Yada YD-V1 Universal Phone Holder and Headset Review

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I’m a talker… Always have been, and will likely be yackin’ my head off the day I die.  I… have the gift of gab. We all know its true, so who are we kidding.

With the influx of new devices I’ve got, E-TEN X800, E-TEN X650, and BB Curve 8310, I’ve been doing a lot of talking lately. I’ve been using the Palm Bluetooth Headset since Palm gave me one with the Treo Trip kit they gave all of the original 700w reviewers a couple-three years ago. its been a dependable, and half-way decent headset.  However, it leaves a bit to be desired: the volume isn’t loud enough, and wind noise is a problem.  As such, I’ve been searching for a new headset.  When I was presented with the opportunity to look at the Yada YD-V1 Universal Phone Holder and Headset, I jumped at the chance.  Let’s take just a quick look and see how it did.

All pictures were taken with the E-TEN X800’s built in rear facing camera.
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The Yada, charging in my car. BTW, what’s with the blue LED in the middle of the holder..?  There’s nothing on it in the manual and no power going to it…

The Yada YD-V1 Universal phone holder and headset is an interesting little combo. The holder should hold just about any mobile device or cell phone.  The expandable arms hold your device securely and safely. I drive the 53/290/355 corridor here in Chicago for my commute every day. Those that are familiar with the area know that the stretch of 53 right before Lake Cook Road is a pot hole jungle.  The road is BAD.  If the Yada can hold my Curve securely without it bouncing out of the holder, it can hold just about any device safely…which is pretty cool.

As you can see from the photo below, the YD-V1 is attached to the top of the dash of my CR-V.  The device comes with 2 mounting options –

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My BB Curve 8310 sitting in the YD-V1 (and yes, its still charging. The red/blue light flashes when its sitting in the holder just flashed off when I snapped this picture.

I’ve got a pretty long commute…about 75-90 minutes on a good day, without much traffic; but who am I kidding..?  This is Chicago; and there’s all sorts of traffic and delays. For me, having a good headset is important.  I don’t want to have to hold a phone to my head if I want or need to talk to someone.  Having a unit that holds both my phone and charges my headset is really nice. I wish I had  spot to hold them closer to me, rather than mounting the thing on my dash; but Yada doesn’t offer a floor mounting system.

The whole sha-bang is held on a vent (I don’t like those…they block the air that I want flowing into the car…) or via 3M adhesive tape.  Unfortunately, I had no other choice than the tape.

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The YD-V1, with the headset removed. Removing the headset from the holder stops charging it and answers any incoming call.

Using the YD-V1 wasn’t a bad experience, but it could have been a bit better.  As I mentioned above, when you take the headset from the charger, it automatically answers any incoming call.  Getting the headset out of the charger while driving was a challenge… the clip it sits in hangs on to it very well.  I’ve missed a call or two trying to get the thing out while my Curve was ringing.

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A close-up of the YD-V1’s headset.

As you can see from the above, the YD-V1’s headset just sticks in your ear. There’s nothing that hangs on or clips over  your ear.  At first, I liked this because the Palm BlueTooth headset I’ve been using hurts my ear after a while. It DOES clip over your ear.  After about 2/3 of the way through my 90 minute commute, my ear starts to ache.  Like I said, I was excited for a while until I started having trouble keeping the headset in my ear. I’ve nearly lost the headset on 3 separate occasions while driving.  Its fallen out of my ear!  All three times, I’ve been fortunate. While the headset dropped out of my ear canal, it dropped down the front of me, and into my lap.  However, this merely tells me I can’t use the thing outside of my car.

The car is a closed space, and if it does fall out of my ear and hit the floor, at least it still will be in my car.  If this happens when I’m out and about, who knows where it will end up.  Worst case scenario… I lose the headset and then I’ve got this cell holder glued to my dash…without the matching headset. Not good.  While the YD-V1 does come with 3 different size ear buds, none of them really fit my ear very well, and hence the problem.

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A close-up of the bottom of the YD-V1’s headset.  The two silver lines are charging contacts.  You can also vaguely make out the microphone hole…

At the end of the day, this isn’t a bad setup; but with my ears, it gave me problems.  For the money (see purchasing link below), the device is a pretty good buy, although Gear Diary team member, Chris G. has told me on several occasions that my voice sounded very compressed, tinny, and missing both high and low ends.  He sounded like his normal annoying self to me…so at least the speaker in the headset sounded good…

MSRP: $ 59.99. The WinPlus Yada YD-V1 can be purchased from Amazon, here.
What I Like: Headset charges while sitting in a secure holder. Headset auto answers incoming calls when pulled from the charger
What Needs improvement: Securing the headset in your ear can be problematic if the ear bud cover isn’t a solid fit.

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