A Droid that gets to work and play

When you're talking about Droids, there are some that stand out and then others that do diligent work all while being in the background. The Droid Eris by HTC that Verizon sent over is not the focus of a massive campaign like its bigger brother, the Droid. But outside of the spotlight, without all of the attention, the Droid Eris is working and doing its job pretty well. You could say that the Droid Eris is the R5-D4 to the Droid's R2-D2. You see, while R2-D2 went on to live a life paired with Luke Skywalker, R5-D4 had to keep working. Similarly, while the Droid gets propped up as a iPhone competitor, the Droid Eris plods along with some pretty nice features itself.

There are a couple of key differences between the HTC Droid Eris and the more costly and bigger Motorola Droid. Easy to point out is the Droid Eris lacks a camera flash, but there is the same 5.0MP rating on the camera. There's also no keyboard to slide out, instead the Eris relies on its touchscreen for input. The Eris also ships with a smaller microSD card, rating only 8GB to the Droid's 16GB. It is upgradeable though, so you can pop in a 16GB card if you have one. The most important feature lacking though is on the software side. The Eris only runs Android OS 1.5, which lacks some very important features that are available in 2.0 (like the turn-by-turn) navigation.

The Droid Eris is in a different weight class than the Droid too. It weigns in at a light 4.23 ounces compared to 5.96 ounces, and measures 4.45" x 2.19" x 0.51" compared to 4.56" x 2.36" x 0.54", so if you're looking to drop some bulk out of your pocket, the Eris could be worth a look. The Eris's smaller size also means a smaller screen and it's not as pixel packed as the Droid. Measuring at 3.2" with a resolution of 320x480, the Eris has the same pixel count as the iPhone with a slightly smaller screen.

To do a quick comparison between the two, we'll look at the specs provided for the Droid.

DROID with Google™ by Motorola
Talk and Standby Time: Droid: TT: 385 mins/6.4 hours SB: 270 hours/11.25 days Eris: TT: 214 Minutes SB: 373 hours
Form Factor: Droid: Capacitive Touch; Full Qwerty Side Slider Eris: Capacitive touch: Touchscreen Qwerty keyboard
Band/Modes: Same for both: 800/1900, CDMA EVDO rev A
OS: Droid: Android 2.0 Eris: Android 1.5
Weight : Droid: 169g/5.96oz Eris: 4.23oz
Dimensions: Droid: 2.36" x 4.56" x .54" Eris: 2.19" x 4.45" x 0.51"
Display: Droid: 3.7”, 480x854 WVGA Eris: 3.2" 320x480 HVGA

Hardware:

The Droid Eris is an impressive piece of hardware. Without the slider keyboard, the Eris is thinner and lighter and ultimately less bulky. One of my favorite aspects of the Droid though is missing in the Eris. The stunningly large 3.7" screen has shrunk to 3.2" and the extra resolution is lost too.The processor is also different, the Eris runs a Qualcomm MSM7600 Processor at 528MHz isntead of the Arm Cortex A8 processor running at 550MHz that's in the Droid. There's still enough power and I didn't run into any issues.

Gone with the Wind

In the Droid review, I noted that the Droid packed 409,920 pixels on to the screen. That almost tripled the number on the screen of the Pre and iPhone. You can lump in the Eris with the group of limited pixels. Gone is the sharpness that the extra pixels provided. Text is still readable, and it doesn't detract too much, because the screen is still quality. But the Droid had a clear advantage with regards to the screen, and now with the Eris that advantage is gone.

Use more than one

Some handset manufacturers have expanded upon the base OS for Android and added some multitouch gesture support. That means you can use more than one finger while your browsing the web or looking at pictures. The screen is glass and is a capacitive touchscreen just like the Droid which means you'll be able to use it best with just your finger. While hanging out in my pocket and keys, the Droid Eris has been pretty much scratch resistant. I've never bought a screen protector for a device I've owned, but there are plenty available should you need one. Like most touch screen phones, the Eris is a fingerprint magnet, but a quick cltohing makes it fine again.

Just like the Droid, I found the touchscreen to be pretty responsive, and the addition of the multitouch support adds a lot. It was great to be able to pinch to zoom in on pictures and web pages, but you still couldn't hit two letters at once while texting. The hold screen is different again, this time you drag the page down, instead of dragging it across to unlock the phone.

A bigger USB port

While the Droid sports a standard MicroUSB port, HTC chose to use a MiniUSB port for the Eris. It's still a standard port, but one that a lot of manufacturers are moving away from. Just like the Droid, the Eris sports a bevy of other wireless connectivity options with WiFi and Bluetooth v2.0 (which synced just fine with my car for both phone calls and music).

There's no hiding

The

physical keyboard is gone on the Eris. Instead you'll be relying on the touchscreen setup offered by the Android software. I am convinced it has one of the nicer touchscreen options available, giving multiple options of available words that it thinks you're typing.

The Android software provides a touchscreen in both vertical and horizontal modes, I found myself more capable with the horizontal keyboard because of the added room offered.

I'm still partial to a physical keyboard myself, but having it gone made for a lighter phone, which a lot of people may want instead.

Not going to light up the room

I think there should be a mandate that cell phone cameras should have a flash. It limits what you can do in an almost unnecessary way. To save money and space, manufacturers cut out the flash. But I want a flash. The 5.0MP camera that would be great in almost any situation is now just great in situations that are already lit. I'd prefer a smaller MP camera with a flash to a larger MP one without. It just seems like a waste to toss such a large sensor in there and not have one. I'm still shaking my head.

That being said, I love taking pictures using the scroll button instead of pushing something on the screen. It makes it easier for taking pictures while looking at the lens instead of the screen.

I liked the video recordings I took on the Eris. It seemed to provide pretty smooth video, even while moving the phone. As I said with the Droid review, your cell phone is not going to replace a handheld camera or even your Flip video record, but it's pretty capable.

A changeable battery that's hidden

The Droid Eris has a battery that's a bit smaller than the Droid, it meaures 1300 mAh, but it's still interchangeable. One nice part about the Eris in comparison to the Droid, is that it's battery cover is much more hidden. The back of the phone is a single piece that snaps on and off and has a flush back. I lean towards phones that can have the battery replaced, just because it's an added convenience. In my testing, I never ran into battery life problems. I ran applications, talked for a good chunk of time, listened to music and was still able to make it through the day. I don't see battery life being an issue, but there are certainly users out there who might be able to kill the battery beforethe day is up. In that case, just pick up a second and make sure it's charged.

The Software

The hardware end is a pretty nice compilation of features packed into a relatively cheap device. On the software end, there's some skimping because the Droid Eris runs Android OS 1.5 instead of 2.0. While 1.5 is an improvement over the original Android 1.0, I miss some features from the 2.0 upgrade. That being said, it's still one of the better cell phone ecosystems out there.

The Droid Eris is best used if you have a Google Account because you get access to the full feature set. If you don't have a Google Account, you lose access to GMail, Google Talk, contact sync with Cloud, Latitude (a feature of Google Maps), calendar and the Android Market. Google accounts are free of charge to setup and use.

HTC has modified the traditional Android home screen for the Eris. It's added a bevy of improved widgets and a bar along the bottom that replaces the flip menu that shows all of your applications. The bar has a sliding line that shows you about where you are on the menu, a menu button, a phone button and a shortcut button to add items to the home page. I really prefer the setup that HTC has compared to the traditional Android setup. The widgets just look nicer. The clock with the calendar and temperature is fantastic, and there are other, similarly useful widgets for email, texts and twitter. The software also allows you to setup what it calls a scene. The default options are work, social, play and HTC. Additionally, you can save custom scenes based on what you want on your homepage. If I was using the device permanently, I could see myself setting up a couple of different versions, but in testing I primarily used one.

You can download more widgets on the Android Market to further customize the phone, and just like on the Droid my favorite widget was the power control one. It lets you control each of major power draining options on the phone, including WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and phone brightness. Same as last time, the first place I headed after setting up the home page, was the Android Market, to load the phone up with free apps.

A place to go shopping

The Android Marketplace boasts more than 10,000 apps inside. That's about a tenth as many as Apple's AppStore which breached 100,000. Palm's AppCatalog has a modest 413 as of this writing. That's a huge discrepancy between each.

The Android Marketplace is not nearly as large as the AppStore, but still has a mature enough system that there are enough apps to get what you want on your phone. My first downloads were Pandora, Twidroid and some games. Playing free games is a wonderful thing, and

definitely something you should take advantage of, because you don't have to pay $5 to check something out. For my review, I stuck to the free apps on the Marketplace, but there are tons of apps at many different prices that you can fill out your phone with.

I've got your message right here

Just like on the Droid, the Eris synced with both my GMail account and my work's Exchange email account. The push features for both GMail and Exchange mean I get my emails immediately when they come in. The emails all go to where they're supposed to if you already have filters set up, so you won't be alerted to emails that you don't want to be. It's great to have folders in Exchange and Labels in GMail translate to the phone. You get use the software to sync your emails as short as one day, or every single one if that's yoru choosing.

Text and picture messaging are also pretty nice on the Eris. Messages are threaded per person and have a kind of instant messenger look to the list.

Multitouch makes it better

HTRC gave the Droid Eris multitouch, and the browser gets even better because of it. Android already offers one of the best mobile Internet platforms, and the multitouch addition helps it even more. You don't have to double tap to zoom in and instead can pinch exactly the amount you want. I'd still rank it behind the WebOS browser on the Pre and Mobile Safari browser on the iPhone though, just because I feel they're a little bit more fluid. The Droid Eris also lacks the extra resolution that the Droid had which made reading pages nicer.

Make sure it's on your schedule

Here's what I wrote about the Droid's Calendar: The calendar features of the Droid seperate your Google Calendar and Corporate Calendar. There is no integration between the two as you may have seen on the Palm Pre. This doesn't bother me too much, because I don't use the calendar a tremendous amount. But if you're someone who relies on using multiple calendars to balance both work and business you'll have to use both. The corporate calendar synced perfectly with my Exchange account. Additionally, events that I set on the phone could be emailed to other people, just like in Outlook. Both calendars work well, but lack the depth offered by having multiple calendars integrated into one menu. It's still a capable setup though." The same thing is true of the Droid Eris. You can schedule your entire life on either calendar, or use both. It's a nice setup, though I wish that you could have everything on one, with the nice color coding offered by the Pre.

Do more than one thing at a time

Android OS is designed to let you do more than one thing at a time. That means while listening to Pandora, you can check out a website, read your contacts and send a text message with an easy push of a button. Jumping between recently used applications is easy. All you have to do is hold down the home button and it pops up a menu, pick the one you want and you're there.

This is exactly what I want in a mobile device. I want to be able to do more than one thing at a time. Getting a text message telling me to check Twitter, and then running the Twitter app and responding to the text is much quicker when the applications are all running simultaneously. Plus, if you were playing a game at the time, you don't have to shut it down when you get alerted to the message by the wonderful notification bar.

I still find the multi-window nature of the Pre a bit more friendly for switching apps, but Android's software is better than being locked in.

Don't say you missed it

I just mentioned the notification bar, and how I thought it was wonderful. It's a fantastic alert feature. Icons pop into the pop bar of the device when something new happens. That means you could have an email, text message or fresh tweets, an application could be finished downloading, or there could be a new song playing in Pandora. All you have to do is drag it down, tap on the link, and it takes you to the program.

It's not intrusive and you can choose to ignore things and leave them in the bar. If you want to dismiss them, flick them away, or clear them all by hitting the button. Just don't say you missed it, because it was there.

You can still talk on it

The Droid Eris doesn't forget that it's a good phone. The phone is loud and clear. I didn't have any problems on speakerphone or when connected to my car. I found the coverage in my area great and ran into no probelms. I say this in every review though, even though Verizon has more "good coverage zones" than other carriers, you still have to do your due diligence to make sure the phone works for you. When you pick it up from the store, make sure you take a trip to every spot you'll use your phone. You don't want to go to your cottage next spring and find out your coverage is awful, because you won't be able to cancel your service without paying a huge penalty. Don't assume that since your coverage is great with your current provider, that it'll