Motorola e815 - best of a sorry lot at Verizon for Macs 



Verizon -- just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Years ago in New York City, I subscribed with Verizon Wireless but when I moved back to Massachusetts, they had little to offer in terms of cool phones that played nice with Macs and their prices were substantially higher than everyone else's. So I opted instead for AT&T Wireless and a nifty Sony Ericsson T68i phone that I later upgraded to a very nifty T616. It had Bluetooth and was completely compatible with Apple's iSync software so I could import all my contacts from my laptop and update as necessary in a painless and rapid sync. For an additional fee, I also got metered Internet access at mediocre speeds (a little worse than dial-up) by using the T616 as a Bluetooth modem with my laptop. It was good enough for email but not Web surfing. Network coverage was so-so with big dead spots along my commute here in the Boston area.

Time passes, needs change. After signing up for Verizon's high-speed wireless broadband recently, the former AT&T/now Cingular data service became superfluous. The cheap voice plan expired and my family already has a great Verizon family plan that could add me for just $10 a month. So when I saw that Verizon was finally offering a phone that could use iSync over bluetooth with my Mac, I threw in the towel and made the switch, acquring a Motorola e815. Getting my old phone number switched over was a breeze and 10 minutes after I left the Verizon store I could make and receive calls.

So far I can say that Verizon's network coverage is second to none, that's for sure. But now my phone is only so-so. For one, it's kind of huge (about 10% wider and thicker and about one-third heavier than the T616). I can't remember carrying such a heavy cell phone in ages and it doesn't fit comfortably in a pants or shirt pocket as the T616 did. There is also the less-than-intuitive Motorola interface that requires lots of menu navigating to accomplish simple things. It appears, for example, that contact categories and speed dial assignments can only be changed on the phone through much laborious clicking and reassigning. Finally, there are the much publicized and annoying Bluetooth limitations that Verizon has imposed -- you can't send photos or other files off the phone nor can you load ring tones and MP3s directly from your PC. You aren't supposed to be able to use the phone as a modem either although my phone does list an active dial-up networking profile that I haven't messed with.

I don't mean to be completely negative. I like having a clamshell phone that answers and hangs up based on opening and closing. And the e815 does, as advertised, sync beautifully with OS X Tiger (not earlier versions) over Bluetooth. I added 100 contacts with several hundred numbers and email addresses with iSync 2.1 in just a few minutes. On a Mac running Panther (10.3.9), I was able to pair with the phone but not synch. The e815 also has a great camera, for a cell phone, with a maximum resolution of 1.3 megapixels and a built-in flash. The inside and outside screens are colorful and viewable in bright sunlight and the keypad is roomy and easy to use. It also has a built-in speakerphone and a memory card slot (some format I'm not familiar with called transflash) for storing photos and even MP3 music files. The memory slot kind of begs the question -- if you can use a card to transfer photos off the phone, why not allow Bluetooth moves? Alas, no indication from Verizon that any changes are in store.

Bottom line -- it's the only iSync compatible phone with Bluetooth offered by Verizon around these parts and it will do, at least until something better comes along.

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Posted: Wed - August 24, 2005 at 08:04 AM          

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