Rejoice, Siri fans! Alongside the iPhone 12 series, Apple has unveiled the long-rumored HomePod mini at its hardware event in Cupertino today. This is a tiny spherical smart speaker, a younger sibling to the original HomePod, backed by Siri. It also comes at a really affordable price to tackle the Alexa-powered Echo and Google Assistant-backed Nest Audio.
Just like its elder sibling, the HomePod mini is covered in mesh fabric (made with more than 90% recycled plastic) and includes a touch surface to control the volume and music playback at the top. This surface also lights up when you call upon Siri. It not only lets you ask queries, get weather updates but also control your smart home devices.
The press release adds, “It works effortlessly with iPhone to hand off music, answer calls or deliver personalized listening suggestions, elevates the sound from Apple TV, plays music from a Mac, and so much more.” The HomePod mini also comes features Apple’s U1 chip, which enables you to bring your iPhone close to the smart speaker to hand-off music playback.
The HomePod mini has been priced at $99 and will be available in two color variants, namely Space Grey and White. It will compete against Google’s recently unveiled Nest Audio and the Alexa-backed 4th-gen Echo, which is also a spherical orb like the Mini.
