Customer Ratings & Reviews

He wanted something slim and portable and this fit his needs. Sound is great and volume is loud. A lot packed into something very portable.

I purchased this speaker on 23 December as a personal Christmas gift. I can say that this little speaker can sure pack a wallop when it comes to loudness.

Sound isn't as good as my Bose, but it's a nice little speaker. The light is kind of fun. Like the idea that you can sync it up with another for a stereo experience.

These new portable speakers from SONY are excellent as they combine a few key qualities people are looking for in their devices: - Fun colors - Durable/Weather-/Environment-proof - Good Sound Quality - Good Battery Life - Fun Features The XB21 is the smaller of the speakers on offer today from SONY, but offers a good loud output and caters to a certain crowd with its party lights and fun color choices. The speakers light up around the rim and across the front with internal LED chasing lights which brings a unique aestetic to this line. As I mentioned the speakers are good and loud. Easily filling a small room with sound, but even capable of filling larger, quieter spaces (say, in a home with an open floor plan) but as the volume increases, some muddiness in the midrange is noticeable and the bass levels seem less noticeable as a result. The clarity otherwise is good for this price range, and the built-in subwoofer is definitely contributing to that full, rich audio output. The output is improved when connecting via an AUX cable via 3.5mm connector, but the bluetooth qualtiy is good. I had the privilege of getting a few of these speakers to connect to each other in what SONY calls, "Party Mode". This allows the speakers to simulcast the same audio source to up to 100 speakers through SONY's included App for iOS and Android. I noticed this worked pretty well in my testing, but I couldn't figure out how to leverage the in-built NFC with my Android phone. The speakers tout an IP67 rating, resistant to sand and water, but in my real-world testing (using my 8- and 10-year-olds as test subjects, and letting them expose these speakers to the outdoors with no rules) I found that while they do resist damage from dirt and water, the cosmetic impacts are permanent, as the material they're made from wont clean easily if exposed to dirt or mud (its a woven, speaker-grille material). This doesn't mean the functionality is affected in any way, but other speakers from competitors head off their resistance to these elements with smarter grill designs that are as cleanable as they are resistant to damage. My only other complaint is that we're now in 2018 - When will we finally see technology part ways with that awful, claw-backed, MicroUSB port? Its scratchy, only fits in one way, and none of the phones in this house use it anymore! With the advent and proliferation of USB Type C as the standard, why arent SONY and other manufacturers updating ALL of this year's products to the new way of working? Having this speaker for the long-haul means I've got to keep and "old school" charger around just for these, when everything else I use (MacBook, PixelBook, Pixel phone, GoPro, Google Wifi, etc) all moved to USB C way back in early 2017... Short summary - Good device, old connector, middling audio quality, but a fun durable device nevertheless... Just dont get it muddy!

Couldnt find anything i could give my niece for Christmas so i went to the electronic and bought the speaker. Will go back for a second one soon.

The look of the speaker is amazing but the sound could be better. Plus the battery said 4.5 hour of continuous music playing, which turned out to be false.

Works as advertised but reduces sound to almost inaudible when the battery is at about 20%. Also, the volume could be increased, but it is a very small system.

I needed a small Bluetooth speaker to take on trips with me to enhance my laptop's abilities and an older speaker I have is just too heavy. So I got this Sony to try and see if it would fit the bill. The flashing "party" lights didn't do anything for me, but might be relevant if you are purchasing this for that purpose or for a younger crowd. The speaker arrived in it's typical Sony branded box, well packaged and with a USB cable. The quick start guide is pretty straightforward and a bit lean as it uses diagrams to tell the story on set-up. The construction is metal mesh over the majority of the body with a rubberized controls area. Bluetooth set-up was really easy and I had no issues getting it synced to both my cellphone and laptop. It also has NFC connection were you to want to go that route. Sony has an app that can be downloaded to assist in settings, but I was able to get most things going without it. By default, the bass boost (Extra Bass) and the party lights are enabled. I left the bass on but quickly found how to disable the lights (flashing white lights that pulse with the music you listen to, in case you are wondering). The sound was pretty impressive for this size speaker with the bass engaged. As I was primarily using it for presentations I was concerned whether it would be able to fill the room with sound. It did an excellent job, much better than the laptop alone. Good clear tones and clear dialog. I didn't push the battery life to the extremes, but it remained connected to either my laptop or phone throughout the day and never gave out (around 6 to 8 hours). It has some other capabilities that I did not try, such as "party chain" where you can link several speakers together and "Live" sound that uses DSP to simulate widening your sound field (I found it to be annoying for my purpose and left it off). It is also rated IP67 so it's waterproof, dustproof and able withstand some shock. I don't plan on throwing it around or blasting it with water but it is nice to know that it can withstand the rough and tumble of luggage in the airport! If you need a small Bluetooth speaker for travelling, out in the country, for your younger crowd that tends to be rough on things, this might well be the speaker to buy. It is well constructed, waterproof and sounds really good for a speaker of it's size. Now, if I can just start listening to disco with these party lights...! Good Shopping!

I am not an audiophile, but I own a Google Home, Sonos Beam, JBL Link 10 and man this Sony speaker sounded quite bad in comparison. This was the first time that I didn't like a speaker, I am usually not very picky but this speaker just didn't sound very good. There are better options out there for the sale price. I instead got the JBL Link 10, and it is way better, not to mention it has Google Assistant built in. Both were on sale for around $60 for the holidays.

Good for what I bought it for Elderly mother-in-law so she can Bluetooth it to the tv and no Blair the house down because she cannot hear

I was really surprised how well this little guy works. I expected to hear the vibrations of the casing when the volume was turned up but nothing. It handles high volume and bass very well. I like that it lights up for an additional effect. I like the long range it gets. I can connect to my phone via bluetooth, place the speaker in one room, and walk all over the house without losing the signal. Not that I would be doing that often, but it's nice to know that it has good range. The buttons are easy to push and easy to read. I would give this a 10/10!

Pros: Great aesthetic design. Solid build quality Water resistant Cons: Tricky to setup The Sony speaker has a comfortable fabric body with a thick, rubberized flap covering the ports and a thin rubberized strip with the controls. The speaker also has four tiny little rubber feet on its bottom to keep it from rolling away. It’s a very nice look, and it’s very comfortable in the hand. I do have some concerns about the fabric mesh collecting dirt. Fortunately, this speaker is water resistant and can handle a good scrubbing. The LED strip runs along the length of the device and wraps around the sides. LED lighting is controlled by the Sony “Music Center” app. I was a little disappointed by how subdued the lighting was. I wasn’t planning on using this as a lamp, but I was thinking that it would get brighter than it did. The light pulses outward from both the top and bottom of the speaker, but it doesn’t really take full advantage of the strip. I was also surprised that the LED only appears to be white. I was under the impression that it was going to be multi-color. I had a little bit of trouble pairing this speaker to my phone. Despite the fact that my phone is a newer model and running Android Nougat, this speaker wouldn’t show up for Blue-tooth pairing. It wasn’t until I tried pairing the speaker with an older android tablet running Lollipop that it suddenly showed up as available on both devices. Since then I’ve paired it with both my tablet and my phone without issue. The speaker does have an Aux-in port. So if Blue-tooth pairing isn’t your thing, you can still use this speaker with a wired connection. The speaker also charges via micro usb, so you theoretically don’t have to worry about exotic, proprietary charging cables. That being said, I tried plugging it into a battery bank; and I didn’t see any evidence that it was actually charging. This tiny little speaker has a lot of punch to it. Audio was clear and loud. The party boost was a fun little surprise. With this turned on, you can smack various part of the speaker to produce a sound effect. I was surprised by how much force it takes to get a sound effect out of the speaker, but it still made for a fun little addition. The party chain, multi-speaker mode theoretically allows you to pair this up with other speakers to achieve a whole home or surround sound experience. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this to work with another (older) party chain compatible speaker that I had. I’m guessing that both speakers have to be the exact same model. All in all, I found this to be an excellent little speaker. I would recommend it to a friend.

This Sony portable speaker is now my new go to Bluetooth speaker for just about every occasion. It has a great durable feel to it. It is constructed very solid with an additional water resistant material and outlet coverings. It is easy to pair with any device and also has the ability to sync with additional Sony Bluetooth speakers for an amazing surround sound feel. Even without syncing with other speakers with just a push of a button, the sound produced from this speaker is immersive and provides full rich acoustics for just about any genre of music. It is the perfect size (not too big or too small) to take anywhere and get an awesome jam session going or a nice relaxing ambiance of tunes by the pool or in a park with friends and family. The battery lasts a decent time when played at optimal levels but drains much faster when pumping the volume higher. It has a convenient siri or google like voice that alerts you to the battery level when a button is pushed or when it is time to charge the battery. It charges fairly quickly to get you back in the game and enjoying music. The aesthetic lighting feature is a cool add-on, but not something that I personally use because of it putting an extra drain on the battery and I’m not staring at the speaker when playing my music. Also, there is an interactive “Party Booster” which allows you to interact or play along with your music with different acoustic sounds. Another feature that is interesting but not something that I would use. It was fun to play around with and I’m sure the kids would love it. The Music App that is available for the speaker is somewhat impressive allowing you to use an equalizer to adjust your music to your listening preference. Albeit somewhat minimal in effect but does give you the option to make subtle adjustments. Also, it allows you to stream music from your various music apps, but I found it easier to just stream from my dedicated music apps and use the speaker for what its meant to be, a Bluetooth device. Overall, this speaker has a lot of entertaining features that I would not use on a normal basis, but I absolutely love the speaker for its sound, design, and performance as a music player. I take this speaker with me everywhere to listen to music and even stream movies from the laptop. Definitely a worthy purchase.

I’d been a Sony fan since childhood but their performance is declining. I purchased this speaker because of the name as I had not used JBL. Well, this speaker, even while plugged in, will lose its power. There is a power saving design that allows the speaker to decrease its volume when low battery which is so annoying when listening to music and the thing is already plugged in!! JBL may be better!

Not bad for listening to music. I use it to practice my singing and listen to movies. Makes a great difference.

This speaker by far has surpassed my expectations for quality, durability, and performance. The price is a sweet deal for what you get.

Bought this for buy son for his birthday really nice has very good sound we play it while we was at the swimming pool really enjoyed it

The sound is decent however the bass is over dominant. Lacks sharpness and dull sound at times.

I will be returning this speaker due to the life of the battery. No where close to 10 hours as originally stated in the details. The set up is very easy and the speaker is small enough to take with you wherever, but the sound is just average in my opinion. The changing lights option is just ok. I purchased this item on sale, so I thought I was getting a good deal; but have unfortunately been disappointed.

Great sound. Battery needs to be charged weekly. Typically listen to about 30 minutes a day. And have to charge it every 3-5 days.