Do you want the best headset? 
Not everyone can afford a Ferrari or the biggest house on the hill. And, for those who can, they might choose not to. The same could be said for those shopping for a wireless Bluetooth headset.
You have Ferrari type headsets, and you have those that might be more along the lines of the defunct Yugo. The truth is, Bluetooth wireless headsets come in a wide variety of styles and of course, prices.
In this blog I’m going to do a review of a, how can I best say this? Ok, a cheap Bluetooth headset. That is, one that’s priced at $50.00. It’s hard to believe that you can get a wireless headset for less than many wired models.
I’ll go over the features of this headset, and more importantly, I’ll see if it’s comfortable and how it sounds. Lastly, I’ll see how much wireless distance you might expect to receive if you’re looking for a cheap Bluetooth headset.
Before I begin though, I did want to mention that I recorded a Youtube video on this. Many people prefer to watch video content over reading it, so if you’re one of those people, then I’ll include the video immediately below for easy access.
This will not only allow you to see the product and hear about it, but you can hear how the microphone sounds which can give you the opportunity to decide for yourself if the sound quality is good enough for you to part with your hard earned money.
If you’re still with me, let’s check out this Yamay M98 Bluetooth wireless headset. As we do, please keep in mind that this is a cheap headset, so you’ll need to keep your expectations in alignment with the price of this device. After all, you get what you pay for, right?
To begin, this is a monaural (single ear), over the head, Bluetooth headset. It doesn’t come with a USB dongle, so pairing to your devices needs to be via Bluetooth.
This means that if you intend to connect it to a computer, it will need to be Bluetooth enabled. Some computers are, and some aren’t. Something to keep in mind as you look this product over, and consider it for you or your team.
The Bluetooth version used in the Yamay M98 is Bluetooth 5.0, which is the same version used in other, more expensive Bluetooth headsets.
What comes in the box?
- Charging base
- Monaural wireless Bluetooth headset
- Micro to USB cable
- Instruction sheet
Charging bases for wireless headsets aren’t typically weighted, but this one is. Essentially, a weighted charging base provides a solid platform to dock the wireless headset. If a base is too light, it allows the base, and headset to easily move around the desktop which is something you don’t want.
The base is not only weighted, but it magnetically docks with the headset. This is actually a nice feature that you don’t find on all wireless headsets. Some models do have this feature, while others don’t offer it. It’s nice because it helps to assure that the charging contacts get aligned properly so the battery in the headset gets charged.
The micro USB cable that’s included is designed to provide connection to a power source for recharging the wireless headset battery. Unlike some wireless Bluetooth headsets, the Yamay M98 cannot be used as a wired headset when the micro USB cable is plugged in. Good to know if this is something you’d like to do.
Comfort
Comfort, along with sound quality and of course price, is always one of things to know about. After all, you’ll be wearing this thing, and you want it to be comfortable and not leave you needing pain meds at the end of the day. Great sound, great price, but a painful wearing experience isn’t a good value.
The ear cushion has an acceptable amount of padding, which is good, though the size of the ear cushion is a bit smaller than I personally would prefer.
The ear speaker housing assembly doesn’t rotate like most other wireless headsets. Having a speaker that rotates allows the speaker and ear cushion to adjust to the angle of your head and ear. Without this ability, you must conform to the angle of the ear cushion. This doesn’t translate to a comfort feature which means this isn’t the optimum design if comfort is important to you.
The headband does adjust which enables the ear speaker to move up and down so it can align with your ear. Having an adjustable headband is very standard in a headset in any price range. So, this feature is one you should expect.
The other thing that aids comfort with this headset is it’s small and lightweight. Heavy isn’t ideal when it comes to something on your head that will be worn for extended periods of time. The Yamay M98 is light enough so you should find it fairly comfortable if you plan on wearing it for long periods of time.
Buttons
The buttons on the Yamay M98 aren’t anything out of the ordinary. You have your typical on/off button, volume up, volume down, and mute. The mute button, which is used to turn off the microphone, is located at the end of the microphone boom on the microphone itself.
Most mute buttons are located on the body of the headset. In my view, it does make it easier to find the mute button when it’s located on the end of the boom. A small thing for sure, but nice.
All mic booms are not created equal
While on the subject of the microphone boom, it’s not bendable. That’s not a good thing. The optimum placement for a microphone is approximately two fingers width from the corner of your mouth. In order to get it positioned there, it can require bending the boom so that the microphone placement is in the optimized position.
Think about it. Are all heads the same diameter and size? Of course not. If someone has a very full and round face for example, the microphone on this headset may very well be rubbing against the side of their cheek.
On the other hand, if someone has a very slender face, the microphone may end up being too far away to provide the best sound quality. Is this a small thing? Not really, because having the microphone placed in the right spot can make all the difference in terms of sound quality.
How the speaker sounds
As you’d likely expect, it doesn’t sound all that awesome. In fact, it sounds kinda crappy. But then again, we are talking about a Bluetooth wireless headset for around $50.00, so
nobody should expect it to sound like a Bose. Does it get the job done? Absolutely, but don’t have lofty expectations in terms of a bumping bass, and perfect sounding mid and high range tones. It does the job but in a minimalistic way.
How well does the microphone perform?
If you’re looking for a very basic sound experience, this might be your baby. If you care about good sound quality, you’ll want to keep shopping. Simply put, it just doesn’t sound that great. I personally found it to lack in terms of volume as well as it sounded a bit distorted. Clearly the Yamay M98 isn’t using a high quality microphone. It shows.
On the other hand, and much to my surprise, it actually did a decent job to remove unwanted background noise. Make sure to check out my video where I put it up against the dreaded blender test. It actually did pretty well. If you’d care to hear for yourself, here’s the video.
Wireless Range
According to the specifications, the Yamay M98 is designed to provide up to 33 feet of wireless range. I put that to the test in my video review, and it not only delivered on the 33 feet, but it gave me a bit more. It started breaking up at around the 40-45 foot mark.
So, I feel safe in saying that you can expect to get the stated range in a real world situation. As a footnote here, not all wireless headsets live up to their stated range estimates.
Final thoughts
Is this a great headset that you can confidently deploy to a large team? Likely not. The daily demands on it would outpace it’s ability to perform at that level. However, if your needs are simple, and you aren’t a power user, then this might be a reasonable consideration for you.
The other thing to consider is the budget. Everyone who does purchasing for a team has to keep that in mind. At the ridiculously low price on this model, you can likely afford to buy spares to cover those that end up dying on you abruptly.
The warranty is unknown, and the contact for questions and service is directed to a gmail type account (non corporate email). This leads me to believe that you shouldn’t expect to receive stellar support once you lay down your cash to buy this model.
If that doesn’t matter to you, then you’ll be good to go. If it does, then my advice is keep shopping.
- Who doesn’t like multiple ways to contact your vendor?
- Who doesn’t like speaking to a real person?
- Who doesn’t like an overall easy communication experience?
Well, everyone does really, but don’t expect that if you’re buying this puppy.
As I stated in the beginning of this blog, we have to keep our expectations in check with this headset simply due to the crazy low price. If we keep that in the forefront of our mind, this headset is actually fairly decent, in a basic sense.
Yes, the mic boom doesn’t bend. Yes, the ear speakers don’t rotate. Yes, the speaker doesn’t sound all that great, and the microphone doesn’t give you studio quality either. But the truth is, not everyone needs all that stuff.
So, for those people, this could very well be a viable option for you if you’re in the market for a monaural, Bluetooth headset.
You won’t have remote call answering, and you won’t have a USB dongle, but you will have a wireless Bluetooth headset for your communication and audio applications. And, for around $50.00, I think it’s pretty hard to go wrong with this model if you’re willing to accept it’s shortcomings.
