This year at CES 2019, Sony announced their
new Sony XB32 and XB22 speakers…
But weirdly enough, they haven’t announced
a new Sony XB42… instead they announced
their new Sony XB12.
Its a small single transducer speaker that
has a new built in strap that’s small enough
to take with you anywhere.
But for 60 bucks…
I think its a hard sell.
I wanna say the XB12 is basically half the
size of the Sony XB22.
And just like Sony's newer speakers, the XB12
has a mostly soft touch rubber body.
Even though build quality wise this speaker
feels and looks great...
I'm worried it's soft touch rubber body is
going to be a scratch magnet.
But technically speaking, the XB12 has an
IP67 rating making it both dust and water
proof, just like the rest of Sony's speaker
line up.
Now this speaker has an advertised battery
life of 16 hours...
But that's with the volume set to 50% which
I feel is boarder line unusable.
So realistically with the volume set at 80%
we're looking at a battery life of 7 hours.
Which honestly isn't that bad for this little
guy.
But to charge this speaker up theres a micro
usb port on the back alongside an audio jack
just in case you wanna use a wired connection.
But just like Sony’s other speakers as soon
as the XB12 gets down to 20% volume its not
going to let you play music past 50% volume
until you charge it back up again.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves about
sony speakers but at least the XB12 dosnt
constantly interrupt your music by say please
charge every few minutes.
Now when it comes to this speakers Bluetooth
connectivity.
Just like all of sonys others speakers, the
XB12 is using Bluetooth 4.2.
But unlike sonys other speakers, the XB12
doesnt have NFC pairing or LDAC support.
Now that is not a problem what so ever...
But I did want to point that out.
But when it comes to actual performance, even
though Sony claims the XB12 has a 30 foot
range, in my testing I got a range of about
90 feet.
But more importantly the wireless connection
on this speaker has no problem going through
multiple walls which is what really matters.
Now if you use the XB12 with an Android device
you're going to get zero latency across the
board when ever you're watching videos on
your phone.
Where as if you use the XB12 with an Apple
device you're going to get a lot of latency
whenever watching YouTube videos and a slight
latency whenever you're watching Netflix.
Now when it comes to speaker set ups, the
XB12 has a single upward firing 46 millimeter
diameter transducer and there's a single downward
firing passive radiator.
Now we're about to jump into a sound test,
since I'm trying to simulate what's it like
listening to this speaker sitting a few feet
away from it, the mic isn't going to be directly
over head.
Also the XB12 is going to be playing at Max
volume where as the other speakers here are
playing at around 75% volume.
If not
a little less.
So obviously...
Yeah since the XB12 is an upward firing speaker
you're not going to be getting the full effect
as you would with a full sized speaker that's
actually aimed at you.
But sound quality wise, I did notice the XB12
has a slightly brighter sound signature than
Sonys newer EXTRA BASS speakers.
So even though the XB12 has a decent amount
of Bass for its size I feel it's putting an
emphasis on the vocals.
Now when it comes to Max volume, I feel the
XB12 is only worth using if you're using it
at 80% volume and up.
But I feel the XB12 is a great little indoor
speaker cause over all it does sound pretty
good.
It sounds full and distortion isn’t a problem
at higher volumes.
And I also noticed the XB12 manages to get
slightly louder than the JBL clip 3 which
has been my go to Podcast machine for the
last year or so.
But unlike the CLIP 3, the XB12 can be paired
up with another XB12 speaker so you can get
left and right stereo sound going.
But don't get confused, the XB12 can not be
paired up with Sony's other speakers like
the xb22, XB32, or XB41.
It would have been awesome if the XB12 could
pair up with Sony's larger speakers...
But it can't.
And also, unlike Sony’s other speakers,
the XB12 can’t connect to Sony’s music
center app which means you can’t directly
change its EQ.
If you wanna change its EQ you’re going
to need to use a third party app.
So over all, for its size… the XB12 sounds
rather impressive.
And if you’re looking for a little tiny
speaker to use in the shower, or clip on you
while you’re out on a hike it think the
XB12 is pretty decent.
Especially since it does get fairly loud and
its real world battery life of 7 hours is
pretty impressive.
But personally I wouldn’t pick this speaker
up for the full $60, I highly recommend you
only pick this speaker up only if its on sale
or just pay 15 dollars more and get yourself
the Sony XB21.
