Apple unveils HomePod mini 2 with Siri AI, Sound Glow, and a $149 price tag
Apple announced the HomePod mini 2 on October 13, with preorders open now and shipping from October 30 at $149.99 in the US, £149 in the UK and AU$229 in Australia; the China listing showed 1,099 yuan after briefly displaying 999 yuan. The refresh swaps the original S5 chip for the S10 chip used in recent Apple Watch models, and adds a top-LED feature called Sound Glow that pulses in time with bass and treble and mirrors album artwork colors; it can also serve as a dedicated Mac speaker or join a multi-speaker surround setup. Siri AI arrives only through a later free software update and requires an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone or iPad on the same Wi-Fi, and the sources disagree on colors — English coverage lists green, pink, blue, midnight and white, while Chinese listings name blue, midnight, white, yellow and orange.
It marks Apple's first step toward putting Siri AI into its entry-level smart speaker, even as it raises the price on largely incremental hardware.