HomePod Mini 2 Review: S10 Chip Delivers, Mac Speaker Feature Falters

Apple charges $149 for the HomePod Mini 2, fifty dollars more than the original, and the money bought a chip bump rather than new drivers. Six years after the first Mini launched at $99, Apple has fitted an S10 processor, up from the S5, added Wi-Fi 6E in place of Wi-Fi 4, and left the acoustic hardware alone. On paper it looked lazy. In practice, The Verge's hands-on finds it a bigger upgrade than it first appeared — with one prominent exception.

The S10 chip matters more than a speaker swap would have. Siri on the Mini 2 responds in under three seconds, against waits of up to ten seconds on the first-generation model. Songs start in a couple of seconds; smart home commands such as opening shades or switching off lights complete in under three. The reviewer asked who won this year's World Series and got a correct answer in under two seconds. That gap is the difference between a device you use and a device you wait on.

What else does the new chip enable?

Not the headline Siri AI, which Apple says arrives "later" in a software update. Until then, hard questions still return the familiar offer to check web results on an iPhone. What has changed is behavior: the Mini 2 performs smart home actions silently, dropping the wordy "OK, Jen" confirmations of the original. It is not mute for every action, but the reviewer calls the change a noticeable improvement.

The wireless upgrades also carry a Mac-pairing agenda, and here the story sours. Apple promised the Mini 2 could serve as a Mac's default speaker over what the company calls "a responsive and persistent AirPlay connection," a wireless point-to-point link. The feature also works with the second-generation HomePod, and two or four Mini 2s can join a surround setup with the new Apple TV 4K.

The reviewer, testing with a Wi-Fi 6E-capable Mac mini M4 running macOS 27.2 and HomePods on Software 27.2, could not make it work. The Sound pane offered no option to set the HomePod as default output. Per a 9to5Mac hands-on, the device should appear as a default system output in System Information with an "enable" toggle under "Play sound effects through" — neither appeared. A full reset of both HomePods after the 27.2 general release did not help, and the reviewer reports other users hitting the same wall. Apple has not responded to requests for comment.

Without the persistent connection, the Mini behaves like any AirPlay speaker, complete with the old flaws: occasional artifacting, drop-offs, lag on notification sounds, and the Mac falling back to its built-in speakers after restarts or whenever Siri activates on the HomePod. A stereo pair fared no better.

Is the rest of the package better?

The colors, in a word, yes. The reviewer calls the deep green "seriously sophisticated" and the prettiest small smart speaker they have tried, ahead of Amazon's Echo Dot Max purple and the Google Home Speaker's pale green. The blue is nearly identical to the first-gen shade; the pink runs pale; white, in the reviewer's verdict, demands regular dusting. Two green units on a walnut Nanoleaf monitor stand read, in their words, as an instant office upgrade.

The unchanged speaker still performs. The reviewer credits it with handling Bad Bunny's bass and delivering clear mids and vocals, and a $300 stereo pair filled the room. Sound Glow, which drives the top LEDs to match album art, is backward compatible with the first-gen Mini and the second-gen HomePod but works only with Apple Music and Podcasts — and so subtly that it adds little.

One quiet fix deserves mention: the Home app now lets owners lock the top touch controls on all HomePods, old and new. The reviewer's motivation was a 3 a.m. accidental blast of music after fumbling for a phone. Anyone who has done this will understand.

The real verdict waits on Siri AI and a full review, plus comparison against the upcoming $299 Apple HomeView smart display, a Home hub with a screen and more functionality than the Mini. The chip bump justifies the price for impatient owners today; the Mac pairing, a signature feature, feels unfinished and needs a fix from Apple before it earns its billing.