A teardown video from iFixit shows that getting into the recently launched HomePod 2 is dramatically easier than opening up its predecessor. That’s going to make repairing the new smart speaker far simpler.
The video is an interesting deep dive for anyone who just wants a glimpse inside the latest HomePod.
HomePod 2 teardown gives hope for home repair
iFixit approached the product with some trepidation. “Four years ago we did a teardown of Apple’s first smart speaker, the HomePod, and to say that teardown was excruciating would be an understatement,” the company said. So much glue was used in the assembly that it had to be hacked apart.
Thankfully, opening up HomePod 2 couldn’t be a more different experience. Screws replace glue, so all it takes to get inside is the right tools.
The iFixit video then goes the process of removing the various components, including the woofer, tweeter and various boards.
There’s also a relatively large heat sink buried inside. “A huge heatsink for an audio chip — what’s up with that?,” said iFixit. “Well, it turns out Apple still obsessed about sound and heat can actually distort audio signals. So this giant heatsink helps keep things cool and clean.”
Stay tuned for more details
iFixit finished by calling HomePod 2 “a surprisingly easy device to dismantle.” After the teardown, the device repair company is optimistic that this will make the smart speaker easy to fix.
But it stopped short of a final decision on repairability because it doesn’t yet know if Apple used software locks to make any of the parts usable with only the HomePod 2 they came with.
