Apple unveiled HomePod at WWDC 2017, last year. Initially, the HomePod created an extensive amount of hype, but now after 6 months of wait HomePod has started shipping and does it live up to that hype? Let’s find out.
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Design and Build Quality
Right out of the bat, Apple Homepod screams quality. The 7-inch tall smart-speaker is made out of good quality material and is wrapped in a seamless mesh fabric which maintains the design consistency.
HomePod is available in white and space-grey color variants with a matching well-constructed power cord. On top of that, there is an interactive touch display which displays a dynamic waveform (which looks great), when Siri is activated and it can also be used to control volume, play/pause and skip or repeat the current music track.
Connectivity
As far as connectivity is concerned you should have an Apple device to use your HomePod or particularly an iOS device. Homepod comes with the exact same Apple W1 chip that the Airpods have and it makes the process of pairing surprisingly fast. It is worth noting, that you can’t connect an Android smartphone or a Bluetooth device to the HomePod and there’s no USB or AUX input as well.
Well, it is worth noting that, for streaming music, you should have an active Apple music subscription and for YouTube and Spotify you can rely on Airplay 2. In simple words, you should be well adapted to the Apple ecosystem if you want to use the HomePod.
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“Hey Siri”
HomePod is powered by Siri which helps you play music, get the latest news, traffic and weather updates. You can set reminders, send messages, receive phone-calls and much more all at the command of your voice. If you own electrical devices that work with Apple HomeKit than you can control those devices as well.
Siri automatically syncs with your apple account once you connect it to an iOS-powered device. Furthermore, a six-microphone array has been incorporated into the device which helps Siri to receive commands from almost every corner of a room.
Sound Quality
At the end of the day, you are investing in a smart speaker for not just the smartness part but also the speaker part. So to take care of that, Apple has installed seven tweeters in the HomePods base and a four-inch woofer towards the top. The Pod also accommodates a powerful A8 chip that helps the HomePod to analyze the surrounding environment and deliver the best immersive sound experience.
In addition to that, the A8 chip also helps the HomePod to use an advanced algorithm that analyzes the music and the software directs different parts of the music to various speakers for improved sound quality and better separation. Overall HomePod is a powerful speaker and delivers a wide range of deep, rich bass.
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So for a price of USD 350 (roughly INR 22,500) HomePod is a powerful and useful device but you should only invest in one if you are already a part of the Apple ecosystem as Apple won’t allow you to use it if you don’t own Apple devices or use Apple services. What do you think about the Pod? Let us know in the comment section below.
Written by Anubhav Tyagi (intern), edited and published by Atish Rajasekharan.
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