Apple HomePod (1st generation) vs Sonos Five

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HomePod (1st generation) compared with Five

	AppleHomePod (1st generation)	SonosFive
Overview
Released
Released	February 2018	June 2020
Sound
Type
Type	Speaker	Speaker
Channels
Channels	–	Stereo lying flat; mono upright
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos	Yes	No
Drivers
Drivers	High-excursion woofer; seven horn-loaded tweeters	Three tweeters (one centre, two angled) and three midwoofers, in a sealed cabinet
Amplifiers
Amplifiers	Custom amplifier for the woofer and a separate custom amplifier for each tweeter	Six class-D digital amplifiers
Audio formats
Audio formats	Dolby Atmos home cinema with Apple TV 4K was added in software 14.2; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Apple Music lossless playback were added in 15.1	–
Room tuning
Room tuning	Direct and ambient audio beamforming; computational audio for real-time tuning; internal low-frequency calibration microphone for automatic bass correction; Apple A8 processor	Trueplay (iOS device required); bass, treble and loudness adjustable in the Sonos app
Connections
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	No	No
AirPlay
AirPlay	Yes	Yes
Voice assistants
Voice assistants	Siri	None
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	802.11ac with MIMO	802.11a/b/g/n, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.0 radio; no Bluetooth audio streaming (TechRadar)	–
Ports
Ports	Mains power cable; no analogue audio input (TechRadar)	3.5 mm line-in; 10/100 Ethernet
Streaming
Streaming	Apple Music, iTunes purchases, iCloud Music Library with an Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription, supported third-party services, radio and podcasts; AirPlay from iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV or Mac	Apple AirPlay 2; direct control from apps such as Spotify and TIDAL; Sonos Radio
Multi-room
Multi-room	AirPlay 2 multi-room audio and stereo pairing with another original HomePod were added in iOS 11.4 after launch	Groups with other Sonos products over Wi-Fi; two make a stereo pair, upright or lying flat
App
App	Home app; initial setup requires a compatible Apple mobile device and Wi-Fi internet access	Sonos app (iOS and Android)
Design
Weight
Weight	2.5 kg (better)	6.3 kg
Controls
Controls	Tap to play or pause, double-tap to skip, triple-tap to skip back; touch and hold for Siri; tap or hold + or – for volume	Capacitive touch controls (play, pause, skip, replay, volume) that adapt to orientation
Microphones
Microphones	Six-microphone array for far-field Siri; separate internal low-frequency calibration microphone	None
Size
Size	172 mm high, 142 mm wide	203 × 364 × 154 mm (H × W × D)
Colours
Colours	Space Grey, White	Black, White
In the box
In the box	HomePod, documentation	Five, power cable (2 m), documentation