6280 and music headset HS-20

Question

Nokia are promoting the 6280 as a multimedia phone with great music capabilities. Hmm... other than a memory card slot (which is pretty standard on any modern phone) along with pretty basic and unintuitive music software, the only other thing the phone potentially has going for it is the headsets.
The supplied headset is OK so far as it's got an inline volume control and you can skip tracks (although only forward, not back). Unfortunately the headphones are terrible, not much point having high quality MP4 music when it comes out sounding little better than AM radio.
The solution appears to be the HS-20, an inline remote with standard headphone jack socket so you can plug in some decent quality third-party headphones. Except it's not listed as being compatible with the 6280!
I find this a bit hard to believe that the 6280 isn't capable of being controlled by the HS-20. It supports the HS-6 "display headset" which can do everything the HS-20 does, plus display the current track. Unfortunately the HS-6 is junk as the **bleep**py AM radio effect headphones are hard-wired on this one.
Can anyone confirm whether the HS-20 is actually incompatible with the 6280, and assuming it is are we likely to ever see support via a firmware upgrade? If not I guess it's time to look towards Ericsson, who seem to do music a whole lot better than Nokia don't.
Cheers
Paul.

Answer 1

29-Jun-2006 02:44 PM paulm wrote: Nokia are promoting the 6280 as a multimedia phone with great music capabilities. Hmm... other than a memory card slot (which is pretty standard on any modern phone)
Apart from most Samsungs, you mean .
29-Jun-2006
02:44 PM
paulm wrote:
The solution appears to be the HS-20, an inline remote with standard headphone jack socket so you can plug in some decent quality third-party headphones. Except it's not listed as being compatible with the 6280!
Having a pop-port connector, it should be compatible with the 6280, it's just that it's not available separately yet. The AD-46 is similar except it replicates only what's on the in-built headphone control (forward, volume up/down, mic) and doesn't include the earbuds themselves. BTW the HD-41 is the same as the HS-20, but without the earbuds.
29-Jun-2006
02:44 PM
paulm wrote:
I find this a bit hard to believe that the 6280 isn't capable of being controlled by the HS-20.
So do I. According to the Nokia site it's capable of working with at least one Series 40v3 device - the 7360/70. You can comfirm this yourself by going to a CPW or similar, and asking to see a 3250, which has this adaptor in the box.
29-Jun-2006
02:44 PM
paulm wrote:
Can anyone confirm whether the HS-20 is actually incompatible with the 6280, and assuming it is are we likely to ever see support via a firmware upgrade? If not I guess it's time to look towards Ericsson, who seem to do music a whole lot better than Nokia don't.
Maybe, maybe. But most Ericssons don't have 3.5mm jack plugs either, and the headphones supplied aren't much better than the Nokia things. Also you'll have to spring for Ericsson's proprietary - and very expensive - Memory Stick cards, instead of the SD card now being adopted by Nokia and most of the rest of the industry. The software is much better, though. FWIW the HD-46 works fine with the 6280. Until the HS-20/AD-41 is freely available I wouldn't place too much faith in the accuracy of Nokia's website.