Motorola Hollywood for Amp'd Mobile

With a name like Motorola Hollywood, a cell phone should have a lot of glitz and glam, yet Amp'd Mobile's newest handset is simply a rebranded version of the Motorola E815. Closely resembling its predecessor in many ways, the Hollywood isn't the most stylish cell phone on the market, but its features are certainly emblematic of Hollywood entertainment. Inside, you'll find a speedy EV-DO connection, a 1.3-megapixel camera, an MP3 player, and thanks to Amp'd Mobile, an all-3G MVNO riding Verizon's network. The Hollywood sets itself apart via a custom user interface with animated icons and snazzy entertainment features that include live shows and exclusive Amp'd content. With its smooth black exterior, it's also a better-looking phone than the gray E815. The Motorola Hollywood is $149, but you can get it for $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Like Verizon's E815, the Motorola Hollywood has a vibrant internal display, a colorful external screen, a speakerphone, a TransFlash card slot, and Bluetooth, along with, as mentioned, a 1.3-megapixel camera, an MP3 player, and 3G EV-DO support. Unfortunately, it also suffers from the same slippery keypad and touch-and-go EV-DO reception. (Read our review of the Motorola E815 for a full assessment of the phone's design and basic functionality.) As for the custom Amp'd interface, we find it to be very user-friendly, and we like the general look and design of the menu and the icons. There's also the Amp'd Live channel, which functions as the phone's media browser and player. You can purchase video clips from a variety of providers, ranging from NBC News to Comedy Central, as well as music files for about 99 cents each. You can read more about Amp'd Live's features in our review of Amp'd Mobile's other phone, the Kyocera Jet.

We tested the Motorola Hollywood (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) in San Francisco. Calls sounded loud and clear, and callers couldn't always tell we were on a cell phone. The EV-DO connection delivered speedy downloads and video streaming. Like the Kyocera Jet, however, the phone tended to freeze up, prompting a soft reset every once in a while. This happened most frequently when attempting to access Amp'd Live.

The Motorola Hollywood has a rated talk time of 4 hours, while it had 4 hours, 35 minutes of talk time in our tests. Rated standby time is 12 days, but we managed only 8 days. According to the FCC, the Motorola Hollywood has a digital SAR rating of 1.24 watts per kilogram.