This is the Sony XB-22 portable extra bass Bluetooth speaker. A nice budget $80 speaker that lights up with crazy effects. But the question is. Is this Bluetooth speaker any good? Is it worth your money? Let’s find out with a little review.
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Straight out of the box you get the Sony XB-22 Bluetooth speaker itself, a charging cable without a charging brick, and a recyclable. The speaker is shaped cylindrical and fits nicely where normal water bottles would fit but sadly doesn’t contain any sort of beverage inside, c’mon Sony. Since it fits in water bottle pouches that means you can blare your obnoxious music in public easier by just leaving it in your bag. The entire front has a cheese grater looking grille, with the sides and back rocking this nice soft touch plastic-y rubber material. It’s nice to touch and is grippy in your hand and has a nice heft to it. The sides do, however, look like Alienware designed it. The back has another grille for the sub, as well as a concealed compartment to hide some buttons to check battery levels and pairing multiple of these speakers together as well as an aux jack and micro usb charging port. The top has quite a few buttons including a LIVE sound setting, play pause, volume buttons, and the most important part, the power button. The led lights are only this singular color, however the bigger XB-32 and 42 have chameleon color changing features. There’s also a mobile app which gives you more customizability in how the speaker sounds through equalization, and additional features like light modes, and party booster. More on those later.
Now let’s do a quick sound test with non-copyrighted music because, I like staying monetized. Try to have headphones in for the closest to life listening experience.
Now that we got how the device looks and sounds, let's talk about some pros and cons, starting with the pros. I feel like I’ve seen this device before, it almost feels like I’ve done a video on it. Weird right? Yeah. I think I have, two years ago. The Sony XB20 and the Sony XB21 a year ago. This is just the newest one. Sony makes a new version every year and I think this one is the most significant. This is a very portable and easier to carry design, and the price tag dropped from $100 to $80 for very similar sound quality. I’ll give Sony major props for that. The speaker is water resistant, although I wouldn’t recommend using it in water since sound get all muffled and jumbled you know? The lighting effect is pretty interesting and goes to the beat of your music, and it also has various modes accessible through the app, Rave, which changes based on beats. Chill, which is very slow changing but still to the beat of the music. Strobe also plays to the beat of the music but is very…. Seizure worthy. and lastly off which is self-explanatory.
Now let’s talk about the cons. The lights while cool, are only two LEDs. One on the top and one on the bottom. And even in the dark, struggles to stretch it across the entire strip that is showcased on the speaker, it’s a minor complaint but a very noticeable one. Secondly, the party booster feature, much like last year, seems like a gimmick. Random cymbal crashes, or drums are cool and all but doesn’t really add value to the speaker in my opinion. Everyone can live without that. There still isn’t a static mode for the lights to be just be constantly on either. Lastly, the battery is only 12 hours. Which is a little weak considering they want this to be a portable speaker that you carry with you. If you play music a lot and forget to charge once, and you might be done.
So, overall what do I think of this speaker? Well, I think it’s a very good option, the design is better and works as what it was intended to be, its light and portable and fits where your normal water bottles would fit. I think it’s a good option if you’re considering a portable Bluetooth speaker, just wish it had a little better battery life.