HomePod Mini 2 Gets Faster, Brighter and Pricier While Siri AI Waits

HomePod Mini 2 Gets Faster, Brighter and Pricier While Siri AI Waits

Six years later, a familiar sphere returns October 30

Apple announced the HomePod Mini 2 at its Welcome Home event on October 13, the first major hardware update since the original launched in 2020. It costs $149 in the United States, $20 more than the previous model's most recent $129 price and $50 more than its original $99 launch price. Preorders opened October 13, with store availability starting October 30. Physically it is almost identical, about four inches across, with a listed weight 3% lower than before.

Apple sells Siri AI, colors and computational audio

Apple's official pitch centers on three things: Siri AI, gorgeous new colors and enhanced audio. Siri AI is described as a more capable and conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broader world knowledge and deeper app integration for richer music discovery. It is not available at launch and will arrive in a future software update, with personal-context requests requiring an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad.

S10 chip replaces S5, radios finally catch up

The main hardware change is the processor, from the S5 from 2019's Apple Watch Series 5 to the S10 from Apple Watch Series 10. Apple says the S10 enables advanced computational audio that analyzes music in real time to tune dynamic range, loudness and acoustic performance. The speaker keeps the original formula of a full-range driver with dual force-cancelling passive radiators for 360-degree sound. Wireless moves from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 6E and from Bluetooth 5 to Bluetooth 6.

Two-tone fabric makes green the new favorite

Colors carry the visual update. There are five finishes: pink, green, blue, white and midnight, with orange discontinued. The pink, blue and green models use two-tone acoustic fabric. Pink pairs a light pink outer layer with coral underneath, blue pairs blue mesh over green fabric, and green reverses the blue model with green outside and blue underneath. After two days of testing, The Verge called green the new go-to, described pink as very pale and blue as functionally identical to the first-generation blue.

Sound Glow and touch lock spread to older speakers

Two software features in HomePod Software 27.2 matter as much as the hardware. Sound Glow matches the top LEDs to album artwork, soundscapes such as ocean waves and Podcasts, and is backward compatible with the first-generation Mini and the second-generation HomePod. The speaker can also serve as a Mac's default speaker, pair with another unit for stereo, or join four units with the new Apple TV 4K for surround sound. Lock Controls disables touch, touch-and-hold and volume adjustments on top, while intercom, alarms, timers, Check In and FaceTime calls still respond. It also addresses the widespread phantom-touch problem that made older Minis play music on their own.

The disappointment: Mac output fails and AI is missing

The letdown is that the headline promises are not ready on day one. The Verge, using a Wi-Fi 6E Mac Mini M4 on macOS 27.2 with speakers on 27.2, found no option in the Sound pane to set a HomePod as the default output over AirPlay. Sound Glow works only with Apple Music and Podcasts and looks subtle. With no confirmed sound-system upgrade and Siri AI still pending, the $149 refresh feels like paying now for an update later. The most useful 27.2 features arrive without buying new hardware.