I have used a lot of Bluetooth speakers, and for the most part, I have found that larger, usually more expensive ones offer better sound. However, they do compromise considerably on portability — that’s one of the reasons you might see me carrying around a JBL Go instead of my relatively bigger (but better sounding) Sony Bluetooth speaker. However, when Sony sent over the SRS-XB12 over to us for a review, I was immediately drawn towards it — it’s small, not as much as the JBL Go, but still relatively tiny, and my experience with Sony’s Bluetooth speakers suggested that it would have better sound quality than my usual JBL go-to; and so, in the last 10 days, I’ve had the XB12 dangling off of my bag, and I’ve used it for everything from listening to music at work and home, while watching movies, and everything in between.

Like I said, the SRS-XB12 is a relatively tiny speaker, and that’s great for anyone looking to get a speaker that they can carry around; not only for random music sessions at work or college, but also on backpacking trips. It comes with the usual Sony design, with a plastic body that feels rubberised, it looks tiny, and yet, it’s a compact package that packs in quite the punch when it’s turned on.

Even build-wise, Sony has not left anything to complain. It’s small but sturdy, it’s built . very well and can take hits — I should know, I’ve accidentally hit this speaker on handrails and car doors more times than I can count — it exudes a feeling of quality that you probably won’t find in a speaker in this price range, and even the wire-mesh covering the speaker on top is extremely strong. The buttons are not too out there, but they’re tactile, and the two ports on this speaker are covered with a rubber flap that’s just extremely satisfying to pull off.

Sony’s Extra Bass line-up of speakers and headphones have always been about that bass, with some of them even featuring a dedicated Bass Boost button like my Sony MDR-XB950BT headphones. This tiny little speaker doesn’t come with a dedicated Bass Boost button, but it does come with solid bass output by default — true to its ‘XB’ moniker.

For a speaker as small as this one, I was surprised by the kind of sound this thing can produce, and that too without losing on clarity. If you’re looking for a Bluetooth speaker that you can carry around, and with which you can rock out with ease, the SRS-XB12 will not let you down.

The SRS-XB12 also comes with quite a lot of buttons and two ports on its body. There are a total of 5 buttons here. There’s a power button you can press to turn the speaker on and off, or long press to enter pairing mode; there are the usual volume up/down buttons. Right next to those is the play/pause button which can also be used to answer calls, or, if you long press it, will launch the default assistant on your phone, and you can ask it to change songs or whatever, by talking to your speaker. Then there’s the ‘Add’ button on the right which is how you pair two of these speakers together to form a stereo pair.

In terms of connectivity, the SRS-XB12 comes with Bluetooth v4.2 on board, and yeah, it’s not Bluetooth 5.0, but really I’m fairly certain you can’t find a Bluetooth speaker with Bluetooth 5.0, at least in this price range. The reason I’m not complaining about this is simple — the speaker connects easily and the connection holds up well enough so I don’t have any complaints with Bluetooth 4.2 being here and not Bluetooth 5.

Another thing I’ve noticed with a lot of Sony’s Bluetooth audio accessories, is that they offer insanely good battery life. The SRS-XB12 are no different; Sony rates them to have a 16 hour playback time on one charge, and I found that to be quite accurate. In my usage, the speaker easily lasts over 14 to 15 hours on a charge, even on high volumes. That’s really impressive, and you’ll only truly be able to appreciate it when you see just how small this speaker really is.

Pros:

Cons:

  • 4 hours+ of charging time

Sony SRS-XB12 Bluetooth Speaker: Should You Buy It?

All things considered, the SRS-XB12 is a Bluetooth speaker that checks off a lot of the boxes for a great Bluetooth speaker — it’s portable, it has great sound, the XB moniker is justified thanks to a good bass output, it has an IP67 rating, and it comes with a rather amazing battery life. The only real con I found with this speaker is the charging time, but like I said earlier, that can be overlooked thanks to the playback it offers. At Rs. 3,990, the Sony SRS-XB12 is pretty much the speaker to get if you’re looking for portability with great sound, and if you ask me, this is the speaker I’d suggest to anyone looking for a Bluetooth speaker under Rs. 4,000.