The HomePod is way smaller than I keep in mind. I hadn’t seen one since June, when the corporate introduced the speaker back at WWDC.

Final month, in fact, Apple introduced the speaker was being pushed back from its projected December launch date as a result of the corporate wanted, “a bit of extra time.” That point, it appears, has lastly arrived, going up for pre-order this week and transport on February 9.

I spent a bit extra time with the sensible speaker this week in its ultimate manufacturing kind, and was stunned by how small the factor is, at seven inches. Possibly it’s all that point I’ve been spending with Google’s massive 12-pound Home Max Speaker.

As marketed, the factor sounds nice. There’s little query right here that the HomePod is a speaker first, sensible second, bucking the pattern of the earliest Echo and Google House gadgets. Apple’s engineers had been capable of get numerous wealthy and full sound out of that little footprint. The speaker is especially adept as isolating vocals and sustaining typically muddled aural features, like background singers and viewers sounds in dwell recordings.

The corporate diagrammed the internals a bit throughout launch. There’s a hoop of seven tweeters across the backside of the system, with a big woofer up high — which is ready to transfer as much as 22 millimeters, a large journey given the HomePod’s comparatively small dimension. One of many huge issues the design affords over the House Max particularly is that 360-degree design, which once more, does a surprisingly good job providing constant protection in numerous spots of a room.

After I met with Google forward of the Max launch, the corporate defined it had opted for a single directional design given the truth that most individuals find yourself inserting their audio system in opposition to a wall. The corporate makes use of that positioning to supply what it’s branded “Good Sound” — primarily the speaker’s capability to adapt its sound high quality primarily based on its proximity to the wall. In spite of everything, a lot of what we hear from a speaker is what’s mirrored again at us.

Apple doesn’t have a elaborate alliterative identify for its model of the expertise, however the HomePod seems to function on an identical precept. Right here’s how the corporate describes it:

It robotically analyzes the acoustics, adjusts the sound primarily based on the speaker’s location, and separates the music into direct and ambient sound. Direct sound is beamed to the center of the room, whereas ambient sound is subtle into left and proper channels and bounced off the wall. So your music sounds wonderful, wherever you’re within the room.

In essence, it appears to be utilizing the on-board microphones to create locational consciousness primarily based on the sounds which can be mirrored again at it. From there, it paints an image of the room round it and serves up sound accordingly. Within the case of the House Max, the system regularly adjusts the sound to accommodate its environment, so there isn’t a sudden shift in high quality. I didn’t have time to futz about with the function on the HomePod, however I think about it executes similarly.

So it sounds nice — it’s good to have a look at, too, with a fabric cowl that is available in both white or a darkish grey. The highest options two quantity contact buttons. When the HomePod is listening and considering,  you get a colourful circle of sunshine representing that ethereal sense of intangibility that’s Siri — which, in fact, brings us to the opposite a part of the entire sensible speaker expertise.

That is, in fact, Apple’s reply to the Echo and House, and Siri is an integral a part of that have. The corporate appears unlikely to open its sensible assistant to third-party any time quickly (lest it threat delivering one thing lower than its customary /software program symbiosis), so HomePod is actually the definitive Siri sensible residence expertise for the foreseeable future.

Apple’s method additionally signifies that you want an iPhone, iPad or iPod contact to get arrange with the speaker (it really works in tandem with Apple TV, however the set-top field can’t be used to stand up and operating). One of many upsides of that restricted providing is a particularly streamlined setup expertise. It’s actually just like pairing Apple’s AirPods, with a dialogue field that pops up on the cellular gadget. From there, you select which room you’ll be placing it in, allow Siri and choose into private requests.

That final bit includes utilizing the speaker to supply up issues like notifications. At current, the HomePod isn’t able to differentiating customers primarily based on voice, so issues can’t be personalised to that diploma. The workaround the corporate has give you for coping with that is solely enabling that performance when the gadget detects that the cellular gadget used to set it up is current.

When it comes to privateness right here, like Echo and House, the six on-board microphones are listening for his or her wake phrases (“Hey Siri”) and solely ship information to the server as soon as that’s invoked. That data is encrypted and stored nameless, so there’s no central repository in your Siri requests. Additionally, in contrast to Amazon and Google, there’s no operating tally of these requests in a centralized Siri app.

In actual fact, there’s no devoted Siri app concerned in any respect. As a substitute, all the cellular HomePod controls are nestled within the Apple House app. So if you wish to, say, flip the microphones off for privateness, you go into the House App and disable them. You can also simply ask Siri to cease listening by saying, naturally, “Hey Siri, cease listening.”

There’s no visible cue for this, just like the pink ring that lights up on Echo gadgets. There’s no bodily button, both. Whenever you need Siri to start out listening once more, you both can re-enable the function in House or activate Siri by touching the highest of the HomePod.

Siri does seem to pay attention fairly nicely when it’s enabled — even when music’s enjoying. No phrase on whether or not there will probably be one thing akin to Amazon’s near-field tech on-board when the corporate rolls out a number of speaker pairing as a free replace later this yr. If I had been the betting type, I’d say anticipate some information on that entrance someday round WWDC.

The sensible assistant’s performance on the gadget goes to be considerably restricted at launch — not stunning, since Amazon and Google have a reasonably wholesome head begin right here. Apple was centered on what it noticed as the important thing issues people truly use these gadgets for. Music is the primary spot, in fact. Additionally on board are climate, visitors, instructions and information.

That final bit, as reported, is achieved by means of entry to podcasts. Right here within the States, the gadget defaults to NPR, however you’ll be able to swap that setting to Fox Information, amongst others, as a result of the place folks get their information has grow to be much more polarizing than the cellular working system they use.

There’s additionally calling performance on-board. This operates otherwise than the Echo, nevertheless. It truly must be initiated on an iPhone after which handed off to the HomePod. Meaning the telephone must be current. Good residence performance is fairly strong right here, courtesy of all of the work Apple’s been doing on the HomeKit aspect of issues. And all of that’s aggregated into the House app. There’s additionally no want for a separate sensible residence hub right here, which is good.

The corporate’s made a degree to maintain a lot of the performance within the Apple household right here. That’s truly clearest on the music aspect of issues. If you would like full music playback performance, you’ll want Apple Music (which Siri will fortunately provide up as a free three-month trial on setup). The one approach to make use of one thing like Spotify is thru AirPlay on a linked smartphone (there’s no Aux enter on the again, both).

That’s going to be a sticking level for a lot of customers, in fact. Onerous to say if third-party music streaming will probably be coming down the street, however this all appears to be a part of Apple’s deal with providing a unified end-to-end expertise with the product. The plus aspect of such integration is a depth of performance.

For instance, you’ll be able to ask Siri for contextual data on a music or artist whereas listening by means of Apple Music utilizing instructions like “Hey Siri, when was this music launched?” or “Hey Siri, inform me about Husker Du.” That data is pulled from quite a lot of sources, together with Apple Music’s personal metadata and locations like Wikipedia.

I admittedly solely had a short while with the speaker, so I’ll save any ultimate ideas for now. What is obvious, nevertheless, is that the HomePod is a really Apple tackle the class. It’s a nice-looking, premium gadget with actually good sound at an admittedly excessive $349 value level (although, notably, nonetheless $50 lower than the Google Max). Apple’s clearly providing a unified finish to finish expertise for its first Siri-focused product, eschewing some broader performance for the sake of a streamlined, unified expertise.