Newer version of Scala

The original Scala 500 that I bought suddenly developed a battery issue... or maybe it's just a charging issue... I'm not sure which. Whatever it is, I ordered a new one from Amazon, which arrived last Friday, and I've contact Cardo Systems, who will take my old one back under RMA.

This new version has some distinctive differences from the original, some of which I already know about because Johnny got a new one after someone broke his first one.

• No more charging cradle. Now the adapter plugs directly into the headset, in the area where it used to have a little loop to connect other stuff to. Which means...
  
• No more "connector loop."
• The "necklace" no longer uses the belt-clip holster. Instead, it comes with a little plastic stub that can be plugged into the charging plug, from which you can attach the necklace.
• The "necklace" has been replaced by a lanyard.
• The blue LED now seems to be of a slightly brighter blue color.
• If paired, it will automatically try to connect to the paired device when you turn it on.
• "Hard drops" by the phone no longer seems to turn the unit off.
• The volume control now seems to be independent of the phone's internal volume control.
  

For the most part, the changes are for the better. I believe my charging/battery issue has a lot to do with the cradle design, and I've read other reviews in which they complain about the cradle design. The belt-clip holster has always been a bit loose for me--that is to say, while it did seem to fit rather snugly, I would often accidently knock the headset out of the holster while moving around--so this new design should make it less likely to fall off the "necklace"; not to mention I broke the old holster about a month ago. The auto-connection function should be useful for non-Motorola users, and not having to worry about the "hard drops" issue means one of the possible down-sides from the changes is now a non-issue.

The minor downsides of the changes are:

• The plastic stub is a bit too tight--it would take me slightly longer, and possibly have to use both hands, to get the headset from the "necklace" to my ear.
• The lanyard looks a bit low-grade compared to the necklace from before.
• Because I don't get to use my own ringtones while the headset is connected on the Motorola phone, the "auto-connect" function is not helpful to me.
  

But then, the only reason I'd turn off the headset at all before was because of the "hard drop" issue, which occurs occasionally (and seemingly randomly) when I tell the phone to drop the connection to the Scala, and there's a louder "drop" tone, followed by the Scala being turned off by the phone. To get around this issue, I had previously resorted to turning the headset off, then back on.

On the whole, then, I think they did a good job with making the new headsets better. Hopefully they'll just send me the newer version for the RMA. Then I can just keep it as a spare, or give it to someone else.