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Overall Findings
More, better speakers.
Audio tuned to the shape and contents of a room.
Can be paired with other HomePods for home theater.
No room detection or adjustments.
Compared to the Mini, the HomePod 2 is about double the physical size and five times the weight.
It’s also about triple the price.
The justification for that price comes from the third major area of difference: audio quality.
Audio: HomePod 2 Outperforms the Mini
4-inch subwoofer.
Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos.
Stereo pairing and multi-room audio.
Immersive audio with room detection.
Apple Music and AirPlay support.
Full-range driver, dual passive radiators.
No Spatial Audio or Dolby Atmos.
Computational audio, no room detection.
Audio features and sound quality are the single biggest differentiators when comparing the HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini.
The speaker hardware is a good place to start understanding the difference between the models.
The HomePod 2 particularly outperforms the Mini in bass for home theater.
The HomePod 2 also offers uses five tweeters for clear and nuanced mid-range and high-end sounds.
Again, the Mini’s audio quality is very good, but the HomePod’s is better.
That combination of hardware and software is another area where the HomePod 2 outperforms the Mini.
However, only the HomePod 2 supports Apple’s Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.
Additionally, the HomePod 2 can detect the shape and contents of the room it’s in.
It can then form the sound waves it produces for the best sound quality.
Temperature and humidity sensors.
Matter and Thread support.
Smart home gadget control, even when away from home.
Both HomePod models do more than provide great audio; they’re also useful smart home devices.
Both HomePods also support Thread border routing for wireless Matter support.
This difference makes some sense: You want asmart speakerto sound amazing, and the HomePod 2 definitely does.
Weight: 5.16 pounds.
Requires iPhone 8 or newer.
Size: 3.3 inches tall x 3.9 inches wide.
Weight: 0.76 pounds.
Requires iPhone 6S or newer.
A few other features mark differences between the HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini.
Probably the most noticeable differences between the two devices are their size and weight.
The HomePod 2 is much bigger than the Mini.
It’s about twice as large and weighs about 5 times more.
If the most important thing is the audio quality, buy the 2nd gen. HomePod.
It has by far the best sound quality and the most advanced audio features.
The Mini is good, but the HomePod 2is much better.
It delivers good audio quality and lots of other features but in a smaller, lighter, cheaper package.
