Verizon Droid

Laptop Mag has a review of the HTC Droid Eris. Here are some of the highlights:
3.5/5 stars.

The $99.99 (with two-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate) Droid Eris is the smart phone for Verizon Wireless customers who are looking for something more pocket friendly and affordable than the Motorola Droid. While the Eris doesn’t have the latest Android 2.0 operating system or that other Droid’s high-resolution display, you get the intuitive Sense user interface and very good Facebook and Twitter integration. Add in a rock solid industrial design and a first-class Web browser (complete with multitouch support), and you have one of the best smart phones under $100. However, the Eris is not necessarily a better deal than its $179 cousin on Sprint.

Verdict:

The HTC Droid Eris has a lot going for it. We love its Sense user interface and slick design. Assuming you don’t need a hardware keyboard, the Eris is a better choice than the Motorola Droid for those who want to travel light. If you’re already on Verizon, the Eris is the carrier’s best smart phone under $100. However, if your contract is up (or almost up) the HTC Hero on Sprint is an even better deal.

We’ve seen the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris from Verizon Wireless so far, but apparently there is a third Verizon Android handset waiting in the wings, if rumors are to be believed.
Rumors are that it will be the HTC Passion, which is supposedly powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset (the Passion might also be called the Dragon). The rumor mill (from Boy Genius, Phone Arena, and elsewhere) claims that the HTC Passion will feature a 5-megapixel camera, a large WVGA-resolution screen with multitouch, a 3.5mm headset jack, 256MB RAM, and it’s said to run Android 2.0 with the HTC Sense overlay.

[source: Cnet]

There’s no doubt about it, the HTC Droid Eris is one of the best smartphones we’ve used. Like the nearly identical Sprint HTC Hero, it represents a serious step forward in smartphone design, and if you’re a smartphone user looking to step up to something better, the HTC Droid Eris does a great job at nearly everything it can do. Ironically, comparisons to the Apple iPhone 3GS don’t quite pan out, because everything Apple’s phone does well, the Droid Eris doesn’t, and vice versa. From advanced calling features to deep social networking integration to wide customization options with active, useful widgets on the desktop, the HTC Droid Eris on Verizon Wireless bests Apple’s device, and even comes in ahead of the slightly faster, much larger Motorola Droid. But where the Apple iPhone 3GS excels, in ease of use, multimedia features and the deep App Store library, loaded with high-end games and apps, the HTC Droid Eris, like all Android phones, falls flat. We’d also like to see a much better camera tacked on this phone, and Verizon would be wise to patch up some holes in the feature set with VZ Navigator and tethered modem support. Still, the Droid Eris isn’t just effective, it’s delightful, and though new smartphone buyers might be intimidated by the complex system, time spent learning the ins and outs of the device will be rewarded handsomely. Release: November 2009. Price: $100.

Pros: Best interface on a mobile device. Social networks integrate neatly with online contacts and calendars. Detailed and useful information presented during calls.

Cons: Interface may be too complicated for new users. Lacks GPS turn-by-turn navigation. Camera is horrible.

Score – 81% Very Good

Read the full review in Info Sync World

It’s apparently not common knowledge that there are actually two Droids: the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris. They’re both Android-based phones, but significantly different in form and firmware. The Motorola Droid is a slider phone with a large screen and a physical keyboard that runs Android 2.0. The Droid Eris is cheaper, with a slower CPU and no dedicated GPU, but it’s also far slicker than the Motorola Droid.
The initial layout of Android 1.5 on the Eris is quite pleasing. The home screen offers a customizable selection of application shortcuts and a heads-up display with the current time and weather. Off to each side of this screen are three “desktop” screens that can be populated with widgets, application shortcuts, or any mixture of the two. The standard widgets, including an e-mail quick-viewer and a text messaging app, are extremely handy. The e-mail quick-viewer, for example, shows the last received e-mail and lets you flip back in your inbox easily, without opening the full e-mail client.

On the other desktop screens, you can easily drop in launchers for any application, additional widgets such as the one for Google search, and shortcuts to common tasks such as turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on or off. Once you grok the concept of having multiple configurable screens rather than, say, the iPhone’s launcher-only screens, you’ll appreciate the wealth of possibilities.

Read the full review at Infoworld

4/5 starts for the HTC Droid Eris at Cnet:
THE GOOD: The HTC Droid Eris offers a slim design, plentiful features, and satisfying performance. It also has pinch and zoom multitouch.

THE BAD: The HTC Droid Eris has mixed multimedia quality. It comes only with the Android 1.5 OS, there’s no file manager, and internal performance was occasionally sluggish.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Though performance wasn’t completely top-notch and we would prefer a more recent Android OS version, the HTC Droid Eris is a satisfying Android device that offers a nice contrast to the Motorola Droid. And you can’t beat the price.

If the Motorola Droid is too much and too expensive an Android phone for you, Verizon now offers an entry level Android phone, the HTC Droid Eris, for half the price ($99 with contract and post-rebate). Even though oddly named for the Greek god of strife, Eris provides anything but. Essentially a slightly spruced-up version of the HTC Hero from Sprint, Eris is a quick powerhouse packed with a 5 MP camera, WiFi and visual voicemail, and offers seven home screens, four more than the more expensive Droid.

Verizon took its sweet time jumping into the Android marketplace, but the carrier has quickly jumped into the fore of Andoid phone suppliers. Eris is an excellent and inexpensive Introduction to Android for its subscribers looking for an iPhone alternative. While its short battery life is annoying, Eris is an outstanding phone in every other way.

read the full review at Digital Trends]

Verizon’s full video demo of the HTC Droid Eris

Matthew Miller from ZDNet calls the HTC Droid Eris the best $100 smartohone. Here’s why:

…because the form factor is so compelling. It is wrapped in black soft touch material, it is narrow so it feels like a phone, it is thin, it is dense, and it has curves that make a supermodel envious…HTC was able to pack in their awesome Sense UI into the ERIS at this low $100 price point

Compared to the Motorola DROID, we see this device with a sleeker form factor, better performing camera, and the Sense UI (with all the great HTC widgets and customizations) while the DROID has the a slightly faster processor, larger higher resolution display, hardware QWERTY keyboard, and vanilla Googla Android experience with support for the new Google Maps Navigation beta. The Motorola DROID runs Android 2.0 while the HTC DROID ERIS runs Android 1.5. Which Google Android device do you find more compelling on Verizon?

The HTC DROID Eris will go on sale alongside the Motorola DROID tomorrow, priced at a bargain $99 with a new two-year contract.
Here are some pictures of the HTC DROID Eris box:

[Source: Slash Gear]

HTC’s first “DROID” phone is nothing more than a rebadged, shape-shifted Hero, and that it’ll be launching on Verizon on November 6th, the same day as Motorola’s DROID. That means Android 1.5 “Cupcake,” Sense UI, 3.2-inch screen, 528MHz processor and so forth. The Eris will retail for $199 but with a $100 mail-in rebate. It’ll pack in an 8GB microSD card and the hopes and dreams of a generation of cheapskates that will be hopin’ and prayin’ that HTC manages to push Android 2.0 onto this thing so they don’t look too bad in front of their DROID-toting buddies on Verizon.

[source: EngadgetMobile]