Apple’s HomePod mini has always been the lower-cost route into its smart-home ecosystem. The ₹18,900 HomePod mini 2 keeps that compact-speaker formula, but gives it a more important role in Apple’s new home setup.
It comes in pink, green, blue, white and midnight, adding Apple’s S10 chip, reactive lighting and a new four-speaker home-theatre system with the latest Apple TV 4K.
Sound Glow turns the illuminated touch surface on top into a reactive display. It pulses to bass and treble, can match the colour of the album artwork playing, and has dedicated animations for ambient soundscapes such as rain.
The S10 chip drives the less visible upgrade. Apple says its computational-audio system analyses music in real time, adjusting loudness, dynamic range and acoustic output. The speaker works alone, in a stereo pair or in a multiroom AirPlay setup. It can also be used as a speaker for a Mac, which could make it a tidy addition to a desktop.
The bigger reason to buy the new model is its home-theatre ability. Pair it with the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K and users can place four HomePod mini 2 speakers around a room for surround sound.
Apple TV identifies the placement of each speaker and calibrates timing and levels automatically. It should make this far simpler than a conventional surround setup, while being considerably cheaper than building the system with four full-sized HomePods.
The HomePod mini 2 also remains a Home hub for controlling compatible lights, locks, cameras and scenes remotely. It can listen for smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms, then send an alert to an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
Siri AI is coming to the HomePod mini 2 through a future update. It will offer better music discovery, current information from the web and more natural conversations.
With an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad, it can use personal context from apps. Apple’s examples include finding a song a friend mentioned in a message, setting a reminder connected to a calendar event, or locating a recipe in an email.
The HomePod mini 2 can be pre-ordered now for ₹18,900 and will go on sale in India on October 30.