HTC Droid Eris gets unboxed, hands-on

Posted on 06-11-2009

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While the Motorola Droid is getting all the attention at its U.S. launch today, telecom carrier Verizon Wireless has another little Android device in store for enthusiasts, at a much cheaper price. The $99 HTC Droid Eris is a revamped, CDMA version of the popular HTC Hero, (thankfully) without the ugly chin!

A few of sites have already got their hands on the new handset and initial reviews seem neither here nor there. While they unanimously agree that it’s a great phone for the price point, most of the reviewers would prefer to spend an extra $100 to buy the Motorola Droid instead.

While asserting its “budget-friendly charm”, Engadget made it a point to note that the built-in custom HTC virtual keyboard on the Droid Eris is far superior to the default Android one on Motorola and other phones.

BoyGeniusReport couldn’t stop gushing over the Droid Eris, though, calling it thinner and lighter than the HTC Hero, and saying that it feels much better in the hand. Not really surprising on that front, given that the Droid Eris has a matte finish to the body.

In a video of their hands-on, PC Mag was quick to point out that even though this is running an older version of Android (v 1.5) than the Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Eris did support multi-touch input out of the box for pinch-zooming. And the custom Sense UI, with the proprietary contacts manager and HTC Peep Twitter application, make it worth anyone’s while. Here's the video:

Overall, the device seems to be quite a good bargain. We always liked the HTC Hero any way, and to see it get rid of the ugly chin and look even better is just icing on the cake.