HomePod mini 2 Goes on Sale at $149 With New S10 Chip

Apple's HomePod mini 2 went on sale today. The first pre-orders are starting to reach customers, and the speaker can also be bought at most Apple Store locations worldwide. Priced at $149 in the US, it comes in white and midnight, as well as two-tone pink, green and blue options.

The new model updates everything from the processor to wireless connectivity. There is one point, however, on which Apple has not been clear: whether the new speaker actually sounds better than the original has not been explicitly confirmed by the company.

New chip and connectivity standards

At the heart of the HomePod mini 2 is the S10 chip, replacing the S5 in the previous model. Apple says the S10 enables advanced computational audio, but the company does not say whether this amounts to better sound quality than the original. How the new chip translates to the ear will therefore remain unclear until the devices are in users' hands and side-by-side comparisons are possible.

The differences on the wireless side are more concrete. The device supports Wi-Fi 6E, where the previous model had Wi-Fi 4, and Bluetooth moves from version 5 to version 6. In addition, on Macs that support Wi-Fi 6E and later standards, the HomePod mini 2 can be used as the default audio output. That capability is also available on the full-size HomePod 2 with the latest software updates.

Siri, Sound Glow and multi-speaker setups

Siri's AI-powered capabilities will come to the HomePod mini 2 in a software update later on. Requests involving personal context will require an iPhone or iPad that supports Apple Intelligence. In other words, this is not a day-one feature: it will arrive via an update and, in some scenarios, depends on another Apple device. The microphone count has also dropped from four to three, and it is unclear whether users will notice the difference.

Sound Glow, which makes the top surface light up and pulse in time with the music, is included on the new model. The same feature has also been added to the original HomePod mini. With the new Apple TV 4K, users can set up four-speaker surround sound by pairing four HomePod mini 2 units and/or full-size HomePod 2 speakers in front and rear pairs. A related feature called Whole Room Audio is offered for party scenarios. The device is also 3 percent lighter.

Pricing history

Pricing has its own backstory. The original HomePod mini launched at $99 but rose to $129 after a price increase in June. The new model goes on sale at $149, which means it carries a price tag $50 higher than the original's launch price and $20 higher than its current one.