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
Awesome with a Capital A Baby
After reading the reviews on the E815 I decided to go with verizon. My main concern is reception. I travel to East Texas alot and get zero signal from cingular with E815/Verizon full signal. This is the best phone I have ever owned. As close to perfect as you can get.
Pros:
**GREAT RECEPTION
*Good Screen Color Clarity
*V Cast/Web
*Tons of Memory
*Super Call Clarity
*Ease of Use
*User Friendly Menu
*Light Weight
*Speaker works great
*Camera is OK
*MP3
*Sound good
Cons:
*Speaker Phone is on the back near the bottom can be covered with your hand if not careful
*no pre-loaded games
*camera could be a bit better (being 1.3 mega pix)
*Predictive Text a bit cumbersome
*Ring-back tones cost (would be better if they could be assigned from ring tones on the phone itself instead of the web)
Overall nothing wrong with this phone if you want a phone that will get good reception, wont drop calls, looks good and is easy to use....this is the phone for you.
wow
Whoa. I have never had a phone like this. I'm only a teenager but wow. This phone has A LOT of memory and is great in the taking picture department. Signal/Service,V-Cast is great and so is Bluetooth! The phone is a little big in size and feels cheap, but it doesn't perform like a piece of crap that's for sure. The phone's ringtones and speaker phone are loud so it pretty cool. The only thing i would change is the vibrate. It's a little weak but it's not a big problem. I would definantly recommend this phone.
Unbeliveable!!!
I have had this phone for one week. All i can say is wow! I was skeptical at first about buying this phone, hearing how motorola has went down hill. I decided to take a chance and im quite surprised to say the least. I cannot get over the reception on this phone, I have owned alot of phones from verizon, includeing the lg 8000 that i had before this one. The Lg was good, but this one does even better. I have not dropped any calls as of yet. The battery life is also exceptional. I make between 5&10 calls a day, and have gone all week without chargeing. I also like the weight of this phone, not too light and not too heavy. Inside display is colorful and clear. Out side display could be done a little better, but it does its job just fine. Camera does a good job for a phone, better than the LG. Im not a big camera user, so it dont matter much to me. Build quality out of a 10 in my opinion is a 8. If they would have made this phone like the v60i aluminum houseing, that would have been awesome. But i dont think this phone is just going to "fall apart". I have not had a chance to use bluetooh yet or the mp3 player. Overall, i dont think anyone could go wrong with this phone. It still has the same chargeing port as everyone has had previous problems with before, but everything else out weighs that.
Pros:
Outstanding Battery Life.
Outstanding Reception.
Size/weight.
Phonebook capacity(1000)
Camera.
Con's:
No holster comes with phone.
Great Phone!!!!
I switched to Verizon about 2 weeks ago and after much deliberation decided on the E815. This has been the best decision ever. The phone is awesome! The #1 thing I love about this phone is the reception, I have not had a dropped call yet. I can say nothing bad about this phone other than what Verizon has disabled. But there are ways to get around that with enough research. I will be keeping this phone for a long time.
Whats not to love
I love the phone. I have had it since it came out. Personally i have always hated flips and preffered good ol' nokia bar phones but this phone has won me over.
The keys, thank heavens, are big and have an awesome feel to them, a big improvement over the v710.
camera is better than what i would need it to be.
I havent used the mp3 but its nice to say i have.
screen is big and easy to see in the day.
Reception VZW is unmatched in NYC. (i almost switched to cingular for the razr and after seeing what a co-worker is going through im glad i didn't
the battery life is ok considering im used to nokias
Bad - a little big u get used to it
Excellent Reception and Clarity Everywhere
The excellent reception is what sold me on this phone, along with the loud, clear call quality on both ends. After all, isn't that what's most important? I haven't owned a Moto phone since the V60i. Lately, I have preferred LG's and Samsungs. I've had some troubles with other models of phones inside my home; I always got at least 2 bars of signal, but the calls would usually be choppy, and callers at the other end would tell me that words were being cut off, or it was hard to understand. In the basement, usually lots of trouble. But, with this Motorola E815, I get great, smooth reception anywhere in my home, even the basement. This is the first cell phone I've had that comes really close to land-line quality in my home, and everywhere I've traveled to.
I never fear not being able to get a good signal, nor do I fear poor quality calls in low-signal areas. Even with one bar, the calls are steady and clear. The only thing I would complain about is the very weak vibrate mode; I wish it were a lot stronger so I'd be able to notice it easier.
I'll list my CONS first:
--Very weak vibrate mode
--Speakerphone not the best (or worst)
--Lots of times, the sound is very "digital", tho always loud and clear
--No analog mode (but I don't need it)
--Style not as cool as others, and somewhat large
The PROS:
--Excellent signal strength/reception
(EVERYWHERE)
--Loud & clear earpiece
--Retractable antenna helps in low signal areas
--Good volume with wired headset
--Good volume with Bluetooth headset
--Has just about every feature available
--Large, beautiful bright screen
--Very customizable
--Good camera (for a phone)
--Excellent battery life
--Large keypad, and large screen make is easy to use
--Seems very well-built and sturdy
Overall, an excellent phone. Being able to make loud and clear calls anywhere makes this phone the best option for me. I've tried them all, and none match this for consistently steady volume, reception, and clarity.
A Definite Upgrade to V710
The only real flaw I found initially with this phone was the battery life; it would only last a little over a day whether it was in use or not.
But thanks to the very informative forums that this website offers, that problem was solved with the advice offered to "condition" the battery prior to use.
Even the Motorola website says that a new battery should be charged for at least 14 hours but no more than 24 prior to use and definitely keep the phone off during the charging process. After 3 full charges and complete discharges, I can happily say I'm starting my third day with 3 full battery bars where again it wouldn't last a full day without a low battery warning beeping at you. I obviously invested in getting a new extended battery to be able to see these differences in battery life compared with the original one.
Again, that was the only flaw I found which is now past history.
Everything else on this phone I can't praise enough:
Excellent reception,
MP3 Player kicks butt,
The ability to read the time on the outside display at anytime, something the V710 lacked,
VCast is awesome (I live in the New York Metro area and work in Manhattan so the EVDO signal is basically omnipresent),
The camera and video camera is again a step up from the V710,
I recently learned that certain features of the phone can have password security added to them without having to completely lock up the phone,
I could go on and on but I believe the point has been made; I highly recommend this phone.
PC Magazine didn't give it its Editor's Choice Award for nothing.
The BEST - Hands Down
I am writing this review based upon the bogus review from "vitaminwater" who obviously must work for the competition. The e815 is the "BEST" phone to come out from Moto or any other manufacturer in quite sometime. Vitaminwater's review was so biased and slanted against the e815, it was VERY OBVIOUS he works for the competition and is not making any sales on what he carries, probably LG which IMHO is a horrible phone. Exactly what vitaminwater described is what I experienced on lg phones.
Atleast I own an e815 and I can tell you this phone is exceptional. Do you think I or others on these forums would rave about it, if it weren't true? Why would we, when we could just return it to VZW within our 15 day trial and get something different.
Face it vitaminwater, your lg brand cannot hold a candle or a signal to the Moto e815. Go back to your lg forums or whatever rock you crawled out from. Us who own the Moto e815 know we have a great phone. Go cry somewhere else.
Best Phone For Verizon, Highly Recommend
I previously used a Motorola V710 which was the until now, the best phone I've ever used. Basically, Motorola took a great phone and made it even better with the E815.
PROS:
-Great reception and call quality (as good as V710 minus analog)
-Great speakerphone and can use w/ flip closed
-Good Camera for a cell phone (better than V710 especially indoors and at night)
-Good looking (so was the V710)
-Great Battery life (if used in a strong EV-DO only area)
-Great keypad layout
-Feels fairly sturdy and is very comfortable to hold (same as V710)
-Great choice of ringers (more than V710)
-Skins are cool and unique
-User Interface is very fast and convenient (NO ugly Verizon UI like LG's)
-External caller ID displays the time when at idle
CONS:
-Charging port could be better
-Build quality seems to be inconsistent (mine is great but others I tried squeak)
-Some have problems with an echo on the speakerphone.
-Some have mentioned theirs freezing but mine has not
-No analog (but in all fairness no EV-DO phone has it)
Overall, I give this phone a 5 because it blows everything else Verizon has away. I must say though that the V710 was a great phone too, and if yours works properly, hold onto it! The E815 is indeed a step up from the V710 (camera, keypad, faster UI, V-Cast, more memory) but at the same time, if you have a great V710 now, you may be disappointed spending full retail for a phone that is nearly identical in many respects. So far I've found the E815 to be great for my needs, but being that it's so new to Verizon, it still has some things to be worked out. It's about as close to perfect as a high end Verizon phone can be having only been out for 2 months. The phone is a steal at it's current prices and even full retail is reasonable. Upgrading from any other Verizon phone than the V710 is DEFINITELY worth it. Although the E815 has a good camera for a phone, if you want high quality pictures, buy a dedicated digital camera. Buy this phone!
E815 = Success!
This phone has it all!
Mapquest Mobile on Get it now is GPS on a stick.
Color Screen is big and the most important feature, is the SPEAKERPHONE. Office quality.
Voice clarity is great. LG 8000 sounded muffled when talking. This is their best broadband-Vcast phone.
Congrats Verizon Wireless.
Props in every department.
