Bose Portable Home Speaker vs Apple HomePod: Which to Buy?

Bose Portable Home Speaker vs Apple HomePod

This is the review of the comparison between two speakers from two popular brands in the market that is the Bose and Apple. The comparison here is between the Bose Portable Home Speaker and the Apple HomePod. There is fifty dollars difference in their price range and does bring a difference in their features. To know which one is good to buy, go to the detailed review.

Bose Portable Home SpeakerApple HomePod
Bose Portable Home SpeakerApple HomePod
BUY NOWBUY NOW
PROSPROS
Warm, well-balanced sound.
Premium and very portable design.
Choice of Alexa or Google Assistant.
The app lets you tweak the sound to suit you.
Looks attractive and nice.
Best and 360 degrees sound quality.
High accuracy of Siri’s voice.
Stylish, solid, and compact.
It has a sleek design.
Apple Music works well.
CONSCONS
Neither the brightest nor most bombastic performer on the block.
The white version gets dirty easily.
Not waterproof.
Expensive.
Bluetooth streaming is missing.
Voice controls only work with Apple Music.
Siri is limited and isn’t all that helpful.
Hard to tell different voices apart.
Subscription for Apple music needed for a worthwhile experience.

SPECIFICATIONS:

HEADERBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
BrandBoseApple
ModelPortable Home Speaker MQHW2LL/A
GENERALBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
ManufacturerBoseApple
Design Features
SPEAKER SYSYTEMBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
Amplification Typeactiveactive
Crossover Channel Qty2-way
Frequency Response50-60 Hz
Output Features360° omni-directional
Output Level (SPL)
Audio Amplifierintegratedintegrated
Connectivity TechnologyWirelessWireless
BATTERYBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
Rechargeable Batteryrechargeablerechargeable
Run Time (Up To)12 hour(s)
POWER DEVICEBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
Power SourceBatteryIntegrated power supply
OptionsUSB charging
NETWORK AND INTERNET MULTIMEDIABOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
Connectivity InterfacesBluetooth, Wi-FiBluetooth 5.0, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Internet Streaming ServicesAmazon Music, Deezer, Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadioApple Music
SPEAKER SYSTEM DETAILSBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
Speaker TypePortableSpeaker
Speaker Channel Qty
Speaker Channel Typemono
DRIVER DETAILSBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
Driver Typetweeter driver, woofer driver
Driver Qty1, 7
Driver Diameter4 m
CONNECTIONSBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
TypeBluetooth Speaker
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
Width4.7 in5.6 in
Depth4.1 in
Height7.6 in6.8 in
Weight2.34 lbs5.51 lbs
FEATURESBOSE PORTABLE HOME SPEAKERAPPLE HOMEPOD
FeaturesSpacious 360 degree sound, powerful bass.

Built-in voice control.

Durable, water-resistant design.

Control with voice, touch, or app.

Up to 12 hours battery life per charge.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

Apple airplay 2.

Multi-room functionality.
This purposefully designed speaker creates rich, nuanced sound that defies its size.

HomePod combines custom Apple-engineered audio technology and advanced software to deliver precision sound that fills the room. And at less than 18 centimetres tall, HomePod fits anywhere in your home.

HomePod is wrapped in a seamless mesh fabric designed for aesthetics and acoustic performance.

Available in white and space grey, it’s gorgeous from every angle — yet virtually transparent to the sound waves passing through it.

Six microphones positioned around HomePod allow it to pick up all the sound in a room.

When you say “Hey Siri”, advanced signal processing, together with echo and noise cancellation, allows HomePod to hear you without the need to raise your voice — even if you’re across the room with loud music playing.

An Apple-designed A8 chip orchestrates all the remarkable audio innovations inside HomePod. Like advanced signal processing so Siri can hear you over the music.

Real-time studio-level processing that maximises the bass while minimising distortion.

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Bose Portable Home Speaker

Bose Portable Home Speaker is one of the popular speakers in the market. This speaker is retailing for around three hundred and fifty dollars currently on Amazon. This speaker gets connected by both Bluetooth and Wi-fi which is a plus here. This speaker also has built-in voice assistance which is really good to have.

Apple HomePod

The HomePod has raised a lot of questions perhaps more than it’s answered and it’s been out for long enough. The Apple HomePod is retailing for around three hundred dollars which is definitely in the higher price range side. This speaker has built-in Alexa as your voice assistant.

Bose Portable Home Speaker

DESIGN: 

Bose Portable Home Speaker

The buttons are on top, you have the power button there. Whenever you power this up, it’ll tell you what device you’re connected to. Then you have the Bluetooth button, if you hold that it’ll light up and you’re trying to pair your Bluetooth device. Then there are the plus and minus buttons that are for volume up and down, the play button, the mute button, and also, a button to activate your Alexa or Google assistant. The Bose Portable Home Speaker is three hundred and forty-nine dollars. It comes in two colors silver and charcoal which is black. It’s a little bit bigger than the SoundLink Revolve Plus, it weighs about two pounds to three pounds.

Apple HomePod

The HomePod two different versions one is the space gray and it also comes in a white configuration which looks pretty nice too but the space gray one, in my opinion, does better against dirt and long-time wear and tear. When you have a look at the HomePod, you’ll notice it’s a pretty heavy device. The HomePod is a high-performance speaker first and a digital assistant second and what I meant by that is the specifications of the HomePod. Moving on you have six dedicated microphones on the HomePod, and that’s a lot, these microphones essentially work together to create noise cancellation, which is able to hear you across the room when you summon Siri by saying “Hey Siri” or any other command of that nature, that’s quite impressive.

Apple HomePod

FEATURES:

Bose Portable Home Speaker

Inside the box, we have the USB-C to C charging cable, the Bose Portable Home Speaker, and the power brick. You can actually connect this speaker to the new family of Bose speakers like the Bose 500 and 700 Soundbar and the Bose 500 and 300 home speakers. So, you could have multi-room music that’s one thing like. It also has AirPlay 2, so if you have an iPhone or Apple device you could connect this to it easily, and you can also AirPlay it to multiple speakers. 

As far as the battery life of this speaker, I was able to squeeze up to 10 hours of battery life out of this on a single charge which is pretty good for a portable home speaker with this kind of power. Bose claims you will get 12 hours on a full charge but it will differ depending on the audio level and the type of music and connection you are going through. 

The other thing I like about the speaker is the handle is very durable and rough and tough. You could hang it pretty much on a tree or wherever you go outside. It can play up to 12 hours on a single charge, it is Bluetooth enabled and it can also use a Google Assistant or Echo/Alexa on this device, so that’s another Pro. You could take phone calls on this, and also, you do get the Bose music app, you could connect do it that way also. Overall it’s durable, it’s the best portable speaker yet, it’s water-resistant, and the features and connectivity, Bluetooth, AirPlay, Bose music app, everything are good. 

Apple HomePod

When you order the HomePod from Apple or when you go pick it up from the Apple store or any other place, the first thing you’ll see is the minimalist packaging it comes in. It’s literally just a little bit bigger than the actual HomePod itself. It’s a rectangular-shaped box, it says HomePod on it, and it has a black and white drawing of the HomePod, and you have the Apple logo. As soon as you actually unveil the packaging and you start lifting the box Apple does not waste any time at all, the first thing you’ll see is the HomePod itself. When you move on, you’ll notice that the HomePod has a braided power cable, so it plugs into an outlet.

It’s not a USB-powered device and that tells you a lot about just how powerful this device must be if it requires a full electric connection. It’s also worth noting that connecting the HomePods for the first time to an iOS device is nearly seamless. As soon as you turn on the HomePod for the very first time and your iPhone comes close to it, right away you’ll get a prompt on your iPhone saying HomePod detected and you’ll get a setup button, you press the setup button it takes you straight to the Home app and that’s it, you’re done, there’s no additional process required.

I think when buying the HomePods if you want to justify it you have to switch your perspective. The HomePods are high-performance smart speakers that have Siri integration built-in, and the smart element doesn’t come from Siri, it comes from the amount of technology Apple has packed into such a small body. You have a dedicated woofer, you have multiple tweeters, you have multiple microphones, and all these work together to create spatial awareness. Furthermore, with growing support for AirPlay 2, I think the HomePods will only become more and more compatible with devices.

Bose Portable Home Speaker

SOUND QUALITY:

Bose Portable Home Speaker

As far as the sound quality of this speaker, it’s crystal clear, the bass goes deep, and low sounds very crystal clear, rich and the quality is like Bose always delivers. This speaker disperses the sound in 360 degrees. So, the sound comes out of each direction and the bass on this is also more powerful than the SoundLink Revolve Plus and it’s pretty good for its size. It’s most similar to the Bose 300 Home Speaker.

Apple HomePod

The audio quality on these things is amazing not just because of the hardware inside them but also how their hardware works to optimize the audio quality across the room or the space that you’re in. This thing is an absolute beast. For beginners, it has a dedicated woofer, which has a displacement of up to 20 millimeters. This produces nice deep bass and you can definitely hear it no matter where you are in the room. Following that you have seven dedicated tweeters, these produce high-quality audio that produces all kinds of vocal ranges, they produce all kinds of noises which combine to produce beautiful audio.

Apple HomePod

WHICH TO BUY?

In my opinion, the Apple HomePod is good for anyone who is heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem and I mean if you have Apple music, if you also have an iPhone, if you have a Macbook or any combination of those, definitely you can still use it with apps like Spotify and they’ll work just fine. But if you are out of the Apple ecosystem and you don’t at least own an iOS device or a Macbook then the Bose Portable Home Speaker is good for you because it is the one you can use with your Android devices and Windows.

Expert Reviews of Bose Portable Home Speaker:

By Stuff
Not perfect and definitely not cheap, but the feature-packed Bose Portable Home Speaker is still very easy to like.

By Tech Radar
There’s a lot to like about the Bose Portable Home Speaker; it’s super smart, and its design blends functionality with minimalist…

By goodhousekeeping.com
This speaker comes with a high-end price tag, but its excellent quality makes it worth it. It’s lightweight, versatile, and…

By Tech Hive
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is a personable, user-friendly, voice-activated smart speaker that’s easy to tote, whether deployed outside…

By Tom’s Guide
The $349 Bose Portable Home Speaker is designed for mobility, and it packs substantial sound into a small frame.

Expert Reviews of Apple HomePod:

By TechRadar
With the Apple HomePod, we’re really reviewing two things at once: a premium speaker and a smart home hub. In the former…

By techadvisor
The HomePod is Apple’s smart speaker that’s controlled using Siri and is designed primarily for high-quality music…

By Expert Reviews
That doesn’t mean the Apple HomePod is a terrible product. Far from it. It’s a stunning example of how engineering and…

By CNET Australia 
Apple’s HomePod doesn’t match the features offered on Alexa and Google Assistant speakers. But if you’re an iPhone user…

By cnet
Apple’s HomePod doesn’t match the features offered on Alexa and Google Assistant speakers. But if you’re an iPhone…