The JBL Charge has a group of three LEDs in its white buttons panel on top. These display battery fullness and charging status. In brief, the JBL Charge battery indicator shows charging progress. Plus it indicates how full the battery is when not recharging.
JBL Charge Battery Indicator: How to Read the Lights
1. All Lamps OFF
When you power down the Charge without a charger, no lamps light up, as we see next. The lamps also all show dark when the charger IS present, but charging completed.
2. JBL Charge Battery Indicator Shows Battery Recharging Progress
These three lamps light in succession as the speaker battery charging advances, as we show in the next picture. This speaker is charging when you see one of these lamps blinking blue. When the battery is about out of energy, the light on the far left glows while charging. And the second light flashes in a fade-out, fade-in sort of pattern. Then as charging continues, middle lamp stops flashing, and assumes a steady blue glow. Then, the last lamp to the right starts blinking blue as the battery fills.
Note though, that the speaker gives you no battery-critically-low warning as the cells near total depletion. When this state of affairs is present, only one lamp (the far left one) lights during speaker operation. Then, when the battery runs out, the unit abruptly shuts down. So if only one battery indicator lamp glows, be aware that power could stop at any moment. So have your charger ready.
3. When All Lamps Go Dark, Charging is Complete
As speaker charging advances, more of the lamps on the indicator light up solid. So the flashing LED moves further along, until that blinking reaches the last position.
Battery charging is about done when all but the last of the battery status lights blink. The last one continues to blink for some time more. Again, you know that charging is happening if one of the battery charge level lamps is flashing.
This next picture shows the speaker just after completing a full charge cycle. Note that all the lamps in the battery status meter just went OFF.
Thus, the battery is no longer charging when all lamps are OFF. Even with the AC charger still connected, no lamp glows when battery is full.
4. The Battery Indicator Also Shows Battery Fullness when Not Charging
When unplugged from the charger, what was the charging indicator becomes the battery level indicator. The more lights lit, the fuller the battery. The fewer glowing lamps, the less speaker run time remains. These lamps show battery status any time that the speaker is running.
JBL Charge Battery Indicator: In the Portable App
Unfortunately, the JBL Portable app does not support this particular speaker. So you won’t be able to read its battery indicator there.