Apple's big, high-quality smart speaker is back for a surprise second generation. But five years since the first model was launched, a lot has changed in the world of voice-controlled home hi-fi. Can the HomePod still cut it? The new HomePod has the same design as the old version: a marshmallow-like shape with a light-up disc at the top, fabric-covered body and a small silicone foot. The detachable power cable slots in the back but otherwise there are no ports or recesses. As with other HomePods, this speaker is for Apple users only.

Apple cares a lot about music. Steve Jobs loved it so much that he invented the iPod and iTunes to let us bring all of it everywhere, and personally owned multi-thousand-dollar Swedish speakers in his sparsely-decorated living room. To this day, Apple Music is one of the best-sounding streaming services you can subscribe to thanks to lossless audio support. The headphones it makes, both itself and via Beats, are largely fantastic. It's a shame, then, that the company still fails to make a great full-size smart speaker.

Apple planted its HomePod smart speaker deep inside a walled garden: You must have an Apple-branded mobile device just to set it up, and you can pretty much use it only with Apple's own services if you want voice control for music. The company then adds insult to injury by leaving its older iPhones, iPads, and iPods outside that garden wall. Unless you're an ardent Apple fan who upgrades to new iOS devices with relative frequency, you won't even be able to set up a HomePod. If you own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod model that Apple essentially rendered obsolete last fall when it established the hardware requirements for iOS 11, you're out of luck. You can stream music from various devices to a HomePod using AirPlay, but not until you've set up the speaker using an iOS device running iOS 11 or higher.

With the Apple HomePod, the cotton that has been in our ears since the arrival of the first smart speaker has been removed. The HomePod sounds far better than the popular smart speakers from Amazon, Google--and even Sonos. That's what I've been asking myself during my week testing the HomePod, which goes on sale Friday for $350. In the last three years, Amazon Echo and Google Home have set tens of millions of us at ease with speakers that listen for our commands. Of course, Apple has a long history of crushing incumbents--see MP3 players and smartphones.

The company's ethos -- as explained by CEO Tim Cook time and again -- is that Apple cares more about being the best than being first. The $349 HomePod is proof that's not always true. Apple put considerable time and effort into making its first smart speaker sound better than its rivals, and I'd argue they succeeded. After a few solid days of testing, I can honestly say the HomePod is the best smart speaker I've ever heard -- it's just not very smart in the ways I was hoping. It's no secret that the HomePod was designed to be a speaker first and an assistant second.

It's the speaker to beat in terms of audio but being locked in to Apple services is frustrating and its voice assistant is lacking Tue 13 Feb 2018 02.00 EST Last modified on Tue 13 Feb 2018 02.02 EST After much anticipation, and speculation that Apple has missed the boat and handed victory to Amazon's champion Echo, the HomePod smart speaker is finally here. But is it actually any good? And why exactly does it cost four times as much as an Echo? The HomePod is a voice-controlled speaker that listens out for its wakeword "Hey, Siri" and then starts streaming what you say to Apple to interpret your commands and play whatever it is you wish. The fabric-covered cylinder stands an iPhone X-and-a-bit tall (172mm) with a diameter of an iPhone X (142mm), weighing 2.5kg (14.4 times the iPhone X).

The Apple HomePod is Apple's smart hi-fi speaker, with a big emphasis on hi-fi quality audio. So how does it look and sound, and exactly how smart is it? We've been using the HomePod for the last week. It manages to be good-looking without dominating, perhaps because it's so compact, which means that you can put it in most rooms and barely notice it's there. It comes in two colours: white and space grey. The mesh finish is a soft-touch cover that's pleasing to the touch and acoustically transparent.