Four years ago, iFixit did a teardown of Apple’s first smart speaker, the HomePod. The reviewer found it an excruciating experience and was prepared for an equally, if not more taxing teardown with Apple’s Second Generation HomePod 2. The reviewer even had an ultrasonic cutter on standby, anticipating another repair nightmare.
For reference, here is iFixit’s teardown of the original HomePod.
As it turned out, the iFixit reviewers received a pleasant surprise with the Apple HomePod2. The reviewer found it much easier to open up the speaker, as Apple has eliminated the mass of adhesive anchoring the top of the HomePod2 to the rest of the speaker. The top portion of the pod holds the logic board and is connected to the rest of the pod via a single flex cable. No mess this time around.
Apple has corrected the repairability issues of its original HomePod (shown in photo) with its HomePod2, according to an iFixit teardown video.
The Apple HomePod2’s bassy woofer lifts right out of the bottom of the assembly, though is attached by a cable to the amplifier board deep down inside the Pod. Using a screwdriver, the reviewer was able to carefully and safely disassemble the rest of the Apple HomePod 2, without much fuss and without having to use the ultrasonic cutter.
Apple has had a mixed experience with repairability in its consumer products, including its iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, but this time the company nailed it right with Apple HomePod2.
You can view the teardown of HomePod2 in the video below.