HTC DROID Eris Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)

My highly opinionated review for a nearly flawless phone. November 25, 2009

Reviewer:  D. Fawson "music and game junkie"  (Lehi, UT USA) -

I had been watching the Droid for a while, and so when I received an Email notifying me of it's release, I headed on over to the Verizon Store on launch day. All of the employees were wearing shirts that said, "Droid does," and there was a small, but significant crowd in the corner right beside the entrance. There I saw a stand where some redneck was eying this blocky, shiny black phone. Abandoned, on the same display set-up, there was a lonely, small, much sleeker, touch screen phone I did not recognize. Still eager to take my turn with the Droid, I decided to play with this other one to pass the time.

It was not long at all before I realized that the unadvertised, un-hyped Droid Eris was vastly superior.

Let me start by comparing it to the Motorola Droid (MD) ([[ASIN:B002UUTCKC Motorola Droid A855 Phone (Verizon Wireless)]]). The MD Has hard edges, corners, and an unfriendly box shape. It has a thin slide-out keyboard, the keys of which have very little tactile feedback, and the rows aren't offset like a real keyboard. Also, on this slide-out panel, is a d-pad, which is almost completely unnecessary given the touch screen. The entire phone has a shiny smooth finish, making it really susceptible to scratches and fingerprints. The tech specs are a little better, with a faster cpu and a beautiful high resolution screen. Also the camera has a flash.

The Droid Eris (DE) on the other hand, is quite smaller, and has rounded edges (much like the iPhone.) It uses only the on-screen keyboard, which is not the best of all input methods, but most problems are averted by its handy correction feature. Also, like the iPhone, you can turn it on its side to enlarge the keyboard, making the problem of hitting the wrong key nearly disappear. The DE has a trackball, much like the Blackberry Pearl ([[ASIN:B001FWZAV6 BlackBerry Pearl 8130 Phone, Pink (Verizon Wireless)]],) and while this almost never comes into play, it's much nicer and has less of a primitive feel than the MDs d-pad. You can also have it light up for notifications. The phone has a silky smooth rubber coating on the back. That combined with the rounded edges makes it much easier to hold. The tech specs aren't on the mark with the MD, but thus far, I have yet to encounter any serious problems with speed. And, while it would be nice to have the higher resolution screen, this one does the job just fine.

They both run on Verizon's network, which, from what I've heard, is the best. Both use Google's Android OS, which is fantastic and wonderfully customizable. Although the MD uses a newer version, the DE is going to be supporting it soon.

These are the only problems I have run into with the Eris.

>The battery life isn't so great, especially if you are constantly browsing the internet and stuff, like I did the first couple of days. It's never gone out on me though, even once when I didn't charge for two days. But I recommend charging every night.
>The cracks around the edge of the screen seem to attract little bits of dirt, crumbs etc. which can take away the beauty of the phone, and it's hard to get them out.
>The music system isn't the best. Especially considering the battery life. Keep your iPod.

These are the things I LOVE about the phone:

>Accelerometers detect the orientation of the screen.
>Browse the internet anytime. Also, browser supports pinch zoom.
>Electrostatic (finger electricity detecting) touch screen much better than the pressure sensitive ones seen on cheap touch screen phones.
>Move icons on main screen anywhere. Put exactly what you want on main and sub screens and nothing else.
>High quality camera. With the highest settings, the picture is too high quality to send in a mms message. No flash, but hey. I didn't get this phone for the camera.
>Hundreds of free apps in the store (that can be made freely by anybody) to keep me entertained forever.
>My screen still has no scratches, despite being dropped into and pulled out of my pocket countless times since I got it release day.
>Although the port looks different, a standard Mini-USB will fit it. This means it is easy to find a usable cord for it, if you lose the provided one.

There's probably more, but why don't you find out for yourself? Buy it. You won't be disappointed.

Great functionality and sleek interface. November 11, 2009

Reviewer:  J. Hartlove "Infinity"  (Maryland) -

Well here we have it. The HTC Droid Eris from Verizon Wireless. This phone was openly criticized on electronic review sites such as [...] because it's going to be released with the Motorola Droid when the Motorola Droid offers Android OS 2.0 and this HTC model only offers 1.5. After owning both the phones for about a week and switching back and forth (yes, Verizon hates me), I'm overly satisfied with the HTC Droid Eris too. The phone does everything you could ever want with a very large app store and overall beautiful interface. The only 2 negative notes on the HTC Droid Eris would be that it could have a slightly faster processor and the battery life isn't exactly the best. When it comes to the comparison between the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris, the operating system shouldn't be a major concern because HTC does plan to offer a free upgrade to Android 2.0. The major differences are the processor speed, the amount of RAM, and the battery life. All of those categories the Motorola Droid slightly edges the HTC Droid Eris. They're both very good options, but if you're looking for something simpler and you're not going to be using your phone constantly throughout the day the HTC Droid Eris is for you!

Excellent phone for the money November 15, 2009

Reviewer:  Chad Adams  (Chicago, Illinois) -

I got 2 of these phones, one for me and my wife. I am extremely impressed with the ease of use with this phone, being able to use widget's to display information is an excellent tool to have. I can check my email, remotely control my desktop, or use the phone as a free modem. All using apps within the Android Market, and all for free.

I am the tech savvy one, but my wife doesn't have any issues using this phone. She is able to check her Facebook account regularly, take pictures and upload them with the touch of a button.

The Android OS combined with the Verizon Network just cant be beat.

I would strongly suggest getting a case & a screen protector. Screen protectors are easy to apply and do wonders to protect your screen.

Battery life is a little weak, but as long as you are not using applications for several hours a day you will be fine. As long as you charge your phone every night, you should have no problems.

Some of the programs are not compatible with the OS of this phone. Same with the DROID. When downloading applications at the market, be sure to read the reviews of the software. Most of them tell you compatibility issues.

NO TURN BY TURN GPS :( - The current OS of this phone does not support turn by turn GPS. This is being addressed in a patch, to be released before the end of the year.


Pros:
Ease of use
Functionality
Replaces every other gadget

Cons:
NO Turn by Turn GPS (being addressed soon)
Battery Life is a little weak

Droid Eris Freezing Issues Makes This Phone Useless December 18, 2009

Reviewer:  J. Merrion 

My wife and I bought new phones from Verizon. The Android operating system was the clincher. Its ability to rival many of the features of the iPhone, its open nature and good usability made it an easy choice for us. I bought the Motorola Droid, and my wife bought the HTC Droid Eris. I felt this was a better choice for her less technical inclinations, as HTC has customized the Droid interface to make it more user friendly than Motorola, which used Google's designed interface as-is. The Eris has some nice features, is relatively easy to use and has that iPhone look and feel. It is really thin, and I liked the touchball lighting up for notifications. Once you peel back the HTC customizations, I will say the 1.5 Android OS that came with her phone is not as user friendly as the 2.0 OS that came with my Motorola Droid, and the lack of support currently for GPS voice turn-by-turn directions is a bit of a bummer.

The reason this phone gets two stars is that it currently is deeply flawed. My wife replaced her Eris 3 times at Verizon, and now owns a Motorola Droid. Why? Well, it freezes constantly and you need to pull the battery out and reset it. The battery cover is not as easy to remove as the Droid's either...not necessarily a bad thing as I have had some issues with the Motorola's battery cover coming off when being pulled out of my pocket, but it isn't designed to be pulled out every day. She would have the Eris freeze while on calls or texting, and would have to reset the phone constantly. She returned the phone twice and got a replacement, and by the next day would experience the problem again. Verizon's forums have a good catalog of people recording this issue.

In conclusion, it would be nice to recommend this phone. There is a lot to like, but overall, I can not give it a good rating if it doesn't fulfill the basic need of working.

Just about 1 month of ownership. Synopsis: Going very well December 14, 2009

Reviewer:  J. J. Marino "Geekasaurus Rex"  (Rochester, New York) -

Replaced iPhone:
I got this phone just as it came out. It has been a very amazing phone to say the least. I replaced my iPhone with this. Mostly because ever since AT&T bought Cingular the service has been absolutely horrible. It could be my area but I do live in a semi-large city.

New friend:
The Droid Eris seemed unremarkable on the surface. The screen is a bit smaller and it looked like it would not be all that impressive with regards to the apps. Within the first week I saw it had serious battery issues sprouting up. I will list some tips to circumvent these issues until we get Android 2.0 on the Eris (see below).

Since owning it a while I have completely fallen in love with this phone! It is very light, the OS is super intuitive, and there are several fora out on the web where you can find help and tips for the phone. Being it is an open source operating system and the apps are able to be developed with little or no restriction, I see this phone/OS as a real contender to the iPhone. Dont get me wrong Apple is sure to come out with a new killer phone that will blow us all away, for now it is getting a bit long in the tooth and it is great that there are other options out there for we consumers to go to. I would have stayed with the iPhone if it wasn't for the horrible AT&T service.

For the pro's I am going to mention things that are included with unlimited data package. When you get the unlimited data, select the cheaper one unless you need to connect to your companies email. The 2 data plans do not mention that both are unlimited but they both are, and if your just using the phone for everything but corporate email, choose the cheaper one. Then call Verizon to verify that you have the unlimited. Good thing I did right after I got the phone because the kind person on the other end changed my plan for me and saved me nearly $200 a year.

Pros:
>> The apps are really great. Surfing these on the phone is particularly easy.
>> Google voice search is amazing. I even tried using a silly accent and it still searched google 100% correctly.
>> Pandora - Its like having a personal satellite radio for your car that you pick the music for. Get Pandora free.
>> Good call quality
>> Small thin- form factor
>> Easily customizable
>> Google maps on the fly
>> Standard mini-usb for power, so anything that connects to power via mini USB can be used on this phone. Example my GPS came with a car charger mini-USB so I didnt need to get another cable to charge this in my car. At home I connect it to my laptop via my mini-usb external HD cable. I have yet to plug this into the wall charger.

Cons:
<< As of today (Dec 14) the battery drain issue has not been 100% resolved. This is because the phone does not fully go to sleep (see tips below).
<< Blank screen 5 seconds into call can cause you to hang up by getting the screen back (example when dialing codes).

Tips for ownership:
Until the battery issue is resolved here is how you can save your battery life.
Most battery life:
1) turn on and swipe down to unlock * Hold hang-up button down a few seconds and release * In Phone Options turn Mobile Network off. (this turns off internet and gps connectivity) Your phone is now just a phone but the battery lasts for days instead of hours.
Small battery life boost:
2) when at home use your wireless network to connect via WiFi. Gives a good boost to battery life.
3) Turn screen brightness down to 25%

Overall this phone being so new has some minor issues. If you go out every day and when you come home plug the phone in to charge you will not see any major issues. Its if you forget it overnight then you may see a dead battery in the morning. Verizon and HTC have hinted that sometime mid January Eris will get Android 2.0 which will include turn by turn gps/google maps for free. Right now you can purchase a couple of large and expensive GPS apps for this phone, hold off until next month or so and you should see this built in.

Thank you for reading my review.

Eris Gives Other Droid Based Phones a Run For their Money November 25, 2009

Reviewer:  B. Norton  (Illinois, USA) -

I was in the market for a smart phone, especially after reading about the Google Android OS. I have a Verizon contract, making it relatively easy to buy either the HTC or Motorola based systems. After watching some interesting YouTube reviews and reading more about each phone, I chose the HTC Eris

Pluses
1) Uses the Google contacts in my Gmail account system, making the transition instantaneous upon powering up. Whenever you change your Google contacts, your phone is automatically updated.
2) Slim size and rounded corners - I prefer a sleeker look to my cell phone.
3) Hundreds of helpful applications to choose from, including the bar code scanner - check online prices out while you shop in the mall.
4) WiFi and 3G switchable - it easily goes between my home, my office and my favorite hot spots with ease.
5) No pesky flip keyboard - This may be a plus or a minus. For me, I like the way the phone seems to know exactly what key the middle of my finger pushes. When I tried to use one of my old Palm styluses, they didn't work. After about 10 minutes, I was texting with no problems using my thumbs just like my old phone.
6) Google maps with GPS! I put a mount on my bicycle to help me see exactly where I'm going and how close I am to my goal.

Minuses
1) Lack of documentation or helpful tips sheets. It was trial and error to find the right applications in the Marketplace section. If you have specific needs, there probably is an application for that! But, be prepared to search.
2) Battery life when using GPS navigation - I like the applications that show where the red light and speed cameras are. But be prepared to have your battery life drop off! A car charger is a must for longer road trips.

Overall, it has been a great experience. I do recommend buying a set of plastic screen covers as well as a case to help protect the phone. I am using it more than any other phone, including my former Blackberry! Enjoy and good luck!

Wow! This is the perfect phone! December 6, 2009

Reviewer:  J. Russell 

The HTC Droid Eris surprises you with an amazing operating system and well built hardware. Comparisons are hard to avoid with the iPhone, which has proven to be the benchmark for touchscreen smart phones and the overly hyped Moto Droid. I went to the Verizon store to buy a Moto Droid and found it to be poorly built. It looks terrible, feels terrible, and I couldn't type anything on that keyboard. Then I noticed the Droid Eris on the same shelf and before I picked it up I could tell the Eris was a solid phone. I have owned it for a week now and I'm still impressed.

The build quality is fantastic, clean lines, feels good in your hands, brilliant screen, thin yet solid like a brick, and a wonderful rubberized matte black finish, which does not show fingerprints or scratches and will not slide around on smooth surfaces. This is my first HTC, but it won't be my last.

The phone is well thought out. Android is great and with HTC's Sense UI it is slick, completely customizable and easy to use. I'm a Apple guy, I like their products. I own a 64 gb touch and have used the iPhone before. The Eris's only flaw compared to the Apple products is the music player. I want my phone ready to answer calls so I don't want it connected to my home or car stereo anyway. I use my touch for music and movies and use the Eris for everything else. I couldn't be happier.

I have multiple email accounts and with the Eris they can all be managed easily and separately for notification options. HTC includes many widgets for email, txt mssging and my favorite, your favorite contacts widget, all phones should have that one. I use google voice and android's integration with it is seamless. There is just too much good stuff packed into this device to tell here.

With all phones like the Eris, battery life is an issue. You can't have a device like the Eris or iPhone 3GS and not have to charge it everyday. It is just that simple. Sure you could dim the screen, keep the WiFi and Bluetooth shut off and only make calls to get normal battery life but why own a smart phone then? Learning how to use the Eris I spent 5 hours straight making calls, browsing the internet, using WiFi and Bluetooth, syncing my email, playing with every widget, changing all the settings, downloading apps and using them... Basically worked the phone as hard as possible and I needed to charge it when I was done. That said, with typical usage it lasts all day. I like full batteries so I will charge it at night and every time in the car. For a sleek, fully customizable phone on Verizon, look no further than the Droid Eris.

Also, HTC will be updating the Eris's operating system to android 2.0 or 2.1 soon.

Great Smartphone Choice December 30, 2009

Reviewer:  Audio Slave 

This is a great "smartphone" choice, especially at the contract price.

Pros:
Nice screen with lots of customization options for the interface. The custom HTC Sense UI that it uses is an improvement over the standard Android interface, with lots of cool widgets.

The sound quality is good. Some others have complained of issues with background hiss, but I haven't experienced this. Voice quality has been good in general in various locations, even with only a bar of service. Audio quality for music is OK with decent headphones, not amazing. In general, this seems to work very well as a phone which is something other smartphones seem to sometimes not be great at. Can't tell how much of that is the phone versus the Verizon network, though. I've used this out in the middle of nowhere in a basement and still been able to make/ receive calls and get 3G service.

Uses a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so no goofy adapters are required.

There are lots of useful apps available through the Android market.

It has 2 physical buttons (whereas some other phones don't have any) which I like.

It's fairly easy to use (although see note below about documentation or lack thereof). This is fun to use!

The phone is lightweight and thin with smooth edges. It's much easier to put in your pocket or hold while talking than the Motorola Droid, which is one of the reasons I bought this. This feels more like a phone. I also like the feel of the soft-touch rubberized case.

Could be a Pro or a Con, depending on your outlook:
When on voice calls, you can hear a little of your voice in the part you have up to your ear. I like this feature a lot, as it somewhat replicates what happens with land line phones and I find it encourages you to not talk as loudly as some people normally do on cell phones. That's a very good thing. However, it may take some getting used to.

I find the battery usage is pretty good for a smartphone, but you may feel differently depending on what you are comparing to. It does better if you turn off services you are not using at the moment, such as turning off WiFi, Bluetooth, or GPS when not in use, and turning off the automatic Gmail sync (I just hit Refresh to sync when I want to rather than leaving the auto sync on). If you leave absolutely everything on, you might not get much battery life. For my typical usage (phone calls, misc web browsing, syncing with Gmail multiple times throughout the day, listening to internet radio occasionally, and watching a video or two throughout the day) it does fine. You will probably have to recharge every evening, but I have no problems having it make it through an 18 hour day and sometimes there has still been charge left after 24 hours when I forgot to charge it. The initial battery life problems that some others have complained about elsewhere were taken care of by a firmware update that happened automatically the first time I powered up the phone to set it up.

Some might not like the lack of a physical keyboard. I thought I would be one of those people, but I find the on screen keyboard to work really well after a little getting used to it. And I really like the thinner profile you can have without the keyboard. I would also thing that the reliability might be better without having the slider mechanism of a physical keyboard. I did try some other phones with physical keyboards and found many of them to be pretty awful, and this soft keyboard is certainly no worse than those. This is the custom HTC soft keyboard which I understand is much improved over the standard soft keyboard that comes with other Android phones, and is supposedly one of the best. There is a calibration feature that you can use to improve how it works for you. I recommend waiting to do the calibration after you've used the keyboard for a little bit, or if you calibrate initially then re-calibrate after you've gotten more experience with it.

This has a sensor to turn off the screen when you put the phone up to your head, to help prevent accidentally dialing or activating features when you are talking. While this is very handy, it can be annoying if you are calling in to an automated phone system where you have to enter in a lot of numbers and work your way through the menus because when you initially pull the phone from your ear the screen will be blank. I find it works best in these situations to quickly "flip" the phone away from your ear and move your hand so the phone is laying flat in your hand. That seems to make the screen turn on again the quickest. You can turn this feature off if you want, though.


Cons:
Doesn't come with a manual or any other instructions or documentation. Although this phone is relatively easy to use, to get the most benefit from the extremely customizable interface you may want to download the available PDF manual, though. It does walk you through the basic setup the first time, however, so you can get up and running without a manual.

No bluetooth voice dialing, as mentioned by another reviewer. This is a limitation of the Android operating system, not of this phone, and will hopefully be fixed in a future software update. This isn't really an issue for me but might be a concern for others.

Although this comes with Google Navigation, the free turn-by-turn Google directions is not yet available for this phone because of the version of Android that it uses. However, Verizon has indicated that the OS will be updated in the first quarter of 2010 and the free turn-by turn Google directions should be able to work then. In the meantime, there are other apps (both free and paid) that will get you turn-by-turn directions now if you need it.

In general, the phone isn't perfect but it is very, very good. It's an excellent choice for someone who wants the smartphone features but also likes to use their phone as an actual phone.

Still on the fence about keeping it - December 14, 2009

Reviewer:  Mark Fradl  (Austin, TX United States) -

I'm within my 30-day-return period that Verizon offers, and not sure if a touchscreen is the way I want to go. I would say if your primary use is texting and email, you might want to stick to one with a physical keyboard of the Blackberry style.

***
Edit: 12/27


I know I'm only listing the negative points, but there are about 10,000 reviews online singing the phone's praises, so I thought there was no need to share what they did right.

* The battery life is atrocious (all I have to compare it with is my old 'dumb' cellphone, which could go days without a charge)- it's nice that it can recharge via a standard USB-to-mini cord, however.

* The tiny vertical keyboard is maddeningly frustrating (I often need to be able to work the phone one-handed so horizontal is out of the question). Yes, the auto-correction is very good for most mistypes, the problem is the space bar is so close to the period and the BACK key, and hitting either of those means having to stop and correct. Also, if you don't realize that the phone guessed the wrong word until you have typed the message you have to use the crappy little trackball-thing to move the cursor to the word to correct it - no easy task.

* The row of main keys - Home, Menu, Back, and Search, are "soft-keys", not buttons, so when typing it's easy to activate them by accident.

* The apps are very inconsistent so far. I have three weather programs - the standard one that comes with the phone and two apps. None of them seem to keep accurately updated even though I have them all set to stay updated. The other morning it was 32 degrees, but one program told me it was 51 and another told me the high that day was going to be 90.

* Although it allows you to 'pinch-and-zoom' on web pages, it doesn't allow that on Google Search results, so it's very frustrating trying to click the correct object on the page. More often than not it selects the wrong one and I have to wait for it to load then hit BACK.

* Since I'm on the road a lot, one of the reasons i wanted to try this phone is because of an app that allows you to voice-text: the program transcribes what you say into a text message. Unfortunately it mangles what you say into a jumble of random words. I've tested it about 30 times and it hasn't gotten it right yet. On the bright side, its guesses are so laughably wrong that it made for a fun party game i.e "We can meet at the club at about 6 o'clock for drinks" became "wikimedia clubhouse clock for drinks" --- on the other hand, the voice-to-text option for the Google search has worked well every time


EDIT - 12/27

* Not sure if this is just a bug on my phone, but the ringtones have no pause between them. That means that my 1 second-ish ringtone plays back-to-back 7 times then goes to Voice Mail. Annoying on two counts - first, doesn't give me much time to get the phone, and second the sensation of those tones playing in rapid succession makes my phone sound like an alarm screaming out a warning of impending disaster.

* Often, when you hit the wrong button or link you have to wait for the action to fully go through before clicking BACK -- you can't cancel it. Sometimes it take 10 or 20 seconds for it to load a page or program, that's a long time to wait to jump back and do what you wanted to do.

* Hanging up the phone can be buggy at times -- I sometimes think I've hung up and I haven't. Potentially embarrassing if you start talking to someone else in person without realizing the other person on the phone is still listening.

EDIT - 1/4

* Unlike every other phone I've owned, the calendar program only rings an appointment reminder once - there's no option for repeating it. So unless you are babysitting the phone you'll miss any reminders. It's just so frustrating all the basic things this phone gets wrong!

No Bluetooth hands-free dialing - possible dealbreaker December 26, 2009

Reviewer:  eric harrison  (silver spring, md) -

I was on the fence about purchasing this phone because of the $30/month additional cost of the data plan, but perhaps that could be rationalized away. And according to some web research, there are some adjustments that can improve the battery life problem. But during that same research I learned that unless you're doing hands-free Bluetooth dialing in some Bluetooth-equipped vehicles, that feature isn't supported. (yep, that basic years-old feature is currently NOT part of the phone - amazing, n'est-ce pas?) A visit to a brick-and-mortar Verizon store confirmed this. And there's no clear indication if/when this shortcoming will be addressed. If a software update for this is released, then and only then will I consider this phone.