Apple HomePod Mini Review: Pop a colour or two bl-premium-article-image

Mala Bhargava Updated - December 04, 2021 at 12:33 PM.

This ball of a smart speaker gets full marks for cuteness and its sound to size ratio

Who doesn’t love a pop of colour? If one could afford it, a collection of the Apple’s HomePod Mini speakers could make a very nice set because to add to the white and black versions launched a year ago, there’s now also blue, orange, and yellow. The boxes and various other elements match each colour as well.

Of course, each one costs Rs 9,900, so one has to consider before making up a collection, but if you like the idea of scattering them around a room or many rooms, a whole set would be very nice specially as they do sound better together.

Children will probably find the brighter colours nice and attractive and frankly, so will a whole lot of adults. When you take a HomePod Mini out of its box, you’ll be surprised at its tiny size even if you’re expecting it to be small. Next to the bigger HomePod, it’s all the smaller with its 3.9-inch diameter. It’s about the size of Amazon’s Echo Dot, if you’re familiar with that range. But it certainly sounds much better. It has surprising bass and volume and makes for very pleasant music, depending on what your demands are of course. It doesn’t match up the more finessed and louder more powerful original and bigger HomePod, which Apple isn’t selling now, but two Mini’s stereo paired sound quite good. Remember, the sound is 360 degrees from its little round contours.

If you’re quite entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, Apple speakers could make sense because of course Siri lives in these speakers too. Siri lags behind Google and Alexa on many fronts but still does do a lot including controlling compatible smart home appliances, so that could be useful for those who use them. You can AirPlay music from some sources to the speakers and if you're playing music on your iPhone, you can just tap it to the HomePod Mini to make the music play there and use Apple’s Handoff for calls. If your demands don’t extend beyond simple background music or uninvolved listening, these speakers would work for you. Obviously if music is very central to your life, you would certainly look for more complex finessed audio equipment.

Published on December 4, 2021 07:02