HomePod mini: Buyer’s Guide, Should You Buy?

Apple in October 2020 introduced the HomePod mini, a more affordable $99 HomePod option that was sold alongside the standard HomePod before the larger HomePod was discontinued.

The HomePod mini is a smaller version of the HomePod, measuring in at 3.3 inches tall compared to the HomePod’s 6.8-inch height. Available in white, space gray, blue, yellow, and orange, the HomePod mini features a fabric-covered spherical design with a flat top that has a backlit touch interface interface for activating Siri and controlling music.

Like the HomePod, HomePod mini is meant to work with Apple Music, but it also supports podcasts, radio stations from iHeartRadio, radio.com, and TuneIn, with support for some third-party services such as Pandora and Amazon Music.

Two HomePod minis can be paired together to create a stereo pair with left and right channels for rich sound, and multiple HomePod minis can work together throughout the home to stream music to multiple rooms. Two HomePod minis can be paired, but HomePod mini can’t be paired to HomePod.

Inside, the HomePod mini is equipped with an S5 chip, which is the same chip that was first used in the Apple Watch Series 5. The S5 chip works with Apple-designed software to analyze the music that’s playing to optimize for loudness, adjust dynamic range, and control driver and passive radiator movement in real time.

There’s a single full-range driver inside the HomePod mini, powered by a neodymium magnet and two force-cancelling passive radiators for what Apple says results in deep bass and crisp high frequencies. The standard HomePod has a seven tweeter array and each tweeter has its own driver, so the single-driver HomePod mini won’t be able to match the sound of the HomePod.

Though there’s less hardware inside the HomePod mini, Apple says that it uses the same acoustic principles as the HomePod with an acoustic waveguide to direct sound down and out of the bottom of the speaker for a 360-degree audio experience.

According to Apple, the HomePod mini can provide consistent sound almost anywhere in a room, mimicking the tones of a larger speaker through computational audio. A three-microphone array is designed to listen for Siri commands, and a fourth microphone that faces inward isolates sound coming from the speaker for better voice detection when music is playing.

As with the HomePod, Siri on HomePod mini can provide a personalized experience by identifying the different voices of up to six members of a family, tailoring music and podcasts to their preferences and responding to personal requests.

A new feature lets HomePod mini users ask for a personal update for a snapshot of their day, with Siri offering up personalized news, weather, traffic, reminders, and calendar appointments.

The HomePod mini has a built-in U1 Ultra Wideband chip that allows it to interface with iPhones that have a U1 chip. Bringing an iPhone close to the HomePod mini allows the music that’s playing on the iPhone to be handed off to the HomePod mini.

The HomePod mini supports visual, audible, and haptic effects when sound transfers from one device to another. Personalized listening suggestions show up on the iPhone when it’s next to HomePod mini, and controls are available even when the iPhone isn’t unlocked.

HomePod mini can activate Find My to help you find a lost iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or Apple Watch in the home by triggering a sound.

HomePod mini is able to control HomeKit-compatible smart home accessories and it serves as a home hub to enable access to HomeKit devices when you’re away.

HomePod and HomePod mini both work with an Intercom feature that allows messages to be sent from one device to another. Intercom works across rooms, in a specific zone set up in the Home app, or in multiple rooms in the home at one time.

Intercom can be used with iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and CarPlay, so messages can be sent from any device to the HomePod mini for communicating with family members.

HomePod mini supports a range of other features including Siri Shortcut tasks, ambient sounds for playing soothing noises like rain, web search results that can be sent to iPhone, and music alarms for waking up to a song, playlist, or radio station.

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