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
Dam Good Phone!
To all you people out there complaining about the alarm and weak vibrate, the new software fixes the alarm and weak vibration problems. Upgrade the phone and these problems will be taken care of.
Pros:
Excellent reception
Great voice quality incoming and outgoing
Loud earpiece
Loud and clear speakerphone - no echo
Nice big screen
Bluetooth works for headset - if you want full blue tooth, hack the phone! It's not that hard.
Big buttons makes it easy to dial
Good camera and video recorder
SW upgrade makes the vibrate much harder, you can actually feel it in your pocket.
Menus are quick with the new software
Cons:
A little cheap feeling
A little too big
A little ugly
A little heavy
Moto's menu system is a little harder than average to use, however, anyone who has finished third grade should be able to adapt to it no problem.
somehow all this adds up to a great phone!
It works well, never had any problems with it. It doesn't drop calls, it sounds fantastic, it takes good pics and video (although this seems to vary from unit to unit. I just got lucky with a good one I guess.)
I really want to give this phone a 4 but because of some obviously biased reviewâs here against the E815 (LG fan boys) it gets a 5 to make up for some stupidity.
I cant find anything wrong with this phone!!
I finally gave up on the Lg8100, too many bluetooth problems. E815 has best voice commands there is and bluetooth works great! Call Quality is outstanding and ringers are very loud. Only con is the vibrate is very weak, other than that its a five in my book. If you use bluetooth and want great reception go with the E815, NOT the Lg8100 it drove me nutts!
All I Can Say is WOW
I got this phone on December 21st, and the title speaks for itself. This phone has it ALL. Bluetooth, AMAZING RECEPTION, Trans-flash memory card, 1.3 MegaPixel camera, 3G EV-DO (vCast), A Beautiful Screen, Great Speakerphone, Video; what more could you ask for. Verizon Wireless service is great around here (Queens, NY). This phone is amazing and every call I have on it is crystal-clear. I have also dropped it many times and there is not even a scratch. Battery life is good; i get about three days out of it. I got it for free with a free bluetooth headset at letstalk.com; i highly recommend them. All in all, this phone is a winner.
Good phone
I have used the Moto 120e, Moto v710, v265, LG vx10, Audiovox CDM-8900, LG 6100, and now the e815. I have found that the Motorola phones always have better quality calls than any other phone I have used with Verizon. The e815 is no exception to this. I always look for call quality first, gadgets second.
Pros
-Excellent call quality. People think I'm on a hard-line phone.
-Reception is excellent. Even in remote areas.
-Ringer is good. I only use the standard ring.
-Battery life is good. I talk at least 1 1/2 hours per day, and the battery seems to hold power well.
-Size is OK. It is comfortable to hold, but could be thinner.
-Voice dialing is nice feature, but is not as reliable as my v710.(neutral comment)
-Camera is good for a camera phone.
**I recently took pictures of a car crash I was involved in. I needed pictures because it was a company car. The e815 did very well at capturing the details. The pictures printed on a color printer looked as good as if taken with a disposable film camera.
Cons
-Vibrate is too weak
-Charging port should be re-designed. On other new Moto phones, a different charger is now used.
-It is impossible to find a replacement battery. At least I cannot find the same OEM model. It can use the same battery as the v710, but it is less powerful; gives less talk time.
Best Verizon Phone
This has to be the best verizon phone ive ever used. Very very reliable cell phone right here. ive had LG and Samsung prior and this beats them bad.
Pros:
Reception,Recepton,Reception!
Call Quality
Color Screen
Bluetooth
Good Battery
EVDO Speed!
standard skins
color front LCD
Camera/Video feature
ITS A MOTOROLA!
Cons:
Bulky
Plastic feel
Im gonna break the antenna soon always
pops up
speakerphone aint loud like some
some sanyos and nextel motorolas
blah front style
v710 style is better
This phone is a keeper! until moto comes out with a upgraded model of e815
Traded Up to the 815
I LOVED my V60c but it was losing vital signs and had only days to live. I looked at everything Verizon offered in clamshell style and finally locked in on the E815.
As a basic communication device, the 815 is a clear trade up in quality of calls, reception in well-known areas of questionable signal strength, and for storage and retrieval of contacts. I love the voice recognition and itâs getting better with time.
If style matters, the 815 is an attractive phone. The RAZR was tempting, but I have 2.5mm headsets everywhere and I use the MP3 function frequently with the HS120 stereo headset for both music and learning (language courses). The RAZR requires an elaborate adaptor for standard 2.5mm headsets (stereo or not) and I am fully utilizing the larger memory of the E815 combined with a 512mb MiniSD card.
Accessories Purchased:
-HS120 headset
-Bodyglove soft case
-512 card
-Card reader
-Car charger
Functions I use frequently rated from 1 to 5:
Pros:
-Great function as a basic phone â Score 6
-Great headset output volume â Score 6
-Great function and quality as an MP3 player â Score 5
-Above average photo and video (relative to other cell phones) â Score 4.5
-Plenty of storage when combined with the 512mb card â Score 5
-Great voice recognition function â Score 5
-Nice personalization of key functions â Score 5
-Great display screen quality with no dead pixels â Score 5
-Speakerphone function â Score 5
-Previous-Call retrieval of info â Score 5
Cons:
-Data access (sound/images) is a bit slow when the SD card is well loaded. â Score 3
Best VZW Phone right now.
I get bored of phones very quickly and i switch every few months; however this phone will stay in my posession for a while to come. As the previous post says, This is a phone First, and a toy Second. However, i love the toys it comes with.
Pros:
-Beautiful displays, inside and outside
-Speakerphone is excellent
-iTap is still amazing for text messaging
-Amazing Motorola User Interface, as opposed to the enw VZW UI.
-Great reception everywhere, even in rural areas
-Extremely customizable
-Works great with bluetooth headsets
-Great Battery life
-Plays MP3's
You can't have your Ups without your downs.
Cons:
-Weak vibrate mode
-Camera display on the screen looks dingy. (However, when sent to your computer, pictures are surprisingly decent)
-I wish it was a little bit louder playing MP3's, but it's a PHONE FIRST.
-Maybe the buttons are a little slippery
-Its on VZW, so the Bluetooth features are crippled... no OBEX (damn you vzw!)
Nice phone
I'm a Realtor and so I practically live on my phone. I live in a very challenging area as for reception. I had an LG 4500 and had lots of reception problems. I bought this phone because of all the positive reviews for reception. It is a great improvement over the LG but I still cannot make or receive calls inside my home. The first one I had went completely dead for no apparent reason so I swapped it. this one seems to be doing fine, have had it about a month.
I read people complaining that the phone book would not store multiple numbers under the same name but mine will.
Pros:
Good voice recognition
Clear, bright display
User friendly
Camera OK
I like the size
Cons:
No reception in home
Some issues with the E815
I've had the Audiovox CDM-8600, Moto V60 & V60s, LG VX5200, Samsung SCH-A530, etc. but this is the best phone by far. I'm from Boston, MA with Verizon and my signal strength is excellent anywhere I go. I prefer small phones but this phone has changed my mind.
There are some issues you may have with the phone:
Video recording time max is only 15 seconds. This can be extended up to 3 minutes with a memory card only.
In order to transfer music, movie, and picture files via data cable/bluetooth, you would need to buy the mobile Phonetools software (there are others, but this is most popular) and what's more, you would need to hack into the phone to enable the feature. Info can be found on Howardforums.com. Even so, the software is not stable enough to transfer files larger than 800MB or so. So, I have turned to buying a Transflash card with SD adapter and an SD reader, which can be expensive. I bought a reader for 10 bucks and the Transflash 512MB for 60 bucks from eBay.
While we're on the subject of music files, I've tried buying a mini-micro mini adapter (Radioshack) for my headphones so I can use my phone as an MP3 player (great sound by the way!) but from my experience, the alignment of those plugs doesn't quite match up to the phone. The result is audio from one ear only. If you're intending to use the phone as an MP3 player, best bet is to buy one that's made for a cellphone, like the Moto HS120.
Speakerphone: Excellent compared any other phones I've had! The LG VX5200's speakerphone was SO horrible (even with it on, you had to almost put in to your ears when outside!) that I traded it in for the E815. The V60s speakerphone was also very good. Motos have very good speakerphones.
Camera: Quality is good.
Video Camera: Not bad, a little pixelated. (If hacked right, you can adjust picture and video quality! Howardforums.com)
Battery life: I don't talk on my phone a whole lot. Lasts about 4 days for me.
Voice dial: Good, a lot better than VX5200.
Good luck!
Solid Phone
I bought this phone about a year ago, and it has been really good to me.
Reception is awesome. It was perfect even when I lived in a small town with limited digital coverage last year.
I love the fact that you can copy pics / sounds / videos straight to a microSD card and move the stuff back and forth between your computer and the phone. You can also set audio files as ringtones - which is a really easy way to save money...
The one thing that drives me crazy about this phone is the charger. Apparently this type of charger has been discontinued for future use, but it still is brutal. Half the time, you plug in the phone, and then the phone says "unable to charge". What is more annoying is sometimes that happens and you don't notice, so you leave the phone plugged in all night, wake up in the morning expecting a full charge, only to find that your phone is still yelling LOW BAT! The phone and I have had harsh words about this on several occasions.
The camera is so-so... it is a cell phone after all. Still, the pics are good enough to use as full-size desktop backgrounds I think. The videos are pretty terrible still, and the 15 second limit is very annoying.
My only other complaint besides the charger port is the size of the phone. When I bought it, I made the decision to pick functionality over looks, but after a while, you begin to resent carrying a brick in your pocket. This phone will not win any beauty contests, but "work horse of the year" is a good possibility.
