Apple Homepod Review

One of the nice things about being a writer is that every now and then you get a note saying that a bunch of people have bought copies of your book and, as a result, you've got some money to spend. It doesn't happen to me as much as I would like, but it did happen last week. 

And so, of course, I used some of it to buy myself an Apple HomePod. What with there being one for sale second hand in a local shop, and me having come into a bit of cash, it seemed like fate was actually willing me to get one. 

I'm glad I did. I've got a couple of Amazon Echo devices and I thought that their sound quality was OK. But the HomePod blows them, and just about anything else I've got, away in terms of sound quality. It's far, far, better than the speaker and sub-woofer setup I have in my working room and has therefore completely replaced it. There is a lot more bass present than there has any right to be. It's actually quite startling.

Some reviewers have talked about the impressively wide sound stage that the speaker manages to create using its assortment of drivers and cunning calibration. I've not noticed this much to be honest. The output sounds like it is coming out of a speaker. But what output....

The setup was a breeze. I just held my phone close to the HomePod the first time I powered it on, tapped Yes to confirm access and away we went. It did such a good job of finding the best tracks in my music collection that I let it do that for around eight hours before I actually asked it to play anything specific. 

Voice control is not as great as it could be. It doesn't understand the artist name "Boz Scaggs" at all. I had to ask for the album by name from my library in the end. And saying "Hey Siri" is not how I like to start any kind of conversation. And when I do every single Apple device in the room pricks up its ears. The computer generated voice of the device is not a refined as Alexa from Amazon. I've gone for the Australian female voice as this sounds the least strange to me. Or perhaps I can't actually tell whether its strange or not. 

I've not used the HomePod for much more than playing music. I will tell me the weather and If I get some remotely controlled kit it should be able to control it. I've got an Apple Music subscription, which makes it a proper free-standing device. Otherwise I'd have to use my phone to get the audio source and play it over Airplay. I've not tried the HomePod as a speakerphone yet. It works in this role, but not in a way that you'll find particularly useful. 

From a software point of view it is a bit limited at the moment. There is a serious shortage of third party skill and, unlike the Amazon Echo, I can't use it to listen to the radio, which is a shame. 

However, it is what I thought it would be when I bought it. It is a super, super, speaker with some indifferent network features and a whole ton of room for improvement. I just hope enough people engage with the product to make Apple fulfil its true potential. Until then I'll be very happy listening to the amazing sounds it makes.