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Apple’s two HomeViews have one big hidden difference
Today Apple unveiled HomeView, its long-awaited smart home hub. The HomeView comes in two distinct models, one with a domed speaker base and the other designed for wall mounting. But there’s a hidden feature difference beyond the form factors.
If you’re trying to decide which HomeView form factor to buy, there’s a key detail you should know about.
Beyond the obvious design differences between the model with a domed base—‘HomeView’—and the one designed for your wall—‘HomeView (Wall Mounted)’—there’s a disparity in capabilities too.
The standard HomeView has a much more powerful speaker system built in. Here are Apple’s descriptions of each speaker setup:
HomeView delivers room-filling sound with support for Spatial Audio, making it a great way to enjoy music and podcasts at home. Its custom-engineered acoustic system combines a down-firing woofer and two full-range drivers to produce deep bass and crisp highs. Powered by the A18 chip and built-in sensors, computational audio continuously optimizes the loudness and bass response at any volume.
HomeView (Wall Mounted) brings full, balanced sound with two custom drivers and computational audio tuned specifically for on-wall placement, along with support for Spatial Audio.
Echoing this, Apple’s technical specs page confirms both models have two custom full-range drivers, but the HomeView with domed base adds:
Essentially, if you want the best sound experience from your HomeView, you’ll want to buy the standard model.
But if audio quality isn’t as important to you, the wall-mounted version will probably get the job done. It still has built-in speakers, but it won’t deliver the same performance and thus isn’t as well-suited for everyday music playback.
Does the difference in audio quality change your HomeView purchase decision at all? Let us know in the comments.