Six head-scratching details in regards to the new HomePod

It’s been a busy week for Apple. On Tuesday, we received new chips, Mac minis, and MacEbook Pros, and Wednesday introduced the return of the full-sized HomePod, with the same design and have set as the unique mannequin in addition to the identical $299 price ticket, about two years after it was discontinued.

And whenever you dig into it, issues get even stranger. The new HomePod is definitely fairly totally different than the unique mannequin, however in delicate and complicated ways in which received’t be all that noticeable to anybody shopping for one. Here are 5 details in regards to the new HomePod which have us scratching our heads:

The design isn’t precisely the identical

At first look (and second and third), the 2nd-gen HomePod appears to be an identical to the unique mannequin. It has the identical round physique, mesh exterior, and display screen, however there are slight variations. For one, it’s 4mm shorter and 200 grams lighter. The display screen on the high is larger and now takes up the entire space. The “seamless mesh fabric” from the unique mannequin is now “acoustically transparent mesh fabric,” and Midnight has changed Space Gray. That received’t make a visible distinction until you’re evaluating a brand new one and an previous one facet by facet, and it appears unusual that Apple went by the difficulty of redesigning the HomePod in such small methods.

You can’t create a stereo pair with a 1st-gen HomePod

One of the HomePod’s finest options is its potential to create a stereo pair that “plays each channel in perfect harmony, creating a wider, more immersive soundstage than traditional stereo speakers.” It’s not a brand new function, however there’s a catch: You can’t pair a brand new HomePod with an previous one. For a stereo pair to work, you’ll want two of the identical HomePods: a 1st gen with a 1st gen; mini with a mini; 2nd gen with a 2nd gen. It makes logical sense because the two have totally different specs, nevertheless it certain would have been good for Apple to determine a technique to make the 2 play properly collectively.

Foundry

It makes use of an Apple Watch chip

The authentic HomePod used Apple’s A8 processor, which had debuted within the iPhone 6 a number of years earlier, as “the brains behind the advanced audio innovations.” When the HomePod mini arrived a number of years later, Apple used an Apple Watch Series 5’s S5 chip to “achieve big sound out of such a compact design.” The 2nd-gen HomePod additionally makes use of an Apple Watch chip, the Apple Watch Series 7’s S7 processor, “to offer even more advanced computational audio.” That’s all properly and good, nevertheless it’s exhausting to not assume an A12 or A13 would offer a little bit of future-proofing.

It nonetheless has an built-in energy cable

One of the unique HomePod’s greatest shortcomings was the built-in energy cable—primarily as a result of individuals naturally tried to disconnect it and typically ended up ruining their audio system. It’s potential that Apple modified the connector to cease that from occurring, however based mostly on pictures, the HomePod nonetheless has the identical completely connected energy cable on the rear of the machine. A swap to a magnetic connector just like the 24-inch iMac would have been a pleasant enchancment.

Foundry

It helps slower Wi-Fi

It’s bizarre sufficient that the brand new HomePod nonetheless has Bluetooth 5 as an alternative of 5.3 (as discovered on new Macs and iPhones), nevertheless it really has slower Wi-Fi than the unique mannequin. According to the tech specs, the primary HomePod supported 802.11ac, higher often known as Wi-Fi 5 whereas the newer HomePod makes use of Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). Perhaps it’s an excessive amount of to ask for Wi-Fi 6E when the brand new iPhones don’t even help it, however we’re shocked to see the brand new HomePod makes use of a Wi-Fi commonplace as previous because the iPhone 4.

The audio specs seem like inferior

Here’s the strangest factor—based mostly on the audio specs, the brand new HomePod isn’t nearly as good as the unique mannequin. While it certainly “delivers next-level acoustics” as Apple claims, a fast comparability of the tech specs reveals two fewer horn-loaded tweeters (5 vs. seven) and microphones (4 vs. six). Of course, all audio system and microphones will not be made the identical and audio processing counts for lots. It’s fairly potential that Apple will get equal or higher audio out of fewer audio system and microphones.