How to Tell if Sony XE300 is Charging

The orange glowing CHARGE indicator light on the Sony SRS XE300 speaker.

How to tell if Sony XE300 wireless column speaker is charging? This portable speaker has an orange LED light just below and to the left of the Power button, as we see in the next pic. This light, labeled as the CHARGE lamp, flashes orange when the battery is about dead. So it does tell battery level (to a degree). When the speaker is not on the charge and this lamp pulses ON and OFF in slow flashes it’s telling you to CHARGE the speaker. This means that the speaker will soon shut down. But also, to see if the XE300 is in fact charging, check out this LED for this as well. We explain how to interpret it next.

How to Tell if Sony XE300 is Charging: Summary

1. Connected and working power cable.
2. The CHARGE lamp glows steadily.
3. The speaker and charger typically heat slightly.
4. Battery percentage increases gradually.
5. The CHARGE light eventually goes out.
6. The XE300 reports that battery is fully charged after charging. This is also evidence that charging was indeed happening.

How to Tell if Sony XE300 is Charging: Details

Connect the Unit to USB-C Power

Of course, you can rest assured that the speaker is NOT charging with no power cord feeding the speaker.

Check that the CHARGE LED is Glowing Steady Orange

You can tell if the Sony XE300 is charging if this light glows a constant orange. This steady glow happens only while charging. But when no charger is powering the unit, this light blinks when the battery has about run all the way out of power.

If the XE 300 CHARGE lamp flashes when the power cord is connected, then the speaker is likely NOT charging. So you should check that your USB-C cable, charger adapter, and power source are in working order. Try a new power supply or a known good cable. You want this light glowing without blinking to know for sure that the XE300 is charging.

The orange glowing CHARGE indicator light on the Sony XE300.

Check XE300 Speaker Temperature

The button panel on the XE 300, or the area in and around the rear port compartment may warm a little as well as charging. Plus, most adapters for car and home with will also heat up a little. This warmth is a good sign that speaker charging is happening, so long as there’s neither too much heating, nor none at all.

As speaker recharging advances, the CHARGE LED keeps glowing. But unlike some other popular wireless speakers, the XE300 gives no visual reading of just how far along the charging is, just that it is still in progress.

Ask the XE300 to Tell you Battery Full Percentage While it Charges

But you can hear how charging is progressing by briefly pressing the BATT button, also found on the side button panel. Pressing this gets the 300 to speak the current percentage of charge in the battery, in a female voice. But the speaker must be running for this to work.

The BATT button on the Sony XE300.

When the CHARGE LED Darkens, Charging is Over

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

The dark CHARGE indicator light on the Sony XE300.

Even with the charger cord still powering the unit, the CHARGE lamp stops glowing when the battery hits the full mark. We see this in the last picture above. The speaker indeed no longer recharges when the light goes out.

Finally, Unplug the Sony XE300 and Power it ON

With the power cable disconnected, we cannot know just by reading the CHARGE or Status LEDs, just how much the SRS XE300 actually recharged, only that it did charge some. It typically does charge to full though, as long as we wait until the CHARGE lamp goes out before unplugging the adapter. Note that if this lamp does not flash when you next boot the speaker, then the battery likely did charge.

Again though, we can press the PHONE-BATT button when the speaker is running, and if charging completed properly, it will say, “Fully charged,” to us in the lady’s voice.