Droid Eris

By now you’ve probably seen the ads and heard the buzz about HTC’s new Eris Droid, but is it for real?  Can you believe the hype? Is the Eris Droid really the “iPhone Killer” as advertised?

I don’t know about all that…But it’s possible that you won’t find a better value in a smartphone for the money.  In fact, with a $99 price tag, not only is the Eris the least expensive smartphone of it’s kind out there, but actually includes many features (like GPS)  not found in other handheld devices costing over twice as much.

This means that even this year, for less than $100 you can still give a premium touchscreen phone to your favorite snow bunny (but only if they’ve been nice this year!).

This device comes fully loaded with plenty of Verizon Wireless features and Google mobile services…Here’s just a few:

***  You can record a video on the fly using the autofocus-enabled 5- megapixel camera, download it immediately to YouTube (or share it with your friends), and watch your new video within seconds displayed on the 3.2 hi-res touchsceen.

***  There are loads of apps that come standard on the Eris, some which are proprietary to HTC like the Twitter app…You can also customize your new droid right out of the box with a visit to the Android Market, where you’ll find with thousands of applications to choose from.

***  You’ll be able to connect to everybody anywhere with this droid, because it’s Bluetooth and WiFi enabled…You can even use this device as a GPS tool and access turn-by-turn directions with Google Maps.

I really like the Multi-Touch feature that is standard on all HTC smartphones these days.  This is a beatiful interface that gives you “pinch and zoom”  capabilities in the browser — something that you won’t find on the new Motorola droid that was just realeased in November as well.

In addition, this droid can keep up with all of your social networking needs, and even offers these unique networking features as well:

***  Search your chat history, switch between chats, and view videos and pics sent by your friends instantly with Google Talk.

***  It’s got a cool Facebook widget that allows you to easily download Facebook profiles to your E-mail contacts.

***  Screening your incoming calls has never been easier with the ability to create up to ten different voice mail greetings for the different incoming calls.

***  Sort and select only the voice mail that you want to hear using the touchscreen with Verizon’s Visual Voice Mail.

The memory on the HTC Eris unit is more than adequate…You will have to download thousands of songs to fill up the 8 gig memory card included with the Eris, but if you need more, you can easily increase the memory by up to 16 gigs by using the microSD card slot.

Because this device is operating on the Google Android platform, you can access Google services like Maps for turn-by-turn directions anywhere in the world.  Of course, other handy tools from Google like Talk, Gmail, and Calendar are available to you with the Eris as well.

As far as juice goes, this HTC Eris Droid boasts 3 1/2 hours of talk time, and 375 hours — about half a month — of standby time, which makes this battery among the most powerful in it’s class.  I have been throwing it on the charger every other day and have more than enough battery life to make it though my busiest days at work.

There are a few small details of this device which could be improved, but none of them are dealbreakers for the Eris.  If you’re old school, you will miss a physical keyboard, but the touchscreen is accurate and responsive, and is pretty much standard-issue for all smartphones these days…In fact, a whole generation has grown up social networking on touchscreens, making the “virtual” keyboard a non-issue with most users.

Bottom line:  This Droid really delivers the goods, and for $99, there is really no other smartphone in it’s price range that can compare in terms of features and interface.

SO WHAT THE HECK IS AN ANDROID?

The dictionary will tell you that an android is “a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human” (see the first Star Wars movie).

For the purpose of discussing new mobile technology, an android is an open-source mobile operating system created by Google.  “Open source” means that anybody can develop new enhancements — called “applications” — for you android device, which makes is very easy to customize a phone like the HTC Eris Droid.  Other touchscreen phones like the iPhone let you add these “apps“, but do not let you change the core interface like android devices.

As a result, Googles’ android operating system lets you swich cell phones and mobile service providers without having to change the functionality of your cell phone, or learn a completely new operating system.

The android operating system has made some serious inroads within the past two years.   In fact, in a short amount of time it has grown from an obscure cell phone platform to the preferred mobile operating system, used by a wide variety of devices and manufacturers including Samsung, Motorola, and  HTC.

Home / About Us / Contact Us / Privacy Policy / Sitemap

15 Responses to “The new HTC Eris smartphone powered by Verizon…Is it really the the “iPhone Killer”?”