Looking for the best smart speaker for your home? Well, smart speakers are certainly the rage these days. Two of the leading names in the smart speaker market are Apple and Bose. The HomePod has been in the limelight since its release thanks to its seamless operation with the Apple ecosystem. Bose is already a leading name in the audio industry and with the Home Speaker 500, it shows no signs of slowing down. But the million dollar question is – which one is a better choice for you? Let’s take a look.

What is HomePod?

HomePod is Apple’s answer to Amazon’s Echo family of devices. HomePod is truly a masterpiece that certainly holds its own, thanks to its spectacular cylindrical design, superb sound, clean aesthetics, and cool features. The HomePod leverages the smarts of Siri to play music, listen to your commands, and enable access to HomeKit devices. You just have to say, “Hey Siri” and you’re good to go. It works with your iPhone to play music and perform various useful functions, similar to other smart speakers.

What is Bose?

Bose is one of the pioneers of audio technology that predominantly sells great audio equipment including speakers and home audio systems, headphones, and automobile sound systems. Bose is an American audio technology company founded by Amar Bose in 1964. Bose has been selling some of the great home audio products since then. With the Home Speaker 500, Bose takes the game to a whole new level, blending its pioneering audio technology with superb design and cool features.

Difference between HomePod and Bose

Design

 – Apple makes great products and its flawless engineering reflects in the HomePod. The clean aesthetics will surely blow you mind. The HomePod features an elegant cylindrical design with a mesh fabric on the outside and 7-array tweeters on the inside. Apple went completely touchscreen with the HomePod with no physical buttons on the device. The Bose Home Speaker 500 also looks very impressive, thanks to its seamless elliptical shape with an anodized aluminum casing. There’s a screen on the front that displays beautiful artwork and time. Also, there are buttons on the top for basic functions.

Sound 

– Audio quality is the first and foremost thing everybody checks when looking for smart speakers because audio is what you’re going to use to for, primarily. While both Bose and HomePod have superb sound quality, the HomePod simply takes the cake for audio experience. The HomePod has this cool spatial awareness feature that lets you enjoy a distortion-free music experience regardless of the music you play and how loud it is. The two-speaker setup in the Bose Home Speaker 500 doesn’t disappoint, but they are not very appealing either. The bass line sound vigorous and forceful. So, the HomePod wins this round.

Smarts 

– Coming to smart features, you should consider the voice assistant capabilities of the two. That being said, HomePod being an Apple product, sticks to the Apple ecosystem. So, the capabilities are limited to what Siri can do. You can only connect the HomePod with an Apple device, so Alexa and Google Assistant are not an option. If you love all things Apple and you’re happy with the Apple ecosystem, then the HomePod is your best bet. Bose combines the smarts of two of the industry leading voice assistants – Alexa and Google Assistant – to deliver a seamless experience.

HomePod vs. Bose: Comparison Chart

Summary

One of the major selling points of the HomePod is its sleek, minimalist design with no extra bells and whistles. It’s really quite a great looking speaker with great sound, thanks to its spatial awareness feature which just makes you enjoy music at any sound level without any distortions. The Home Speaker 500 sounds impressive too, but doesn’t beat the unmatched audio quality of the HomePod. The screen on the Bose is definitely a nice addition, but it only works if you’re strictly using the Bose music app. If the screen doesn’t matter much to you, the Bose is definitely worth considering.

Is Bose better than HomePod?

Both speakers are pretty good in terms of sound, features, and smarts. The HomePod, thanks to its spatial awareness feature, beats the Bose head-on. The Bose is also an impressive speaker with great sound. So, which one’s better depends on your personal preference.

Is HomePod mini better than Bose?

HomePod Mini is basically the cheaper and smaller version of the full-sized HomePod, and certainly a worthy investment. Bose is a better sounding speaker overall and can get louder and deliver stereo quality audio experience.

Is HomePod worth it as a speaker?

HomePod is definitely a good looking speaker with superb sound, clean aesthetics and great features. With the capabilities of Siri, it can do wonders. But the original HomePod is discontinued by Apple starting 2021.

Why was HomePod discontinued?

Apple discontinued the full-sized HomePod to focus its efforts on the new and cheaper HomePod Mini.

What sounds better than HomePod?

There are some great alternatives to the HomePod if you’re considering going outside the Apple ecosystem, including Sonos One, Echo Studio, Google Home Max, Bose, etc.

Is Sonos better than Bose?

Sonos supports a variety of streaming services, delivering a seamless listening experience. Bothe Sonos and Bose deliver built-in voice controls via Alexa and Google Assistant, so they are fairly matched in terms of connectivity. Besides, both deliver impressive sound.

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