch-sensitive, and is used mainly for controlling volume (+ and - buttons) and simple track navigation, as well as activating Siri. There’s an LED array under the cover, which explains the colorful Siri waveform when you touch and hold the center to invoke the assistant. Finally, there’s a removable-but-you-shouldn't-do-it cable at the back and a silicone pad on the bottom.
Speaking of that silicone base, be aware that it’s known to leave white rings on some wooden surfaces. I don’t believe Apple didn't catch this during testing (HomePod is supposedly 6 years in the making); and if Apple is aware of it, it’s also wrong of the company not to put some kind of note in the box to warn customers. And honestly, I don’t care if Sonos One or Google Home Max also leave marks; such findings don’t absolve Apple of its fault and are scant consolation for HomePod users whose furniture is now stained.
What's the top touch surface for? 1.) Tap or hold + or – for volume up/down. 2.) Touch and hold for Siri. 3.) Tap to play/pause music or Siri. 4.) Double-tap to skip. 5.) Triple-tap to skip back.
You can yank the power cord off, but there's no good reason to do that.
The silicone base feels smooth and ordinary. Who knows oils can diffuse between it and the table surface and leave marks?
Yes, it’s a good speaker
Apple designed HomePod to sound good. The speaker has seven downward-firing tweeters at the bottom, each having its own amp, transducer, and horn. Beamforming tech is also used, which in short, means the speaker can shape the sound waves and send them in pretty much any direction. Near the top, there’s a high-excursion, upward-pointing woofer with a custom amp and a powerful motor that enables the diaphragm’s 20mm travel.
Additionally, somewhere in the middle of the speaker lie six microphones that listen to two things: your Siri commands and sound waves that bounce off surfaces of things in the room. Info from the latter is analyzed by HomePod’s A8 processor (the same chip in the iPhone 6) and the results used to adjust the output to fit the room. Because it has a built-in accelerometer, the speaker will re-tune itself every time you moved it.
What's inside HomePod? (Image source: Apple website.)
Now, reviewing speakers is hard. Since Apple didn't provide any hard numbers and I’ve no interest testing it in a reflection-less anechoic chamber, this is going to be a purely subjective assessment. For what it’s worth, I’ve listened to the same HomePod in three different spaces: in the middle of a kitchen filled with wooden cabinetry; in the middle of a 10 x 4-meter living room; and in a small bedroom, with the speaker on a bedside table tucked in one corner.
So if you trust me, I’ll say that HomePod sounds good. Comparing it with Amazon’s Echo speakers or Google’s regular Home speakers is unfair though, as HomePod totally wipes the floor with them. HomePod’s audio department is multiple weight classes above Amazon’s and Google’s offerings, which really, is to be expected as their priorities are different. (To me, HomePod is a speaker-first, assistant-second product; whereas Echo and Home are voice assistant products that play music because why waste their built-in speakers?)
The contest is much closer between HomePod and Sonos One. For one, both offer reasonable good dynamic range, thus lending themselves well to classical and jazz music. Placed in the middle of the living room, HomePod did sound largely the same to me regardless of my position, which is nice. Versus a single Sonos One, I found HomePod to express differences in soft and loud passages in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 and Miles Davis’ All Blues a bit better. Both handle distortion at high volumes well, too, though HomePod sounded more “alive” at low volumes. They are also about tied for stereo imaging, but adding another One speaker inevitably pulled the Sonos pair ahead. You can’t add another HomePod to create a stereo pair at the moment; this feature is supposedly coming later this year.
HomePod also offers a ton of bass, and that’s a double-edged sword. For most classical and jazz pieces, I got good quality bass that I felt more than I heard. But for pop and rock music (especially in a small room), the bass was at times too much for my liking. I say “at times” because I found Yung Lean’s Hoover to be a boomy mess but Linkin Park’s Papercut pretty great. The Sonos One had a just-okay bass.
While this little computational audio device sounds good across most genres, its algorithms aren't infallible. The lack of an equalizer on HomePod means there's no quick way to tweak its sound. There were a couple of occasions that I had to jump out of bed and resort to AirPlay from the Mac, just so I could use the EQ in iTunes.
It’s worth mentioning that I used my Apple Music subscription for most of the music tests, because that’s the only streaming service HomePod supports natively. While the speaker supports Bluetooth 5.0, it’s at present mainly used for networking between Apple devices and HomeKit-enabled Bluetooth accessories, rather than Bluetooth music streaming. AirPlay is the only fallback to get HomePod to play Spotify and other audio apps (the speaker has no line-in, too), which is fine, but inevitably mars the experience and further limits HomePod’s appeal to non-Apple users. Multi-room streaming is another missing feature, though Apple has promised to add it (as part of the AirPlay 2 streaming protocol) later this year.
You can AirPlay audio from the Music app (first screenshot), as well as from third-party music streaming apps such as Spotify (third screenshot) and podcast apps.
It’s an okay smart assistant with very good hearing
I love that Siri can always hear my commands without me yelling over the music. Then again, this is more of HomePod’s credit (six microphones, advanced echo cancelation) than the intelligent assistant’s. Also, when other Hey Siri-enabled iOS devices are within earshot (e.g., iPhone), they will all wake up and communicate with one another very quickly to decide which is best suited to handle the request.
That said, I'm irritated that Siri’s volume is much higher than the music volume. This can have a disastrous effect if you were to turn up the music volume in the day but didn't turn it down later. I’ve now woken up my partner twice because I asked Siri to turn down a light and it replied with a thunderous “It's done!”
For what it’s worth, Siri on HomePod doesn't support Singapore English (I use U.S. English instead), but the assistant has had no problems understanding me so far. And when I say “no problems”, I mean when I’m speaking clearly and normally, with no stutters, stammers, pauses, or any mid-sentence corrections. In such situations, which are especially common for those with speech impediments, Siri just becomes a troublesome and time-consuming way to interact with HomePod. To be fair, accessibility is an unsolved problem across all voice assistant devices.
As a personal assistant, HomePod is able to set reminders, take notes, and send messages. It even doubles as a glorified speakerphone. But bizarrely, it can’t brief me on my day’s agenda or set multiple timers. For the latter, I’ve resorted to using the alarms function, which isn’t ideal as I’ll have to clean up the list of used alarms from time to time. Perhaps Apple sees alarms making for good timers, too, because when you 3D-touch or long-press the HomePod button in the Home app, one of the two options that you’ll get is “Alarms”.
Having Siri on HomePod help you send and read messages, create iCloud notes, or remind you of your to-dos is useful, but be aware that HomePod doesn't support multiple iCloud accounts and Siri can’t differentiate your voice from the next person. This means when your location sharing-enabled iOS device is connected to the same network as HomePod (basically, whenever you’re home), anyone close enough to HomePod can initiate the same requests. You can turn off this “Personal Requests” feature when you first set up HomePod or via the Home app. To add to the confusion, since Personal Requests is a permissions/privacy-related feature, its toggle isn't in the Details page of the HomePod in the Home app, but in this obscure page where you manage remote access for your smart home.
The Details section is where you change HomePod's name and location, and manage music, podcasts, Siri, and accessibility settings.
The Personal Requests toggle is separately housed in another page, which you get to by tapping the location icon in the upper-left corner in the Home app. It's a mess, I tell you.
It’s a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ smart home hub
Like Apple TV and iPad, HomePod can be used as a home hub so that you can control your HomeKit accessories remotely and run automations. Unlike the set-top box and tablet, HomePod will set itself up as a home hub without any action on your part. The first day I got HomePod, I encountered an issue whereby I lost remote control of all my HomeKit devices. I found out later that was because both my home hubs (HomePod, Apple TV) had gone into standby, which isn’t supposed to happen. With no toggle to turn off or on HomePod’s home hub functionality or pick which device to serve as the main hub, I was left wondering if I should reset the HomePod or do the iCloud sign out, sign in dance with Apple TV. Both are terrible ideas, and there’s no guarantee that either would work. While the problem did resolve itself after a few hours, this scare already left me doubting HomePod’s reliability as a smart home gateway.
This is not cool, Apple.
If you’ve built your smart home around HomeKit and wanted to control your accessories by voice, Siri on HomePod is your best option. Yes, you can use Siri on iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, too, but none of these comes close to HomePod with its always-ready mics and excellent far-field voice recognition. HomePod also possesses a nifty trick: because it knows which room it’s in, you can ask Siri to control all HomeKit accessories in the room with a single, shorter command (e.g., “Hey Siri, turn off the lights.”)
Beyond that, I don’t much else to say about HomePod the home hub. Most of my gripes with HomeKit pertain to its general bugginess (e.g., location-based automations aren't reliable) and the Home app, chiefly its poor accessory organization and lack of advanced controls. While I understand why Apple shoved HomePod’s settings into the Home app (the speaker is a HomeKit accessory), I think there’s a case to be made for HomePod having its own app, perhaps along the lines of the Sonos Controller app. For HomePod users who bought the speaker for streaming music and are totally not into HomeKit, going to the smart home-focused Home app to get to the speaker’s play/pause controls and other settings is weird and unintuitive. Not to mention that alarms for HomePod reside in its own list, separate from alarms in the iPhone or iPad’s Clock app.
Great, now I've to manage two alarm lists. (Left: HomePod's alarms in Home app; right: iPhone's alarms in Clock app.)
Conclusion: Tough sell, even for Apple fans
Apple says HomePod is a good-sounding speaker, and I agree. In a nutshell, HomePod, which costs US$349 (~S$460) in the U.S., offers clarity throughout the spectrum, and puts out plenty of bass that I didn't quite expect from a speaker of this size. Lots of bass doesn't always mean good-quality bass, but fortunately, HomePod’s bass is of the good kind, and it balances well with the equally detailed top end. Along with an omnidirectional sound that’s consistently good because the speaker is aware of the space that it’s in and will set itself up accordingly, Apple’s first computational audio speaker is overall a thumbs-up. Compared to Sonos One, I think HomePod sounds better; but don’t just take my word for it, because - shocker! - different people have different preferences and tastes in music. Remember too that we’re still waiting on AirPlay 2 and the ability to pair two HomePods for stereo sound.
Alas, if your music streaming service of choice isn’t Apple Music and you don’t have a lot of music purchased from iTunes, then there’s little point in getting HomePod even if you know it offers good sonic performance. With no line-in and Bluetooth audio streaming support, HomePod can’t even be dumbed down to be a wired speaker or a basic Bluetooth speaker. AirPlay works, but if you’re going to do that, you might as well look at other speakers, such as the S$329 Sonos One, which plays nice with more platforms (e.g., Android), supports way more music services, and is, yes, cheaper than HomePod.
Siri on HomePod isn’t very good either. For general knowledge questions and playback controls, the assistant performs okay, but that’s really a low bar to clear. It can’t differentiate voices, can’t handle calendar events, and can’t even set multiple timers. Both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have moved on to greater things, but Siri seems content to walk in circles.
Finally, I think HomePod will appeal to those who’ve invested heavily in HomeKit accessories. If the smart speaker’s largely enjoyable audio performance is my favorite aspect of the product, then its class-leading far-field voice recognition is a close second. For voice controlling of smart home devices, HomePod is superior than both Amazon Echo and Google Home, simply because it's really nice to speak at a normal volume and still get heard. Sadly, many parts of HomeKit are still amateur hour stuff.
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.