Apple HomePod 2

Apple's revamped HomePod is a dead simple way to get decent sound out of all of your Apple gadgets. Sound is great but not the best in class, and some competitors are more versatile.

Fantastic sound, immersive Spatial Audio and the ability to fill a room with ease – the HomePod 2 is a wonderful smart speaker, but only if you’re deep in the Apple ecosystem.

Unless you're really set on the HomePod's specific looks, you can get all or nearly all of the same functionality from a much cheaper speaker, Apple's or otherwise. This is a rare product from the company that falls flat, even if you're willing to pay a premium. Sometimes going back to the future just doesn't work out.

The HomePod 2 offers clear, detailed and well-balanced sound from an impressively compact package – but it requires you to run an extremely Apple-heavy household, due to its lack of Bluetooth. The new Matter smart home support and temperature/humidity sensors are nice to have, but aren't much of a push to buy on their own. And Siri isn't much of a smart assistant, even today. That's a lot of criticisms, but if you're the target market – music lovers who go big on Apple devices – nothing else sounds as good for the same price, especially if you step up to a pair of them.

Apple might call the second-gen HomePod “all-new,” but in reality, this product had to be an easy lift for the company. More than anything else, its restoration in the lineup fills a self-inflicted gap and buys Apple a couple of years to work on more ambitious products destined for our homes.

Overall the HomePod sounds great, but its high price and Apple-centric features simply exclude too many potential users -- including Spotify subscribers and Android owners -- for broad appeal. And for Apple fans who want a Siri speaker, the Mini is probably big enough.

The new HomePod is a great-sounding smart speaker made even better – it’s an irresistible choice if you’re an Apple user.

Apple's second-generation HomePod carries over the elegant design from the original, but improves the audio and smart home experiences to better compete with speakers from Amazon and Google.