Picture of the orange glowing CHARGE lamp on the top of the Sony SRS X5.

How to Tell if Sony X5 is Charging

How to tell if Sony X5 mini Bluetooth speaker is charging?  This small yet powerful speaker has an orange LED light on the top panel, near the back edge of the unit, as shown in the following pictures.  This CHARGE light flashes orange when you’re playing the speaker and the battery is about dead. So this light tells battery level (to a degree).  When the speaker is not on the charge and this lamp blinks, it means to CHARGE the speaker because the battery will soon run out.  But also, to see if the X5 is charging, read this lamp as well.  We explain how to interpret its signals next.

Summary of How to Tell If Sony X5 is Charging

    1. Connected and working power cable is present.
    2. The CHARGE lamp glows steadily when the speaker is not running.
    3. The speaker and charger typically heat slightly.
    4. The CHARGE light goes out after a few hours of recharging.
    5. This lamp does not flash after a charge, which means that some level of charging did take place.




How to Tell if Sony X5 is Charging, Detailed Discussion

Connect your X5 to AC Power

Of course, you can tell for sure that the speaker is NOT charging when no power cord connected to it. 🙂  So the first step to assuring that it is charging, is to connect the speaker through the charger, to AC power.

Check that the  CHARGE LED is Glowing Solid Orange

When the speaker is OFF, you can tell if the Sony X5 is charging if this light glows steady orange.  This continuous glow occurs while recharging, when the speaker is either ON, connected to a source device, or, OFF. When no charger is present, this light blinks when the battery has about run out of power.

If the  CHARGE lamp flashes when the power cord is attached, then the speaker is likely NOT charging due to some power issue.  So you should check that your USB cable, adapter charger, and electricity source are in working order.  Try a new adapter or wire that you are certain is good.  You want this light glowing solid to know for sure that the X5 is charging.

Picture of the orange glowing CHARGE lamp on the top of the Sony X5.
The orange glowing CHARGE lamp on the top of the Sony X5.

Additionally, the button panel on the top may warm slightly during charging. Moreover, most charger adapters you run it with will also heat a little.  This heating is a great indicator to tell if the speaker is indeed charging.

As charging advances toward completion, the CHARGE LED continues glowing.  But unlike some of the higher end wireless speakers, the Sony X5 gives no reading of just how far along its recharging is, just that the recharging is still in progress.

When the CHARGE LED Goes Out, Charging is Done

The battery charge cycle is finished when the CHARGE LED goes dark.

Picture of the dark CHARGE lamp on the Sony X5.
The dark CHARGE lamp on the Sony X5.

Even with the charger cord still supplying power, and when the X5 is OFF or ON, the CHARGE lamp stops glowing when the internal battery is full. We see this in the last picture above.  The speaker indeed no longer recharges when the battery reaches full charge condition and this light shuts off.





Finally, Unplug the Sony X5 and Turn it On

With the USB cable disconnected, we cannot know just by reading the CHARGE or Status LEDs, just how much the X5 actually recharged, only that it did charge some. It probably did charge all the way though, as long as we waited until the CHARGE lamp stopped glowing  before disconnecting the charger. Note that if this lamp does not flash when you next turn on the speaker, then the battery likely did charge.

Related Posts to How to Tell if Sony X5 is Charging

    1. How to Tell if JBL Charge 5 is Charging
    2. How to Tell if Sony XE 300 is Charging
    3. How to Tell if Sony XB43 is Charging
    4. How to Tell if Sony XB40 is Charging

Other Sony X5 Posts

    1. Sony X5 Won’t Turn On
    2. How to Turn Off Sony X5
    3. How to Pair Sony X5 to iPhone
    4. Sony X5 Blinking Orange Light
    5. Sony X5 Watts Output

References

    1. Official Sony X5 Support Page
    2. Where to Buy the Sony X5

Revision History

    • 2023-04-30: First published.