Apple Homepod mini

SMART SPEAKER ❘ £99 from Apple www.snipca.com/36934

Smart speaker for fully rounded sound

Siri, it just isn’t good enough

Apple usually charges a fortune for its products, so it was a pleasant surprise when it announced the £99 price tag of this smart speaker. It’s clearly intended to compete with Amazon’s £90 Echo (see our review, Issue 594) and Google’s £90 Nest Audio (see Issue 593), as it performs a similar job.

It can play music, radio and podcasts; control smart home devices such as lights and smart plugs; and answer basic questions about the weather or traffic conditions. It integrates well with IOS, so you can do clever tricks such as transcribe voice notes straight to the Notes app.

The speaker punches well above its weight when it comes to sound quality, thanks to clever internal engineering (pictured below) that adapts the sound to its surroundings. We played a variety of f music and it performed admirably given n its diminuitive size.

Smart speakers aren’t just about sound quality, though, and Apple’s reliance on Siri stops this device from getting the better of Amazon and Google’s alternatives. Siri just isn’t as good at answering questions as Google is, and it doesn’t have the breadth of features, such as two-way conversations, that Amazon’s system offers.

Apple insists on pushing its own music services and, bewilderingly, this doesn’t come with built-in Spotify support, or the ability to play audio directly from BBC Sounds or Audible. You could start them streaming on an iphone or ipad and transfer the stream over to the speaker, but a smart speaker should do this without having to revert to your mobile device.

In typical Apple fashion, you can’t connect to the device from anything other than an iphone or ipad, as there’s no open Bluetooth connection and no 3.5mm socket. In fact, you can’t even set it up without an IOS device, but to its credit, Apple uses this to make this process gloriously smooth and simple.

It’s wrapped in smart-looking white or grey textured fabric. You can tap the plus and minus symbols on either side of its top button to adjust volume up and down, while a series of taps in the centre lets you perform various actions including pausing and skipping tracks.

SPECIFICATIONS

802.11n Wi-fi • Single speaker • 4x microphones • Mains adapter • Requires Wi-fi, Apple device with latest version of IOS/IPADOS • 84x98x98mm • 345g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/36934

VERDICT This is a great sounding smart speaker but it’s over-reliant on Apple’s devices, audio services and voice assistant

ALTERNATIVE

Google Nest Audio £90 Google’s smart speaker is slightly cheaper and considerably more intelligent