Apple’s smallest HomePod smart speaker works perfectly well sitting on a desk or table. In fact, the colorful, baseball-sized, $99 HomePod mini puts out surprisingly decent audio (you can read my review here for details). That compact form factor makes the HomePod mini a great option for locations where you might want to have music and Siri voice assistant functionality that also happen to be short on space. A bathroom, for example. Going a step further, given the HomePod mini’s diminutive size and 360-degree audio, it seems like an ideal candidate for wall-mounting to get it up and out of the way altogether.
Can you wall-mount a HomePod mini? I gave it a shot.
Choosing a Wall Mount
Clearly, I am not the only one who is wall-mounting a HomePod mini, because there are many options offered through retailers like Amazon – most of them quite affordable. While checking out options, I even saw one wall-mount stand with a built-in planter!
Apple designed the HomePod to sit on a flat surface, so a small shelf seems like the logical choice. If you want something compact, there are custom shelves, some barely larger than the HomePod itself. The challenge with this method is that the speaker’s touch display is on top. Place the shelf out of the way on a wall and you may not be able to see the display. If you want to use the touch controls, tapping will also put downward force on the speaker and shelf – if not sturdily attached to the wall, this could be a problem. The speaker could also be accidentally knocked off.
I went instead with a vertical mount. There are a number of companies that are offering variations on a design that uses “arms” to hold the speaker firmly in place with its base against the wall. This makes it easy to see and use the touch display, with no danger of accidentally knocking the HomePod mini off its perch. The version I chose was a white plastic SPORTLINK mount. It included screws, 3M tape (if you don’t want to drill into the wall) and integrated cable management. It was easy to install – I went with screws for security – takes up no additional wall space than the speaker itself, holds the HomePod mini firmly and it looks kind of cool. Siri responsiveness was not impacted at all. The mount also cost about $10, so it’s not much of an investment.
The downside? Slightly muffled sound compared to a traditional, horizontal placement. The arms that hold the speaker securely also seemed to be interfering with sound dispersion and it didn’t matter how I rotated the speaker in the mount, music just wasn’t quite as crisp sounding as when I set it on the counter. Based on this experience, I wouldn’t choose this particular wall mount approach if I was going to be listening to music on the HomePod mini for hours at a time, but for a bathroom and playing music during a shower, it’s fine. Your experience may vary depending on placement and the mount you choose…
Replacing the Charger
Apple provides a 20W USB-C charger in the box, but it’s not ideal if you’re going for a minimalist wall-mount installation. The USB-C port faces out, so the cable is going to jut out horizontally where it connects. I solved this issue with a Belkin BoostCharge USB-C 20W wall charger. It’s small enough that it doesn’t block the second socket on the electrical outlet and it has a top-mounted USB-C port. So I can run the USB cable flat up the wall to the speaker for a tidier look.
If you go with a third party charger, just make sure it puts out at least 20W or the HomePod mini won’t operate.
At the end of the day, yes you can wall-mount a HomePod mini – quite easily and without much of an investment. However, you might need to try a few different wall mounts to find one that lets the speaker sound its best. I’ll undoubtedly be trying out other options and if I find a wall mount that I’m happier with, I’ll be sure to update this post.
