Apple HomePod – Review

After Google unveiled its virtual assistant Google Home and Amazon released Echo, the two seemed like the only contenders for the smart home bracket. Even Sonos has been at the top of its game with its speakers dominating the market with almost no competition. With Apple’s latest technology update, however, the tide might be turning for all these companies with the HomePod.

Apple’s Latest Technology Update: The HomePod

One thing you have to say about the HomePod is that it’s beautiful. Coated with an acoustic enhancing material and a 7-inch woofer supported by six microphones, this speaker is a beast when it comes to producing bass. The speaker can play songs from Apple when verbally commanded to, and it’s more specific when it comes to asking what you like: it might even answer who the drummer to your favorite band might be.

Specificity and bass are not the only things that make Apple’s latest creation stand out from its competition. At launch, its sound quality was declared far richer than the Sonos Play: 3. Apple also gave the HomePod a special quality that made it beat the competition. This feature is the acoustic remodeling one. Under this principle, it uses waves to map out a room and adjust its sound accordingly. The effect: its sound filled even large rooms impressively.

The rich sound, no-echo quality and great volume adjustment on the HomePod make it the best speaker on the market right now. But how does the it rank as a virtual assistant?

The HomePod : Siri

With the HomePod, Apple took two different ideas- great sound and AI- and combined them into one to come up with the HomePod. So far, we know that Siri can perform basic functions like giving news and allowing you to control synced machines from your iPhone, but the jury’s still out on what else Siri can do. The uncertainty surrounding Siri’s capabilities cast a shadow on the HomePod’s acoustic excellence- and make us wonder if it really is worth double the price.