Sony XB12 Battery Life

Covers how to check battery life and level on the Sony Extra Bass SRS XB12 Bluetooth speaker, and also, how to know if the battery life is degrading over time.

Sony XB12 Battery Life: Testing the Current Charge

1. First, Turn ON the XB12

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

Picture of the Sony XB12 portable speaker powered OFF, showing the -Power- button. — Sony XB12 portable speaker powered OFF, showing the -Power- button.

To turn on the speaker, press and release the Power / Pairing button, pointed at by the green arrow in the last picture.

The little lamp on the front of the speaker should then light up, as shown next, and the speaker may make a two-beep sound if it pairs to a nearby device. If it does not turn on, then the battery could be completely dead.

Sony XB12 Extra Bass speaker, powered ON, showing the Status lamp lit.

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

2. Look at the CHG Lamp on the XB12

Note that this speaker has no battery gauge to let you know exactly how much charge is left. But you can at least, tell if the battery is on the verge of going dead by way of the CHG lamp. When the battery is not critically low, this lamp is dark. But when the speaker has very little charge left, this lamp flashes orange. The next picture shows the lamp location. It’s above and to the right of the ADD button.

Picture of a charging Sony XB12 BT speaker, with its CHG light glowing orange. — A charging Sony XB12 BT speaker, with its CHG light glowing orange.

Sony XB12 Battery Life: Overall Battery Condition

When the speaker is new, and using a full power USB charger, the battery charge time is about four and a half (4.5) hours to reach a full charge.

And, the fully charged battery should last for around sixteen (16) hours of play time before going dead, when played at low to moderate volume levels.

A sign of a bad battery, is that it goes dead too fast, or takes too little or too much time to fully charge. So if you fully charge your speaker, but it repeatedly only plays for under ten hours before dying, its battery may be bad, and unable to hold a full charge anymore.

If the SRS XB12 battery takes longer than six hours to completely recharge, this could also mean a failing battery. It might mean also, that the charger you’re using is not strong enough to recharge the speaker in the specified recharge time.

Also, slow charging can happen because your charge cord is too thin. So for best results, we recommend a full-current USB cable (one that easily carries 1 amp).

References

1. Official Sony XB12 Support Page
2. Where to Buy the Sony XB12

Revision History

- 2023-03-15: First published.