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Apple’s HomePod costs a premium price of $349, and if you want warranty on it, it will run you an additional $39. Before even getting to that, should you damage your HomePod, don’t even bother trying to get it repaired yourself because the device isn’t meant for DIY repairs.
Our friends over at iFixit did a teardown of Apple’s HomePod that revealed a clever design that makes good use of tiny space, but it comes at a cost because everything is so tightly packed. It appears that you can pull the fabric mesh off with a drawstring, but everything else on the device will require tearing things apart (even if they aren’t broken).
Most of the parts are glued on (including the top and bottom), and there’s also one seam that so thoroughly glued together that iFixit apparently needed a hacksaw and ultrasonic cutter to get in there. If there’s a non-destructive way of getting into the device, it’s not clear at this point.
With the downside behind us, there are some good things to talk about. There’s plenty of interesting design decisions that Apple made. The company uses conductive screw posts to transfer power across the speaker instead of mess that is wires. Since the device didn’t have room for a large-diameter cone in the woofer to help pump out bass, it replies on a deeper-travel voice coil with a large magnet. A microphone inside the speaker regulates the woofer to prevent it from overpowering other frequencies in the device.
Another interesting thing that iFixit found is that there’s a hidden proprietary port at the bottom, but the port is probably used to program the HomePod at the factory where it’s assembled.
