Six head-scratching information concerning the HomePod 2 | Mob Tech

It has been a busy week for Apple. On Tuesday we acquired new chips, Mac minis and MacBook Execs, and Wednesday introduced the return of the full-size HomePod, with an identical design and have set to the unique mannequin, in addition to the identical $299 worth, roughly two years. . after it was discontinued.

And if you dig into it, issues get even stranger. The brand new HomePod is sort of completely different from the unique mannequin, however in delicate and complicated ways in which will not be as noticeable to anybody shopping for one. Listed below are 5 information concerning the new HomePod which have us scratching our heads:

The design is just not precisely the identical.

At first look (and second and third), the second era HomePod seems 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 is 4mm shorter and 200 grams lighter. The display screen on the high is bigger, barely recessed and now takes up all the space. The “seamless mesh material” of the unique mannequin is now “acoustically clear mesh material” and stretches a bit extra on high, and Midnight has changed Area Gray. That will not make a visible distinction until you are evaluating a brand new and an outdated one facet by facet, and it appears unusual that Apple went to the difficulty of redesigning the HomePod so small.

You’ll be able to’t create a stereo pair with a 1st era HomePod

Probably the greatest options of the HomePod is its potential to create a stereo pair that “reproduces every channel in good concord, making a wider and extra immersive soundstage than conventional stereo audio system.” It isn’t a brand new characteristic, however there is a catch: You’ll be able to’t pair a brand new HomePod with an outdated one. For a stereo pair to work, you will want two of the identical HomePods: a first-gen with a first-gen; mini with a mini; 2nd era with a 2nd era. It makes logical sense because the two have completely different specs, however it could have been good for Apple to discover a technique to make the 2 work properly collectively.

Foundry

Makes use of an Apple Watch chip

The unique HomePod used Apple’s A8 processor, which had debuted within the iPhone 6 just a few years earlier, as “the brains behind superior audio improvements.” When the HomePod mini arrived just a few years later, Apple used the S5 chip from an Apple Watch Sequence 5 to “obtain nice sound in such a compact design.” The second-generation HomePod additionally makes use of an Apple Watch chip, the S7 processor in Apple Watch Sequence 7, “to ship much more superior computational audio.” That is all properly and good, but it surely’s onerous to not assume that an A12 or A13 would supply a little bit of future proofing.

It nonetheless has a inbuilt energy twine.

One of many largest shortcomings of the unique HomePod was the built-in energy cable, primarily as a result of individuals naturally tried to unplug it and typically ended up ruining their audio system. Apple could have modified the connector to forestall that from occurring, however based mostly on the pictures, the HomePod nonetheless has the identical energy twine completely connected to the again of the gadget. A transfer to a magnetic connector just like the 24-inch iMac would have been a pleasant enchancment.

Foundry

Helps slower Wi-Fi

It is fairly unusual that the brand new HomePod nonetheless has Bluetooth 5 as an alternative of 5.3 (as discovered on new Macs and iPhones), but it surely really has slower Wi-Fi than the unique mannequin. Based on the technical specs, the primary HomePod supported 802.11ac, higher often called Wi-Fi 5, whereas the newer HomePod makes use of Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). Possibly it is an excessive amount of to ask for Wi-Fi 6E when the brand new iPhones do not even assist it, however we’re shocked to see the brand new HomePod use a Wi-Fi normal as outdated because the iPhone 4.

The audio specs appear to be inferior.

This is the weirder factor: Primarily based on audio specs, the brand new HomePod is not practically pretty much as good as the unique mannequin. Whereas it absolutely “delivers next-level acoustics,” as Apple claims, a fast comparability of the tech specs reveals two much less horn-loaded tweeters (5 vs. seven) and microphones (4 vs. six). In fact, all audio system and microphones should not created equal, and audio processing counts for lots. It is fairly doable Apple will get equal or higher audio with fewer audio system and microphones, but it surely’s unusual that after two years the outdated HomePod is superior to the brand new one on paper.