Apple has finally refreshed its smallest smart speaker. At the company’s “Welcome Home” product event on Tuesday, October 13, Apple announced the HomePod mini 2 — the first hardware update to the compact speaker since it debuted in November 2020. The new model costs $149 in the U.S., goes on sale Friday, October 30, and ships with a new S10 chip, a “Sound Glow” visual effect, and support for four-speaker surround sound with the new Apple TV 4K.
But the headline feature won’t be there on day one: Siri AI, the smarter voice assistant meant to anchor Apple’s smart home push, will only arrive in a future software update. Here’s everything Apple announced, what’s delayed, and whether the mini 2 is worth the upgrade.
Price and release date
Apple opened pre-orders on October 13, with retail availability beginning Friday, October 30 in the U.S. and more than 23 other countries and regions, including the U.K., Canada, Australia, and India. Regional pricing announced by Apple’s regional newsrooms:
- United States: $149
- United Kingdom: £149
- Canada: CA$199
- Australia: A$229
- India: Rs 18,900
The $149 U.S. price is $20 above the original HomePod mini’s most recent $129 price. Apple had raised the original’s price from $99 to $129 in June 2026, citing component price increases tied to a global shortage of RAM and SSDs. The original model is now being discontinued.
What’s new: S10 chip, Sound Glow, and four-speaker surround
The most important change is under the hood. The HomePod mini 2 swaps the original’s S5 chip for the Apple S10, which Apple says drives real-time computational audio — optimizing dynamic range, loudness, and acoustic performance on the fly. The physical design is unchanged: the same compact sphere, 3.3 inches tall by 3.9 inches wide, with the same core audio hardware of a full-range driver and dual force-cancelling passive radiators for 360-degree sound.
The most eye-catching new feature is Sound Glow. The mini 2’s touch surface becomes what Apple calls a “visual canvas” that glows and animates in sync with music, reacting to bass and treble. Colors are generated from the song’s album artwork, giving each track a unique light show.
The mini 2 also gets two new tricks for home entertainment. Up to four HomePod mini 2 units can be combined to create a four-speaker surround sound setup with the latest Apple TV 4K, also announced today. The speakers and the Apple TV can recognize their position in the room, and levels are calibrated to the space automatically. In addition, the mini 2 can now serve as a persistent default audio output for a compatible Mac — as a single speaker or a matched stereo pair — a feature that requires a Mac with Wi-Fi 6E or later.
Connectivity upgrades: Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6
The wireless stack gets a long-overdue modernization. Wi-Fi jumps from 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) on the original to Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth moves from 5.0 to Bluetooth 6. Thread networking, Ultra Wideband, and the temperature and humidity sensors all carry over, so the mini 2 continues to work as a home hub for controlling smart home devices, including Matter accessories.
Safety features stay as well: Sound Recognition lets the speaker listen for smoke or carbon monoxide alarms and send an alert if one is detected. Like the original, the mini 2 supports stereo pairing and multiroom audio.
Apple refreshed the color lineup. The mini 2 comes in pink, green, blue, white, and midnight — yellow and orange are gone. Weight drops slightly to about 0.74 lb (335 g) from the original’s 0.76 lb (345 g).
Siri AI is delayed until a future software update
The biggest caveat: the mini 2 ships without its marquee feature. Siri AI will arrive only in a future software update, and it requires an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad to deliver personal-context features. Once available, Siri AI on the mini 2 will be able to recognize up to six users by voice and connect to their devices for personalized information such as Messages, with processing done on-device or through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute.
Apple confirmed that the original HomePod mini will not receive the Siri AI update — the feature is restricted to the new hardware. Initial availability for Siri AI is limited to the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and India.
The delay is not entirely a surprise. Reporting ahead of the event said development of Apple’s redesigned Siri assistant had pushed the speaker’s launch back, and the fact that the hardware is shipping while the software is still pending fits that pattern. Siri AI arrives at a moment when Apple is betting its smart home strategy on the assistant: analyst Dan Ives noted after the event that Apple disclosed daily usage limits on server-side Apple Intelligence features, signaling that paid Siri AI access could be on the way.
How the mini 2 compares to the original
- Price: $99 at launch / $129 most recently → $149
- Chip: Apple S5 → Apple S10
- Voice assistant: original Siri → Siri AI (future update)
- Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) → Wi-Fi 6E
- Bluetooth: 5.0 → 6
- Surround sound: stereo pairing only → up to four speakers with Apple TV 4K
- Mac audio: AirPlay only → persistent default speaker for compatible Macs
- Visual effects: illuminated Siri surface → Sound Glow animations
- Colors: white, yellow, orange, blue, midnight → pink, green, blue, white, midnight
- Release: November 2020 → October 30, 2026
Part of Apple’s biggest smart home push yet
The mini 2 was announced at Apple’s “Welcome Home” event at Tribeca, New York, teased five days earlier by marketing chief Greg Joswiak. It headlines a lineup that includes the new HomeView smart home hub — priced at $299 with availability starting November 13 in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and other markets — and the new Apple TV 4K, both of which also go on sale this fall.
The event also brought the Apple Home Collection: cameras, a video doorbell, a smart lock, a thermostat, and a temperature sensor developed in collaboration with LG, set to launch in the U.S. and Canada in December. Together, the announcements mark Apple’s most ambitious hardware push into the smart home category — one where Bloomberg has noted the company has long lagged Amazon and Google.
Should you buy one?
For new buyers, the mini 2 is the obvious long-term choice: $20 more buys a modern chip, modern wireless, and the only path to Siri AI. For existing HomePod mini owners, the case is thinner. The audio hardware is unchanged, and the feature most likely to justify an upgrade — Siri AI — isn’t shipping yet and will never come to the original model.
The practical advice: if you’re building an Apple-centric smart home now, the mini 2 is a solid hub-and-speaker combo at $149. If your 2020 model still sounds fine, there’s no reason to rush — wait for the Siri AI software update to land and see how good the assistant actually is before spending.