The Sony SRS XB33 Bluetooth speaker has a simple battery level indicator LED on the top button panel, just below the Power pushbutton, as shown in the pictures that follow. This tells battery status. E.g. Whether it’s draining or charging, or whether it’s critically low or not when discharging. But it does not show charging progress, or exactly how full the battery is at a given time. But it does blink orange in short but widely spaced pulses, when the battery hits close-to-dead status. In this post, we discuss how to read this battery indicator LED on the XB 33 speaker.
Note that to obtain a better reading of battery percentage, see below.
How to Read the Sony SRS XB33 Battery Indicator Light
1. The Lamp is Dark
The battery indicator lamp (Sony labels this as the CHARGE lamp) is dark in the following scenarios:
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- When you shut down the XB33, and you have no charger connected.
- When the charger IS connected but the battery finished charging to full, as shown next.
- And finally, this light is OFF when the speaker itself is powered ON, but the battery has more charge left than a critically low amount. This light is dark as long as the battery does not yet need charging.
2. The Sony SRS XB33 Battery Indicator Flashes Orange
With the charger unplugged, the XB33 powered ON, and the battery having very low power left, this LED begins blinking orange. The means that the speaker will shorty cut off due to a dying battery, and so, you should put it on the charge soon to avoid play interruption.
3. This LED Also Works as a Charging Indicator
This orange LED also lights steadily (no blinking) as the 33 recharges, as we see in the next picture. On this unit, the light glowing is the only visual means of knowing that charging is happening. But it does not show how far along the recharging is, until the light actually turns OFF.
Also note that this light should never flash on and off during recharging the speaker. If you see this, then either your power adapter is not delivering enough (or any) electricity, your USB cord is damaged, or you have something broken inside the speaker itself.
4. When the Light Goes Dark While Charging, Then Recharging is Done
As speaker charging advances, the light stays steadily lit. No blinking. But after a few hours, battery charging finishes, and the lamp goes OFF to show this. It goes dark in this case whether the speaker itself is ON or OFF. Note that the light turns OFF as well, if you disconnect the charger before the charge cycle completes.
5. The Sony SRS XB33 Battery Indicator Is Not a Charge Remaining Meter
When unplugged from the charger, this light becomes the battery charge left indicator. Well something like that. I.e. If it is dark when the speaker is ON, then the battery has some play time left, although you cannot tell how much. If it flashes though, then you can deduce that the battery is just about to run dead.
Reading Battery Percentage
However, on the XB33, you can also get a more accurate reading on the percentage of battery charge left, besides just by reading the battery indicator lamp.
For that, just press and release the LIGHT-BATT button in the rear button and port compartment, just above and to the right of the USB-C input port. This makes the speaker announce the power left in the battery as a percentage value, and it speaks this in a female voice.
That’s the gist it.
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References for Sony SRS XB33 Battery Level Indicator
Revision History
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- 2021-10-14: First published.