The most recent Apple HomePod speaker is on sale for $285 at B&H Picture, which is $14 lower than shopping for from Apple instantly. This is not the largest cash discount we have seen, and Apple beforehand bundled the gadget 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 couple of months. The low cost applies to each the black and white variations of the speaker.
Picture by Billy Steele / Engadget
This low cost is not an all-time low, however offers of any form on Apple’s top-end sensible speaker have been unusual.
We gave the second-generation HomePod a score of 84 in our assessment final yr. It will take advantage of sense in the event you’re a very devoted Apple consumer who prioritizes audio high quality. It nonetheless works simply with different Apple units and companies, from iPhones to Apple TVs to Apple Music, and we usually discover it to sound richer and clearer than competing smart speakers from Amazon and Google. As a wise house gadget, it is appropriate with Matter and Thread on prime of Apple’s personal HomeKit protocol, so you need to use it to manage a rising vary of safety cameras, thermostats, plugs and different sensible house equipment. It additionally has built-in temperature and humidity sensors, and its included mics do properly to select your voice by means of noise.
To be clear, that is nonetheless an expensive and comparatively area of interest gadget. 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 extra cash. Apple’s personal HomePod Mini has almost the entire similar sensible house options if that is your major concern, whereas Google Assistant and Alexa customers ought to nonetheless look to Google’s Nest Audio or an Amazon Echo gadget. The HomePod has its personal points, too: Siri is not probably the most succesful voice assistant, there is no Bluetooth audio, you’ll be able to’t customise its EQ and also you want a workaround to manage Spotify by way of voice. Rumors of a touchscreen-enabled HomePod have additionally floated round over the previous yr. All that stated, in the event you’re all-in on Apple, it is a respectable probability to save lots of on the corporate’s highest-end house speaker.
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