Photo: FASTILY / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons · source
HomePod (2nd generation)
A cheaper HomePod with S7, five tweeters and Matter support.
Overview
Two years after dropping the first HomePod, Apple brought back the full-size speaker for $50 less. The profile looks the same, but a new touch surface with a bright glow shows Siri's activity, and the mesh is made of recycled fabric.
Under the hood is the S7 chip, a high-excursion woofer, a ring of five tweeters and four microphones for far-field Siri, plus an extra microphone inside that listens to bass output and adjusts it. The chip also processes Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio tracks and tunes the sound to the room.
A built-in temperature and humidity sensor provides information to the Home app, and Sound Recognition listens for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. HomePod can join a Matter and Thread network as a hub, and supports stereo pairing and home theater use with an Apple TV 4K.
Why it mattered
Revived the full-size HomePod with improved sound and became a central Matter smart home hub.
At a glance
- Announced
- January 18, 2023
- Released
- February 3, 2023
- Launch price
- $299
- Status
- Available
Highlights
- S7 chip
- Five tweeters and high-excursion woofer
- Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
- Temperature and humidity sensor
- Matter and Thread support
Tech specs
Specifications as published at launch. Some values (like battery life) are manufacturer estimates.
Chip
- Chip
- Apple S7
Audio
- Audio
- High-excursion woofer, five-tweeter array, four far-field microphones plus bass-correction microphone, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
Connectivity
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11n (2.4 and 5 GHz)
- Bluetooth
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Smart home
- HomeKit hub, Thread border router, Matter
- Ethernet
- None
- Ultra Wideband
- U1 chip
- Sensors
- Temperature and humidity sensors
Design
- Dimensions
- 168 mm high x 142 mm wide
- Weight
- 2.3 kg
Software
- Launch OS
- HomePod software 16.3
