Motorola E815 / E816 Hollywood
Phone Scoop Review
Oct 11, 2005 by Eric Lin
In-depth review of Motorola's first EV-DO phone for North America, the E815 for Verizon. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
3 Weeks, all is well
After 3 weeks I remain very satisfied with my first Motorola purchase. My last 3 phones were Samsung, Samsung and LG....now Moto. Moto has a quality feel and look, quick processing and excellent call and sound quality
Pros:
-sound quality
-easy bluetooth pairing
-excellent, large screen
-size of phone, largest I've had in a while, but very easy to handle and navigate. I easily have sacrificed a smaller phone for the benefits of the large screen
-great reception. work from basement in Allentown, PA area. always have strong signal with antenna retracted.
Cons:
-Phone searches for EVDO and drains battery. EVDO indicator is on, the off to 1X in my area. VZW must be testing EVDO in Allentown.
-limited get it now applications.....c'mon vzw get on the ball.
-vcast charge of $15/month
Wow, looks like moto isn't the problem, but the service has a few issues.
EXCELLENT PHONE
Having owned both the vx8100 and this phone currently i must say that this phone blows the 8100 away. everything works superbly, the speakerphone on the 8100 SUCKS compared to the 815 which can also be used flip CLOSED.
best reason to own an e815?
i have ev dissabled for LONG LONG battery life
I have Bluetooth Obex enabled allowing seemless transfers of anything i could possibly need to and from the phone
Apple Osx tiger has native support of the phone to sync both adress book and calender
there is no way the 8100 comes close to the usability of this baby
Totally excellent to the third power.
I love this phone. It is like - my best friend. I know that sounds really dorky, but it's true. It helps me talk to all of my friends, and while it has every bell and whistle I could possibly want - it functions best as a PHONE. Yes. It MAKES CALLS unlike some of the other pieces of junk on the market that were made for text messaging and mobile web. This does EVERYTHING right.
You get the usual Motorola quirks and bugs that you deal with, but nothing is major on this phone. I don't have the echo problem some people complain of:
Reception: 10/10
Design: 10/10
Inside screen: 12/10
Outside screen: 8/10
Camera (for a phone): 8.5/10
Software: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10 so I'll give it a 5/5.
Best phone ever
Before this phone i had the LG 4400 and do to battery problems i decided to upgrade and made the best decision ever by buying the E815. There are no flaws with this phone and despite verizons attempts to disable some features that can be easily fixed.
Pros:
-1.3 MP Camera (also shoots video)
-MP3 Player
-Speaker phone
-Large screen
-Great reception
-Great battery life
-VCAST
-outside color display
-trans-flash
-great size
Cons
-locked features but thats easy to get around
-freezes sometimes but nothing to complain about since a majority of the time its very fast
Conclusion
This is by far the best verizon phone hands down, so if you want a new phone get the motorola e815.
Best Phone I Ever Had
This phone has great reception packed along with a lot of great features. Best Phone I ever owned.
I Love this Phone
I just got this phone over the weekend and all I have to say is this is the best phone that I have ever owned. I was debating over this one and the Razor and I picked this phone because of all the extra features this phone has. Also was not impressed by the Razor once I actually had it in my hands.
Swept Off My Feet!
I had a great deal of difficulty with service in the Princeton, NJ area. I had to return several all digital phones over the years in favor of tri-mode.
I wanted bluetooth because I do a lot of business calling from the car and I wanted to get a good hands free setup.
I had read the reviews on this site and one in particular stated that reception was much better in the NJ pine barrens than anything else. So, I figured, what the hey!...
I had the new every two option, so I decided to try the E815, figuring that because it was solely digital, I'd try it, hate it and return it under my worry free guarantee. NOT!
I LOVE this phone! I have AMAZING reception if difficult areas. Amazing! I never drop a call, even in places where my tri-mode would!
Toys? Well, I didn't realize the value of this new high speed service until I got the phone. I now do email business on the phone. (I have a lot of accounts and I can get into every single one of them, fine.) Before, I HATED using the dinky cell phone Internet. It was so slow. Not this new protocol, baby!
I think the voice activation dialing is super. Especially, in light of the fact that I don't have to train it.
Someone else's review stated: Whaddaya waitin' for? Get your tooshie out and GET THIS PHONE! I have to agree. I really like it. I was set on hating it, but I was surprised. So:
Pros:
1) RECEPTION! : If you need reception, this is the best cell-phone around. (As someone else stated, I thought the problem was with Verizon's network. NO! It was the phones, their network here is great!)
2) Voice activation: Really good and accurate. (I like the lady's voice, too! ;) )
3) RECEPTION: (Did I mention that? ;)
4) V-Cast: Fun. Addicting
5) High speed Internet connection: Much better than 1X. I can do business email.
6) Bluetooth
7) Vibration mode: Just enough. I don't like getting vibrated and jumping 10 feet! Just enough for me!
Cons: None Yet! :)
815 exceeds LG8100 in many ways
Pros:
- Outstanding voice clarity and quality. Comparable to my previous phone, a Motorola T720.
- Larger viewing screen than LG8100 and better picture quality with adjustable brightness and contrast. Screen on 8100 just too small and jammed.
- Speakerphone on LG 8100 was barely adequate and could hear vibrations in speakers when volume turned past medium! Motorola speakerphone is superior to mini stereo speakers of 8100 (which has mp3 player disabled) rendering controls on front of phone usless and dorky.
- Far better connectivity and less dropouts than LG8100. On an open stretch of highway covered with Verizon towers, LG had numerous dropouts whilst 815 had none.
- Overall design of phone internally and externally is outstanding. It is a worthy replacement for my T720 (an extraordinarily well-rated phone) which I would have kept but wanted camera and screen for VCast and pic viewing.
- The 815 is backwards compatible to my chargers for the T720 so no need to buy car charger and now have an extra home/office charger.
Cons:
- Front LCD display is slightly lacking but acceptable. The date display on the 8100 was so small a person such as myself with normal vision would need a magnifying glass.
- No bluetooth connectivity to my notebook for now. Verizon wants customers to Get It Now just from them :-)
OVERALL:
I had the LG8100 for a couple of days and could readily hear that voice quality and volume was noticeably inferior to my Motorola T720 (speakerphone on 8100 has internal distortions). In addition, I bought a cell phone and not a software disabled mp3 player. The useless controls on front of phone seemed stupid.
This is the finest cell phone I have had to date and hope you all enjoy it. After all, a cell phone should be mainly focused on the best technical quality of voice first before other features!
doesnt like to charge
the phone used to be a good phone but after a good year of use the front screen shuts off sometimes and then it wont come back on . then it doesn't like to charge you can stick the charger in and it doesn't do anything I've went through at least 6 phones all with the same problem so do not waist your money
E815's great if Verizon didn't cut it's balls off.
The carriers need to have a better code of ethics. I found out after having the e815 for a year and endless attempts to load my own mp3s,without spending alot of money, that Verizon removed my original Motorola OBEX files so it wouln't work in Moto phone tools Multimedia.If you still have and love this phone spend 15 bucks and get the hack software.
Google e815 hacks. Be cool, Happy holidays!
