Motorola E815 (Unlocked) Cellular Phone

After receiving the phone, I tried to activate with Verizon online. It gave me an error message. I tried *228 and got an error message telling me to contact Verizon. I called and spent 4 hours on the phone trying to get it activated. It was an Altell phone, not Verizon. 3 people refused to activate it. The fourth, an elevated tech support person, force activated it, and sent paperwork to Verizon to change this model from Altell to Verizon. I was pleased. I could use my phone. The first day, everyone I talked to on the phone complained I sounded like I was in a cave. When I used the external mic/earpiece, and they could hear me fine. Something was wrong with the phones mic. Problem is, I hate using external earpieces/mic. I tried to set up the banner and greeting, neither worked. I set the alarm on it, and it worked one time, then stopped. After the many hours working with Verizon, I was really getting frustrated with this phone. The next day, I woke up to the phone ringing only to learn the earphone had gone out. Once again, I could plug in the external earpiece/mic and hear/talk to the other person. In a 24 hour period, the mic and earphone both went out on the phone itself. About this time the battery went dead. Turns out it won't charge either. Had a short somewhere, either in the cable or phone (based on rest of problems, probably the phone). Would only charge if I held it, pushing tightly. Obviously, no one has 2 hours to spend holding a charger to a phone. Thankfully the company that sold it to me was more than willing to allow me to exchange it for a different brand/model phone. I mailed it back, gave them the tracking # and they immediately mailed me a new phone (which should arrive in the next postal run based on tracking numbers). The 3rd day, after I had mailed the phone back, Verizon calls me to notify me they are disconnecting my phone because I am illegally using an Altell phone on Verizon's network. Turns out, this phone cannot legally be used on Verizon's network at this time. I explained that I am now back on my old phone (bought directly for Verizon many years ago), waiting for a new phone, which hopefully will not have this problem. Thankfully, they did not have to disconnect my service.

The phone itself had a lot of great qualities. It was light. The screens were great. Before the sound went out, it was great quality. The camera/video worked great. It was super easy to use. The case seemed to be durable. Texted great. Had the phone worked, been a Verizon phone, I really think I would have loved this phone.

Overall my experience with this phone was negative. It was a new, not refurbished phone. The positive being the great support I received from the ebay store I purchased it from. Any seller can be great when their product works perfectly. A truly great seller is also great when the product has problems.

This review is for the Motorola e815 for the Verizon Wireless network. This phone has 1X and EVDO capabilities, VCast, Get It Now, a built in 1.3 megapixel digital camera, camcorder, speakerphone, and Bluetooth wireless technology.

This is an excellent looking phone. It has a lot of standard features but it still falls short of LG and Samsung. The Keypad is well laid out and has large buttons; those worried about fat fingering numbers will welcome this. The Navigation Key and OK button in the center of the navigation button some may find a bit small and difficult to work with. This model has the ability to add additional memory via the transflash port, those into the media player thing will love this. This phone has full Bluetooth capabilities that have been turned off at the request of Verizon Wireless. There are ways to unlock all functions of Bluetooth if you don’t mind hacking into your phone. The resources are readily available on the Internet, just be aware that once you start to play with your phone you forfeit all manufactures and carrier warranties. In other words, make sure you know what your doing before you start or you run the risk of owning a pretty paperweight. The case on this phone has much improved over the high gloss plastic that easily was scratched on the V710 model. Over all a sleek phone, great primary or backup phone if you lost your main phone or it was stolen.

GENERAL FEATURES

All Digital
1XEVDO
1XRTT
Bluetooth Enabled
Call Waiting
Camera
Camera - Flash
Camera Resolution - 1.3M Pixel
Digital Music Player
Display - Color
Display - Internal & External
Enhanced Messaging Service
GPS enabled
Get It Now
Mobile Web 2.0
Multi Media Services (MMS)
OTA Capable
Removable Memory Slot - TransFlash/Micro
Speakerphone
TTY compatible
TXT Messaging
V Cast
Video Messaging
Video on Demand
Voice Dialing

SPECIFICATIONS

Up to 260 Minutes Usage Time
Up to 280 Hours Stand by Time
WEIGHT: 4.6 oz.
SIZE: 3.69H x 1.89W x 1.01D inches

I am an AllTel customer with a good service area and roaming. All cell phones drop calls when something blocks the signals, GEE imagine that. I have had the E815 for about 10 months. The LARGE Clear display is the selling feature for me. Program is straight forward. Camera and video are good. The phone does not vibrate well though, I miss calls on vibrate - but you can choose short low tones for a ringer when necessary. GET A phone CASE WITH BELT LOOPS and Don't Pull it about by the handy antenna. Oops! It also does not like to be dropped, although it did take about 45-50 times before I had a problem CHEAP PHONE HUH! I have big fingers and I LIKE the extra room on the keyboard. The speaker phone is not as good as my LG was, it is too sensitive to back-ground noise. (THEY all need to be customer adjustable- HINT) I charge my phone each evening so I do not have battery issues as I have read about other people complaining. Read up in the forums and you will see you can change some setting that may better satisfy you needs. Overall this is a large phone and will not suit folks in need of something small. It is heavy compared to other phones but there is quality guts inside so you get what you pay for. I like the zoom feature of the camera and it takes very good pictures and movies. Get the Motorola Phone Tools and the patch cord and really make life easy as far as phone list-appointments-etc. Lots of nice back grounds etc if that is your thing. The Audio is good too, Just how much do you want this thing to do. IT does it! Stick a memory card in it and go nuts with tunes. If you just stay on a phone all the time there are optional larger batteries and case backs. I often receive good audio quality reports during my conversations. You can personalize this phone to your liking. So by now you can tell I like my MOTO-E815. Well I also liked my LG before I got the MOTO. The extendable antenna does help in fringe areas, but just a little. OH BAR LEVEL, well I am in a good area, but I still get dependable contacts with just ONE bar showing. That is more to AllTel I think, but look at the other reviews and it may be the phone. I am Happy with this one. There are lots of good product and sales out there. IF you need a phone with all the Bells-Whistles & More this BAD BOY will do the job for you. Hope this helps someone make up their mind. Look for a dependable provider and seek their knowledgable people out and you will also be pleased. God Bless! MK

I've owned my Motorola E815 for coming on two years now, and am probably going to buy a refurbushed one to replace it while they are still available. This unit has literally been through two washing machine cycles (once while turned on, once while turned off), once through the dryer cycle, dropped quite a number of times, and has continued working through the beatings, as far as the display, voice, Bluetooth, and keypad functionality are concerned. It recently entered a swimming pool and came back to life after drying (able to make and take calls, with a good screen image), but is now reporting an "Invalid Battery" alarm that does not appear to allow the battery to charge.

Through the abuse, I no longer have the photo flash feature on the camera, and the pictures have turned a bit fuzzy even after trying to clean out the little/tiny opening where the lens is. I don't use the extra memory card feature, so can't comment on how well any extended memory cards or the connections therein may have taken the torture tests.

This is a testament to the 'old-fashioned' quality that gained Motorola its status in the RF world. Not sure how robust any other Motorola phones are, but this particular model has given itself more than once for me.

My LG was on its death bed!! Time to buy a new one. I put a few hours of research into this one. It's published talk time and idle time were just about the highest I have seen. The reception was bragged about, even in Consumers Reports.

Alas this phone has been nothing but a disappointment to me. The battery went dead every 18 hours or so. The talk time was about 3 hours at best. What did I do? I bought a new extended life battery (1400mah) and back for the sick beast. This was just as disappointing to me as the phone. Not too much improvement at all.

The little pull up antenna makes no difference at all even in the fringe areas. Better turn this one off when you go into a large building or department store. As soon as I go to work this phone really starts consuming the battery. I use the alarm feature on cell phones extensively. This one will fail on occasion for reasons unknown. The holster was a complete waste of time. As soon as I put the phone on my pocket it fell out of the holster and received its first big scratch.

I don't like the variety of ring tones. I use them a lot to identify individual callers before I reach to answer. The LG had great ring tones.

Another irritation is when you put the phone in your pocket. If you grasp it the wrong way when removing it from your pocket the ringer will turn off completely. You have to go back to the menu to turn it back on. Have not been able to find out what I am doing to cause this but I now check the ringer every time I take it out of my pocket.

Good features!! Yes this phone does have some good stuff!! The sound quality is wonderful. The volume controls work very well. A big plus if you have bad hearing as I do. The menu is easy to work with. The buttons are very easy to use. The screen is great. I have to say that while reception is not all that good, I don't have as many dropped calls as I did with the LG. The camera is not bad (too bad I don't really need a camera on a phone). Speaker phone works very well.

All things considered I am not a happy camper with this phone. I was after reception and battery life and am completely disappointed in the phones performance relative to these two features.

Guess I will be going back to do some more homework and a new phone soon.

If you know of a phone that does long battery life and reception let me know