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.

HomeView speaker system is much more powerful on model with domed base

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:

1. Custom down-firing woofer
2. Dual force-cancelling passive radiators

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.

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