Apple HomePod review

Apple is so late to the smart speaker party it’s rung the doorbell at 6am and woken up all the sofa surfers in your lounge. But guess what? Apple thinks it can do better than Amazon’s Echo or Google Home. It’s swept into the room with Apple’s signature hauteur, refusing to speak to nerdy Android phones or go beyond polite conversation with Spotify. But if you’ve got an iPhone, subscribe to Apple Music and prioritise sound quality over A.I assistance, it might just be your new smart soulmate…

DESIGN: REMARKABLY UNREMARKABLE

The HomePod is a 7in tall cylinder that is both charming and unremarkable. Its mesh fabric gives it a friendly feel, while the white and space grey colours mean it’ll blend in nicely with pretty much any decor. The result is a speaker that is eminently more strokable than an Echo or the almost identically-sized Sonos One – but also one that’s not hugely distinguishable from the furry speakers Libratone has been making for years.

DESIGN: ALL ON TOP

On the top you’ll find some basic touch controls that you can use with – gasp! – your fingers. How quaint. There are volume up and down buttons, while a series of taps in the middle will control your music: one tap for play or pause, two for next track and three for previous track. Say ‘hey, Siri’, and a ghostly waveform will light up between the buttons to show she’s listening. The only thing missing? A microphone mute button.

SOUND QUALITY: ENGINEERED TO PERFECTION

So where does the HomePod stand in the great choir of voice-controlled speakers? Right at the very top. There are lots of reasons for this, ones that include buzz-phrases like ‘real-time modelling’ and ‘spatial awareness’. But all you need to know is that the HomePod has basically got a little sound engineer inside, who constantly analyses both the music that’s playing and your room, so he can tweak your tunes in real-time accordingly.

SOUND QUALITY: SMALL POD, BIG SOUND

The HomePod’s bass is incredibly rich and deep, yet it never feels in danger of overwhelming the clear vocals or crisp treble. The most impressive thing is the sheer size of its sound – stand back a few feet, and it often feels like the music is coming from various parts of the room rather than a 7in speaker. Onlookers will swear you have a subwoofer secretly stashed away under the sofa.

FEATURES: MUSIC MAESTRO

Apple claims the Siri on the HomePod is a ‘musicologist’. What you get are some impressively specific playlists (for example, ‘play me some ambient electronic music for studying’), the ability to quiz Siri about a song or band that’s playing, and the chance to teach Siri your tastes by saying ‘I like this’. While the number of genres you can choose from is impressive, it’s not yet encyclopaedic.

FEATURES: PICKY STREAMER

The HomePod’s voice controls and ‘musicologist’ knowledge only work with Apple Music. That’s okay, you’ll just Bluetooth some tunes over to it, right? Nope, you can’t do that either. What you can do is stream the likes of Spotify over Airplay from your phone, and basic voice controls (play, pause, skip) will work. But it’s clunky – so, really, the HomePod is an Apple Music speaker.

FEATURES: NOT SO RADIO READY

Siri’s ‘musicologist’ leanings feel like they’d be most useful for radio. But this is another big weakness – the only station you can stream directly to the HomePod is Beats 1. Like Spotify and other streaming services, you can Airplay most stations, including those from the BBC, to the HomePod from your phone. But there’s a big drop-off in sound quality and Siri can’t answer any questions about the music playing.

SMART HOME SKILLS: LIMITED CONVERSATION

If your smart home ambitions extend only to some Philips Hue bulbs, a Tado thermostat and some Nanoleaf lights – and to be fair, this is probably most people – then the HomePod is a perfectly decent voice-controlled hub. That list, though, is still nowhere near as long as the number of accessories that play nicely with Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. Some notable absences include Hive, Nest, Samsung Smartthings and Logitech Harmony remotes.

SMART HOME SKILLS: BACK TO SCHOOL

You can do many of the staples popularised by Alexa and Google Assistant, such as set reminders and add things to your shopping list, but in other ways Siri is like Santa’s Little Helper compared to the Laddie-like collies of Alexa and Google Assistant. For example, on the HomePod you can’t yet set an alarm to play a song or radio, and Apple’s assistant lacks the depth of the Google Assistant’s general knowledge. It also can’t yet recognise different voices.

APPLE HOMEPOD VERDICT

The HomePod is, by Apple’s own admission, a music speaker first and a smart assistant second. That’s fine, but it’s also not really a complete music speaker either – it’s a home Apple Music player for iPhone owners. What it does do best, though, is muster incredible sound – and it does that so well that it’s now the benchmark by which we’ll judge musical smart speakers. If you’re an Apple Music fan and iPhone devotee, it’s the best musical smart speaker you can buy.