Apple HomePod 2nd Gen India price is shocking! Will you spend this much on a smart speaker?

Apple HomePod 2nd Gen launches in India with a much higher price tag. Here is all you need to know.

The HomePod 2nd Gen comes in White and a new Midnight colour variant (black essentially), and you have to pay Rs. 32990 for it. (HT_PRINT)

Apple has been silently launching updated versions of its products lately and after the update MacBook Pro models, Apple has now announced the HomePod 2nd Gen. Yes, the HomePod is back and Apple has made a lot of tweaks under the hood to make it more appealing. The HomePod 2nd Gen promises to offer better audio performance than its predecessor and will co-exist alongside the cheaper HomePod Mini, which remains unchanged for the time being.

Nonetheless, if you are interested in buying Apple's flagship smart speaker, here is what you have to pay. The HomePod 2nd Gen comes in White and a new Midnight colour variant (black essentially), and you have to pay Rs. 32990 for it. That is quite expensive for a smart speaker running Apple's Siri and a product that ties you badly into the Apple ecosystem. The HomePod, however, has points of redemption that you cannot ignore.

Apple HomePod 2nd Gen launches in India

The new HomePod 2nd Gen looks a lot like the older version that was discontinued a while ago. It now has 5 tweeters and a 4-inch woofer to do the speaker duties. The speaker relies on beamforming to fine-tune its audio output based on the ambient situation. Additionally, it uses the new Apple S7 processor for all its computational audio tasks and the smart features. The backlit touch surface is present and can tapped to activate Siri, which is the only voice assistant you are going to get on the HomePod 2nd Gen.

Other than the usual smart speaker things such as paying music from Apple Music, controlling smart home devices and responding to general queries, the HomePod 2nd Gen has a couple of other features that are not present on previous models. The new model can listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and notify users on iPhone when they are away.

Then there is a temperature and humidity sensor that not only lets you get quick details on the room condition, but it also lets you integrate smart home routines based on ambient temperatures. For example, you can ask it to turn on the Ac when the room is quite hot, provided you have a smart AC.

The biggest addition here is the integration for Matter, a new smart home standard that should allow for nicer compatibility with a wide range of IoT devices and accessories.