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 phone!
My hubby has had this phone for a few months now and he has nothing bad to say about it. I have used it numerous times and was very pleased.
So many people worry more about the looks of a phone than they do how well it works. While this phone may be a little bigger than some people like, you wont find a phone for better coverage.
PROS....GREAT service! Bright, colorful display, easy to use.
CONS...may be too bulky for some
Solid phone, good value, buggy features
I have owned this phone for 8 months now, and feel like it's a solid phone for the phone itself, but if you're buying it for the features it boasts, make sure you check it out thoroughly during your trial period. I had to trim down my review, here's the important parts:
PROS:
Reception (VZW User)-In Eastern NC, I get very good 1X reception outdoors, and occasionally get spotty reception in or under buildings. In Nashville, TN, I maintained full-strength EV-DO service at all times, no matter where I was. When running on low-signal 1X service, I can still reliably make/receive calls.
The microSD/TransFlash slot is great for adding/removing pictures and music. The inability to turn MP3s directly into ringtones was expected.
Voice dialing-Instead of only having 15 or so voice tags you can store for your contacts, the voice dialing works on a Text-To-Speech engine. It does not take long for the phone to "train" to your speech. Handsfree dialing is a breeze.
MP3 player-Its presence is a PRO, functionality is a CON. Quality is OK on speaker, GREAT on headphones! Volume range starts loud, only gets louder.
Camera-The flash (illuminator) is nice to have. Decent pictures/video.
Voice Recording - While nice to have, functionality can be a CON.
CONS:
MP3 Player Software-The player is buggy, creating/editing playlists isn't the most intuitive, lack of external controls is awkward at times. After loading a 1GB SD with songs, I had to go back and strip all ID3 tags from the collection to get them to play or load into a playlist. MP3 player still crashes frequently.
Camera Software-Frequently locks up.
Voice Recording-Very limited capacity, cannot save to a file on the SD card, has occasionally locked up and "lost" voice records.
Finish - At first, the phone feels very solid and has a nice weight to it. In time, the housing loosens and feels cheaper and wobbles.
OVERALL: Great phone/reception/design; very unreliable software at times.
e816 IS NOT the 815
I like my e816 from Amp'd Mobile...
One thing is driving me insane - I can find no information about tethering it, everyone is talking about the 815, and if VZW has shut this phone down, I can't comprehend why we are still discussing it with no word of the 816.
My E816 messes up with the MP3 player too, it will work if I start the MP3 from sounds, choose hide, then close the phone, but wont continue the playlist unless I open the phone and hit next before the next song.
This is endlessly irritating, I have heard the quote "leave your ipod at home" but my Treo 650 handles music better, even if not in stereo...
Not Too Good
I have had this phone since June of 2006 and the charging port no longer works unless I wiggle the charger in it. If interested in a Motorola phone I would suggest the Mini USB charger.
Pros: Simple to use, loads the mobile web reasonably fast.
Cons: The charging port, no customizable sub lcd
Motorola Hollywood
This is not a review I just want to tell people when your reviewing this phone can you specify whether its the Motorola E815 for Verizon Wireless or the Motorola Hollywood E816 for Amp'd Mobile. I hate that Phonescoop did not make these to seperate phones since its not that same phone and using a different carrier. It would be high appreciated if you could do so.
Excellent Phone !
I have had this phone since June 2006, I LOVE IT! the reception that I receive is wonderful! I have not had one single problem receiving calls or making calls where ever I am.
Some goods and bads
I've owned this phone for about 8 months, and I continue to have a love-hate relationship with this phone. It excels in the important areas (reception, sound), but there are a LOT of drawbacks of this phone too. I thought Motorola would have fixed some of them by now since the phone has been on the market for a few years, but apparently not.
Pros:
1. Great signal strength.
2. Great clarity.
3. Impressively loud ringtone, earpiece and speakerphone.
4. Ok screen quality, picture quality, flash, and storage capacity.
Cons:
1. The phone is big, heavy, ugly and bulky.
2. The design of the address book is pathetic. The contacts list doesn't have a condensed version with just the name/number, so you can only see 3 contacts on the screen at once. And if you have a friend with a home and a cell phone number, you need to make 2 separate contacts entries for the same person.
3. Due to buttons on the side, it changes modes in your pocket which is very annoying if you had it on vibrate and your phone starts ringing when you don't want it to.
4. Sometimes the phone freezes when taking a picture and you have to turn it off and back on.
5. The phone beeps when there's low battery even if it's on silent mode. (Shutup damn phone!!)
The phone does have the important things (clarity, sound) which is good. But I'm convinced you can buy a better phone. I'm getting a different one next time.
This phone is the " WORST OF THE WORST"
I had the E815 for about a week and I was very disappointed with it I wanted to hit it with a SLEDGE HAMMER
>>Pros
Nice sound quality
Big Screen
>>Cons
This phone is like having a cordless house phone attached to your side, I thought cell phones are supposed to be small
The reception is poor
(REALLY BAD PICTURE QUALITY)
Everytime I take a picture and set it as my wallpaper it becomes distorted
The vibrate is WACK
The E815 reminds me of what might a camera cell phone would have looked like if introduced in 1975..
It's decent
I've had the phone for a couple months and it is a pretty good phone. The signal is by far the best in my opinion. I've been anywhere from St. Cloud, MN and the surrounding areas to Grand Haven, MI. On Lake Michigan with my family, I was the only one out of about 40 people (all with different providers and phones) who got signal on the beach. By the way, I have Verizon and am in the St. Cloud, MN area.
PROS:
-Decent battery
-Features galore
-Loud ringer
-Loud speaker - can her the person on the other end even at the bar!
-Big screen
-SIGNAL STRENGTH (I have NEVER been without a signal, even where other Verizon customers didn't have signal)
CONS:
-Big in size
-Camera isn't good unless the pics are transferred to a computer
-Classic Motorola defects (freezing, bad charger, etc.)
-Two prong charger is not a good one
-Bad screen resolution compared to newer phones
-Casing is a little flimsy
gr8 phone awsome
yea this phone is gr8 i had the v710 upgraded to this phone everything is pretty much the same but this one i get to pick skins and was able to transfer to other phones via bluetooth oh and i have the alltel version of this phone i can make my own ringtones send them to my phone via bluetooth or my memory card my friends love this phone too because i send them ring tones haha i'm also able to watch movies in 3gp wich is cool
