Apple HomePod 2 arrives with Spatial Audio and ‘next-level acoustics’

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Apple has unveiled a new HomePod 2 smart speaker, featuring a wealth of massive upgrades that the company claims will allow it to deliver “significantly” better sound and smart home functionality.

The HomePod 2 launched today, following weeks of speculation that Apple will release a new smart speaker in the very near future.

The HomePod 2 looks nearly identical to the original Apple HomePod we reviewed in 2018, and features a cylindrical design with a woven “100 percent recycled” speaker grille and soft-backlit capacitive touch controls.

Under the hood, however, it features some major upgrades that should solve one of the only issues we tested with the original HomePod, which earned five stars in our review. Specifically, the new HomePod will support the Matter smart home standard.

This is a big deal because Matter is a new standard designed to allow technology from different manufacturers to work together, making it easier to piece together a working smart home system using devices from different companies.

This is a far cry from the first generation HomePod that, based on our testing, locked you into Apple’s ecosystem and only played nicely with the company’s technology.

An upgrade means you have to sync and be able to control any Matter-compatible accessory, which includes products from Google, Amazon, Samsung, and other big-name makers of the shiny stuff. We look forward to seeing how it works when we put the new HomePod 2 into our test rooms for review.

Other upgrades include a move to use the S7 chipset that debuted in the Apple Watch Series 7. In addition to support for Apple’s Spatial Audio technology, the chip means the HomePod can intelligently scan its environment and optimize audio accordingly.

The added performance power, along with new sensors and upgraded software, adds up to some neat smart home features.

For starters, it has built-in temperature and humidity sensors to create smart home automation to do things like start a siren when it detects smoke or carbon monoxide. The microphones can also be set to alert you if the speaker detects certain noises, such as signs of an intrusion.

(Image credit: Apple)

Other major upgrades relate to its audio performance, with Apple marketing the HomePod 2 as a “significant” step forward over its predecessor.

“Leveraging our audio expertise and innovation, the new HomePod delivers rich, deep bass, natural midrange and clear, detailed highs,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

We haven’t tested the speaker yet, so can’t comment on sound quality, but given how impressed we were with the original HomePod and the current award-winning HomePod Mini (£99 / $99 / AU$149) – which we’ve listed as offering ‘sophisticated, engaging sound’ When we tested the cheaper model – we’re excited to see how the new model performs.

One of the things we spotted in the specs is that the new HomePod actually features fewer speakers than the new model. Specifically, the second generation HomePod has a single 4-inch speaker paired with five tweeters and a total of five microphones. The original HomePod had seven speakers and seven microphones.

All of this tech certainly sounds interesting, but until we test the new HomePod 2, we can’t personally recommend it. However, if you can’t wait for our final verdict, the good news is that you can pre-order the new HomePod 2 for £299 / $299 / AU$479 in the Apple Store, with it set to ship on February 3.

more:

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