The newest Apple HomePod speaker is on sale for $285 at B&H Photograph, which is $14 lower than shopping for from Apple straight. This is not the largest cash discount we have seen, and Apple beforehand bundled the machine with a $50 present card throughout Black Friday. However offers of any form on the house speaker have been unusual because it arrived in early 2023, so this modest drop nonetheless represents the bottom value we have seen in the previous few months. The low cost applies to each the black and white variations of the speaker.
Photograph by Billy Steele / Engadget
This low cost is not an all-time low, however offers of any form on Apple’s top-end good speaker have been unusual.
We gave the second-generation HomePod a score of 84 in our overview final 12 months. It will take advantage of sense should you’re a very devoted Apple person who prioritizes audio high quality. It nonetheless works simply with different Apple gadgets and companies, from iPhones to Apple TVs to Apple Music, and we typically discover it to sound richer and clearer than competing smart speakers from Amazon and Google. As a sensible residence machine, it is appropriate with Matter and Thread on prime of Apple’s personal HomeKit protocol, so you should use it to regulate a rising vary of safety cameras, thermostats, plugs and different good residence equipment. It additionally has built-in temperature and humidity sensors, and its included mics do properly to pick your voice via noise.
To be clear, that is nonetheless a dear and comparatively area of interest machine. Audio system just like the Sonos 5 and Sonos Era 300 value extra however provide louder and extra dynamic sound high quality, whereas the Sonos Era 100 could also be a greater worth if you wish to preserve slightly more money. Apple’s personal HomePod Mini has practically all the similar good residence options if that is your important concern, whereas Google Assistant and Alexa customers ought to nonetheless look to Google’s Nest Audio or an Amazon Echo machine. The HomePod has its personal points, too: Siri is not probably the most succesful voice assistant, there is not any Bluetooth audio, you possibly can’t customise its EQ and also you want a workaround to regulate Spotify through voice. Rumors of a touchscreen-enabled HomePod have additionally floated round over the previous 12 months. All that mentioned, should you’re all-in on Apple, it is a first rate likelihood to avoid wasting on the corporate’s highest-end residence speaker.
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