My new every 2 was up and I hated my insurance upgraded Audiovox 8910. It was time for a new phone. Two models offered by Verizon caught my eye. The Motorola E815 and the LG 8100. The 8100 seemed on paper to offer a lot more but alas, it was neutered by Verizon and LG left in a few too many bugs
(inactive outside cover MP3 player controls/no real player, segmented memory, poor speaker phone,
sub par RF, etc). This left the E815 as the one.

The Phone-

-Mostly gray (Platinum?) plastic with some brushed metal accents.
-Approximately 3 3/4”X 2” X 1”
-Weight 4.6oz.
-Digital only
-EVDO & 1xrtt capable

It’s to the large side of the compact flip phone range, but feels comfortable in the hand and isn’t too big for the pocket. I have large hands and find this phone more comfortable to hold than the smaller 8910 it replaced. The front panel has the camera lens, app. 1”x1 .5” outside display and a small “flash” for the camera. The left side of the phone sports the volume control toggle and speaker phone button. The Right side has the camera button which doubles as a camera on and shutter release and a voice command (Obeymoto) button which will also turn on the voice recorder when held for 1 sec. The top has the longish antenna stub, ports for a transflash card and headphone. There is an antenna port on the back along with the battery that sits behind a separate and not too easy to remove door. On the bottom of the phone is the data port. There is no separate power port, a feature I liked on the 8910 but the travel charger only plugs into a small portion of the port saving wear and tear on the fragile data connectors. The inside sports a very bright 2”x3” display and the now standard Motorola layout keyboard. The keys themselves are slightly rounded making them easy to depress with my less than petite fingers. The chromed 5 way direction control works well but I would like to have the sides raised a bit more to make it harder to accidentally press the the middle OK button. The functions for the pad are as follows, right “Get It Now/Vcast”, down for the “Message Center”, left for the web browser. The up function of the direction pad is the shortcut menu, most useful in my opinion. You can easily populate the shortcut menu with frequently used items that are otherwise buried several layers deep in the menu structure. I have quick access to pictures, videos, bluetooth setup and the detailed battery meter there. Over all, the phone has a very restrained “business” look to it. The shell is a bit too plasticy(?) and though it doesn’t feel cheap, it lacks the rock solid feel of the LG’s. At first I was perplexed by the battery door design, but then I remembered how one piece batteries have a habit of ejecting from phones when they are dropped. My wifes LG4400 battery has even been accidentally released while in her pocket. The separate door/battery design should prevent this from happening.

Accessories-

-travel charger
-Manual
-Verizon disk
-Various warranty/promotional sheets

Not much here!. No charging cradle or holster is included. Since I haven’t used a plastic holster since someone stole my old Startac from it, it’s no loss. I do miss the ease of using a cradle, but cost cutting happens and If the phone came with a cradle I’d probably end up buying a travel charger eventually.

Video-

-Internal 176 x 220 TFT, 262k color display
-External 96 x 64, 4k color display

The high resolution internal display is stunning. It can wash out in direct sunlight. Contrast and brightness are adjustable in setup. The display has the now standard signal strength, service type, message alert and battery level indicators along the top edge. The battery indicator only has 3 segments and is a bit hard to read. Below the service indicators is a Verizon Wireless banner. Although you can change the banner in setup, the Verizon banner will return from time to time. Underneath the banner is the date. Below the date and slightly to the left are the 4 icons describing the direction pad functions. This display should be switchable through setup, but it isn’t. A seem edit (hack) is needed to remove it. In th lower right is the clock switchable between analog and digital. Below this is a tool bar that describes the functions of the 3 buttons directly below. The lower resolution outer display doesn't wash out in direct sun. The outer display has 4 distinct modes. The active display, after the flip is closed or a side button other than the camera button is pressed. This mode mimics the inside display with he same wallpaper, service icons on top, time in large legible font in the center and date on the bottom. Inactive mode dimmed with the time in white on a black background, difficult to see in dark areas but great in direct sun. The time display scrolls up and down the display every minute or so or so. When the camera is active and the flip closed, the display acts as as a viewfinder,good for those self portraits. The last mode is when the flip is opened, the display flips 180 degrees and shows your wallpaper and a Verizon Wireless banner.


Audio-

-MP3 player
-Speaker phone
-voice recorder
-Bluetooth headset

The phone has a working mp3 player with play lists. You will need a headset with 2.5mm plug or an adapter for the standard 3.5mm stereo headsets popular with walkmen/ipods. There is 40mb of shared memory for ring tones/mp3/picture/videos so if you plan on using the mp3 player, plan on buying a large (512mb max right now) transflash card. There are no external controls for the player beyond volume. The phone will access mp3’s for ring tones as well as Midi. There are 5 ringer modes, loud, soft, vibrate,ring then vibrate and silent. All but silent can have their own distinct set of ringers for calls, messages, alarms, data and fax. You can also select distinct ringers for each contact. Be aware that the vibrate mode on this phone is weak to the point of useless. If strong vibrate is important to you, you might want to stop reading this and search for another phone. The ear piece and external speakers are to the loud side, but not ear piercing. A huge improvement over the “quiet” Audiovox. The speakerphone works very well and will function with the phone closed. There have been reports of an echo issue with the speaker phone which I have yet to experience. The voice recorder is activated by holding the voice dial button (lower right side of phone). It’s optimized for small file size, not quality and there is no way to adjust the codec from setup. The quality is appropriate for quick audio notes and it has an acceptable range to ~10’-15’. Not owning a bluetooth headset, I can’t comment on the performance of the phone with one.

Camera-

-Still, 1.3 megapixel
-Video


The still camera is activated by either pressing the upper right side button, pressing the dedicated keypad button or via main menu > media gallery > camera. Once active with the flip open, you will see the camera view. Below the camera view is a picture description of the direction pads function, up/down for DIGITAL zoom,left/right for brightness. There is also a display of the approximate number of pictures remaining. The center menu button allows you to change where you store pictures, self timer, flash, contrast, image style (BW,color, negative, antique), picture title and picture setup. Shutter release is accomplished by pressing the camera buttons or the upper right keypad button. Pictures taken in sunlight are surprisingly good. Lowlight results are grainy. The flash isn’t really a flash at all, just a led light that turns on and stays on until you release the shutter. It’s only effective to ~2-3 feet and is probably best used as a flashlight to find a lost item in low light. As with all phone cams, the camera is best for carrying a few pics of the kids around, not taking that great shot you’ll be proud of. After taking a shot you have to choose to save the picture to a message or your pic place ($$), as a file (my preference), as wallpaper or to a contact. I never use Verizon's expensive service to save my photos off phone, instead using a cable/bluetooth. If you close the phone briefly after taking a shot, it will be automatically saved without the need to wade through a menu. If the phone is closed, the outside display becomes the viewfinder,suitable for self portraits. You will have to open the phone to save your shot. The video camera is accessed via the Main Menu > Media Gallery > Video Camera. The main video screen is identical to the still camera. Setup allows you to view recorded videos, switch between main memory and a transflash card, view free memory space and setup the video options. Video options include video length (short, long and maximum) though all videos seem to be ~ 15sec in length, lighting conditions (auto, sunny, cloudy, indoor, night) and turn sound off/on. The video’s are low quality and not suitable for playback on larger screens than the one on the phone. Good for a few videos of the kids.

Tools and Utilities-

-Contacts
-Messaging
-Datebook
-Calculator


The contact database can hold 1000 entries with 6 numbers/email addresses per name. The phonebook is accessed by pressing the upper right hank key. By default, the phonebook is set to be viewed by individual entries. This can be inconvenient and confusing with large numbers of entries. Selecting view by primary contacts in Contacts Setup will allow you to select a contact and then using the left/right directional keypad, select a number category (Work, home, main, mobile, fax, and pager). Email addresses are kept separately. The phonebook also defaults to “View by Picture” which severely limits the number of contacts on screen at any time, changing to “view by List” corrects this. The phonebook is quick to scroll through, can be sorted can category and quick searched via the keypad. Though quick search works well, it only accepts the first key press ie. Pressing “L” will get you to the first entry starting with L but you can’t refine your search with additional letters. I’m not an Datebook, instant message user, nor do I e-mail or fax from my phone so I can’t comment on these features. The calculator has all the basic functions as well as a currency converter that lets you set an exchange rate. There are no games included with the phone.

Services-

-Openwave web browser
-Get it Now
-Vcast

The phone includes a WAP 2.0 compatible web browser. The browser uses Verizon’s home page by default and can only be changed with a hack. Verizon charges $5 + airtime to use the web but throws it in INCLUDING airtime with a $15 Vcast subscription. The wireless web still needs work, although quicker in EVDO areas, it still stalls out at times and is confusing to use. Being stuck with Verizons home page is not a plus in my opinion. Get It Now is Verizons service for buying ring tones, wallpaper, apps and games. The pricing for ring tones and wallpapers is excessive with the purchase of a cable they can be added cost free ($0.49 + shipping on Ebay!). Along with the traditional arcade and trivia games available to modern phones, there are 3d higher quality (and higher priced) games that take advantage of the EVDO and processor capabilities of this phone. Vcast provides a news and entertainment content to the phone utilizing high speed EVDO. There is news updates from NBC and CNN, sports from Fox, ESPN and Nascar, entertainment from E!, Sesame Street, Comedy Central, VH1, weather by Accuweather as well as several other exclusive clips. Updates are made ~ every 3 hours for news and weather. The content might be useful to someone stuck in the boondocks, but the required EVDO is not available there. Because the service is slow to connect, lacking in content and slow to update, it is really only suitable to show someone else how cool your new phone is.


Opinion-

This is the best new phone I’ve had in years! The superior RF performance makes this phone shine. With some relatively easy hacking, (see the Motorola section of the Verizon forum at Howardforums.com) full bluetooth connectivity can be achieved, banners changed or removed and much more. I like the shortcut menu, easy accessible keys and functional speaker phone. Missing items include a usable vibrate mode, vibrate AND ring, notepad, ability to include addresses with contacts, desktop charger. Overall, though flawed, this is the best phone Verizon offers at this time. Of course, it will be obsolete in a couple of months when the next “must have” phone comes down the pike!

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 8
Recommended for: Professionals On-the-Go - Internet and Email is a Must!