The speaker is available for pre-order today in pink, green, blue, white, and midnight at $149 in the U.S., with availability beginning Friday, October 30.

It retains the original's spherical design but adds an S10 chip, faster wireless connectivity, and support for Siri AI in a future software update.

Kaiann Drance, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Home Product Marketing, said the speaker brings together Siri AI, gorgeous new colors, and incredible audio in one package.

The original HomePod mini launched in October 2020 and had gone without a hardware refresh ever since, while Amazon's new Echo Studio and Google's Home Speaker arrived in the past year. CNET notes Apple had been left out of the upgrade cycle, and today's 'Welcome Home' event changed that.

The new model runs on the S10 chip — from 2024's Apple Watch Series 10 and based on the A16 Bionic — a substantial jump from the original's S5, which MacRumors reports is from 2019's Apple Watch Series 5. Connectivity also leaps from Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 to Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6.

Siri AI, coming in a future software update, is described by Apple as a profoundly more capable and conversational assistant built on the latest generation of Apple Foundation Models.

When paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad, the speaker can recognize up to six users by voice and act on personal context across apps — finding a song a friend recommended in a text, setting a reminder tied to a calendar event, or adding ingredients from an emailed recipe to a grocery list.

CNET compares this to Gemini for Home on the Google Home Speaker, noting Google's full features can cost up to $20 a month while Apple has not provided pricing for its AI features.

For the first time, HomePod mini 2 can create a four-speaker surround sound experience with the Apple TV 4K (4th generation), automatically calibrating audio timing and levels to the room.

CNET's Ajay Kumar tested the setup at the event and found the four speakers produced surprisingly room-filling sound, richer than expected from such small devices in a large space, though he says it will not fully replace a 7.1 surround system on the cheap.

The speaker can also serve as the default speaker for Macs, a capability MacRumors notes the original's AirPlay connection does not provide. A new Sound Glow feature turns the top into a light canvas that pulses in sync with music and album artwork.

Siri AI will not be available at launch; Apple plans it in English in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the U.K. via a future software update, with no release date announced.

MacRumors' buyer's guide concludes most existing owners have no general-purpose reason to replace a working original, since the driver arrangement is unchanged and Apple has not quantified acoustic gains from the S10 chip.

The clearest upgrade cases are the Mac speaker and surround sound capabilities, which require the new Apple TV 4K launching November 13. New buyers should default to the mini 2 for the $20 premium, and stereo pairing requires matching models across generations.