Sony XB 43 Battery Life

Sony SRS XB43 Bluetooth speaker box, front view.

Covers how to check battery life and level on the Sony Extra Bass XB 43 Bluetooth party speaker. We also explain how to know if the battery life is degrading over time.

Sony XB 43 Battery Life, Current Charge

1. First, Turn ON the XB 43

You won’t be able to read battery charge status unless the speaker is ON.

Sony XB 43 in OFF state, showing the -Power- button.

To turn on the unit, press and release the Power button, pointed at by the arrow in the last picture. It’s the round button closest to the left edge of the buttons panel.

The lamp just above this button should then light up in green, as we see next. The speaker may also make a two-beep ding-dong sound and announce, “Bluetooth connected,” if it pairs to a nearby device. If it does not power up, then the battery could be completely dead.

The -Power- lamp glowing.

But as long as there’s some energy in the battery, the speaker should boot. When it does, move on to the next step.

2. Have the Speaker Speak Battery Percentage Full

The BATT button we find on the back, inside the ports compartment, as we see next. When you punch this, the 43 announces the percentage of battery power left.

The Sony XB 43 -Light-Batt- button.

The announcements it speaks when you press this button are as follows

- 70% or greater: The speaker says, “Battery fully charged.”
- 50% or greater: The speaker says, “Battery about 70%.”
- 20% or greater: The speaker says, “Battery about 50%.”
- 10% or greater: The speaker says, “Battery about 20%.”
- Less than 10%: The speaker says, “Please charge.”

3. Look at the CHARGE Lamp on the XB 43

Or, you can at at least tell at a glance if the battery is on the verge of going dead by way of the CHARGE lamp. When the battery is not too low, this lamp is dark. But when the speaker is running but has very little charge left, this lamp flashes orange. The next picture shows the lamp location. We find it just above the USB input port in the ports compartment on the back of the speaker.

The -CHARGE- lamp glowing.

Sony XB 43 Battery Life, Overall Battery Condition

How the Speaker Behaves When the Battery is Fresh

When the speaker is new, and your charger supplies three (3.0) amps, the recharge time is about five (5.0) hours.

And, the fully charged battery should give you about twenty-four (24) hours of music time. This assumes that you play the speaker at low to moderate volume levels with the party lights OFF. The sound mode is also set to STAMINA, and the speaker is neither too hot nor too cold.

How the Speaker Behaves When the Battery is Going Bad

A sign of an ailing battery, is that it goes dead too quickly. Or, it takes too little or too much time to recharge completely. So if a speaker with a full charge repeatedly only plays for under twenty hours before dying, its battery may be fading.

If the XB 43 battery takes longer than seven (7.0) hours to completely fill up, this could also mean a dying battery. It might indicate as well, that the charger you have is defective. Either that, or it is otherwise not strong enough to recharge the speaker in the normal recharge time.

Also, slow charging can happen because your charge cord is too thin. So for best results, we suggest using the included USB-C charger. Or, get one that can supply a minimum of 15 watts. And if you use a separate cable that connects between your charger and speaker, make sure your cord is thick enough to handle this power level.