[REVIEW] Verizon HTC Droid Eris Full Review By DASH

[D/\SH]

Well, as many know I have been given the opportunity to test the HTC Droid Eris for CNET. This is my review of the device after I have tinkered with it for just over a week officially. (thanks CNET!) If there is an area that you would like to know more about feel free to respond in this thread and i would be happy to expound on that topic or issue for you and add to the first post. Hope you all enjoy the review and that it helps if you are stuck on the line between going to the Droid Eris or something different.

Design Of Device- The device measures 4.45 inches tall by 2.19 inches wide by 0.51 inch thick and weighs 4.23 ounces. This sizing is slightly thinner than the Hero (sprint) and a tad lighter as well. The device fits very snug in the hand and feels comfortable no matter how it is held. The thin making of the device makes it easy for one to slip the Eris into their pocket or any other storage method quickly and easily. I also found the thin device housing to be a great help when i wanted to use it as a media player. when listening to music I will place my phone in my shirt pocket (if i have one that day) so the cord doesn't hang all the way down my side and get caught on things. with past phones and many in the lineups smartphone wise you cant easily fit your phone in your shirt pocket without it falling out or feeling as if your shirt pocket is going to tear. the device not only slid easily into my shirt pocket but it was also pratically unnoticeable unless concentrated soley upon. Upon testing I found the main factor to it feeling so well in the hand is the weight distribution. if you take a 20 oz coke bottle and rest the center of the phone on top of it you can spin it on the coke cap without it falling off or even bobbing up or down the least amount.

The device is all black with a small gray/silver fleck throughout giving it the gun metal color in certain lights which to me looks great! The housing of the device all has a rubbery texture as the vogue did. this is nice for not only better grip but also taking damage if dropped. A chrome strip about 1/6 of an inch thick is present around the sides, top, and circling the usb charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack. All of the above with chrome call begin and end buttons and status light track ball equals a winner in my books for the style and design of the device.



As mentioned above already the device comes equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack which is finally becoming more popular and seen in the smartphone lifestyle.The 3.5mm jack on the Eris is the best I have experienced on any smartphone or PPC (including the TP2) The main reason for it being the best I have used is because the pure convenience of the jack being located on the top of the device instead of the bottom where things are already jammed.



The screen on the device is 3.2 inches and sports a 320X480 pixel resolution thus making it hard to ignore the vibrance and color quality shooting right off of the screen at you. The screen itself has a great feel and is very responsive, since your not needing to press hard when typing your fingers can glide smoothly and effortlessly across the screen when scrolling through pictures or even typing on the onscreen keyboard which of course we will talk about later. The device soes support multi-touch but sadly its only in certain apps like the net and album ofr pinch to zoom which in reality is what it is mainly used for anyways. The most useful feature they added when constructing the screen was the buttons below the screen that are still touch sensitive like a screen. As seen in the picture below those keys are accented in white and from left to right are Home, Menu, Back, and search. These keys don't take up precious screen space like the Windows Mobile soft buttons do but are rather strategically placed below the screen allowing faster navigation in and out of programs.



Processor- The droid is powered by a 528 mhz processor that zips through the android operating system with ease, it does have its lags here and there but no need to soft reset for over a week in which I have had the device. right there is the key, having a device that can be work, play, and productivity all in one and on top of that doesn't need to be soft reset on average of every other day or so like i experienced with past WM devices. The processor holds the ground and does it quite well since it doesn't have to deal with the extra processes of a external keyboard and other features oriented with that including home screen landscape mode.

G-sensor And Proximity Sensor- The G-sensor is the same as we have all grown to love in the HTC devices. It is accurate, and always works without troubles. All program screens do rotate when you tilt the device but the homescreen does not support landscape mode thus does not rotate which in my opinion is a good thing since if enabled would have a tendency to flop every which way most likely causing my fingers to open apps when taken out of the case.
the proximity sensor did not appear on the sprint version of the Hero which i feel it should have. If you have never heard of a proximity sensor all it consists of is a light sensor that turns the screen off when it gets too dark so you dont hit buttons with your cheek or ear while talking on the phone, than when the phone is released and brought down from the ear and the light hits the sensor the screen comes back on so you can fulfill the task you were about to do with ease. (this does help save on the battery life as well)

Operating System- Of course the droid has the google branding thus deeming it an android powered device. Android is linux based and is mainly ran off of widgets and icons for navigation purposes. The Droid Eris unfortunately comes equipped with android OS 1.5 which means we will have to wait for Verizon to release the 1.6 and ultimately the 2.0 versions of the OS. (not too big of a deal for me since will be selling for the dragon when released since i want that 1ghz processor.) The android operating system also provides haptic feedback. haptic feedback is vibration by the phone each time that the screen is pressed and it registers the press successfully. I haven't noticed a difference on battery life between using and not but I choose to keep it on for the 4 haptic powered buttons below the screen as well as the keyboard which makes it easier to be sure that the letter was successfully pressed.


Navigation On Screen/Roller Ball- Navigation around this device is just a joy and pure amazing especially coming straight from a Windows Mobile Device in the TP2. (don't worry guys still have and love) With the sensitive not much pressure needed touchscreen at use at present throughout the whole device you can fly through the pages/tabs that you have made with easy as well as open apps without having to worry if you clicked on it. The roller ball also comes in handy for those times when you don't feel like touching the screen or driving on a bumpy road when trying to navigate the device. The rollerball is not only free moving but also very precise. With the rollerball I'm able to constantly speed through my widgets and stop on the one that I want each time without error. Another nice feature of the rollerball is that when you have a missed message, email, calender event, etc it will blink notifying you that you have something waiting to be viewed. Not having this feature was the biggest gripe I had about the Palm Pre since I like to be able to see if i missed something with a glance. Face it, even though a phone can be fully touch screen a d-pad is nice to have and often used when added.

Speakers/Vibrate- the speakers on the phone through the earpiece and for speakerphone work just as they should. the earpiece is always loud and clear without any problems, the only worry i see with the earpiece volume is when your in crowded noisy areas it tends to crackle out a little if you fully crank the in call volume but nothing too bad or noticeable unless really paying attention to it. For the speakerphone I feel it compares right with my TP2 and has 1 less speaker present. The speakerphone is loud, crisp, and clear without static or crackling, on my touch pro 2 I would crank it up and when i got over half way I would notice some distortion and canceling out between the speakers going on making it seem not as loud, with the droid i had none of the problems and never struggle with clarity when making the business calls.
The vibrate feature is one thing that I feel they should work on with the Droid Eris. In my opinion they cranked the pressure of the vibration way down when stock since many would be using haptic feedback on their device. During haptic feedback if it jolted your device that wouldn't result in a happy experience thus you turning it off. To make the haptic feedback enjoyable they had to turn down the force from the g-sensor thus in return turning down the vibration for incoming calls, messasges, emails, calender events, etc. This is a big downer for me since I get calls day and night from work, business partners, etc and can't always have my phone on full blast while in class, thus resulting in missed calls and me not calling back until class is over and I look at my phone.

Camera/Video- The Eris doesn't sports the same 5 megapixel camera that are seen in the HTC Hero (sprint) and the Droid (verizon) but without flash. The pictures taken with the camera can be pretty grainy if you are not in sunlight or under brighter florescent lighting fixtures. For the camcorder feature the same goes, it can get pretty grainy if not in good light and also noticed that if the camera is shook or jarred pretty quickly it can get distorted to the point of your screen looking like it is doing the wave. I would say this camera is better than the vogues and comparable/slightly better than the tp and tp 2's. The only gripe I have about the camera besides the above is that the lens sticks out and is what the phone rests on when placed down on a table so is bound for scratches.

Onscreen Keyboard- The onscreen keyboard that came stock on the Droid isn't a bad choice but I personally found Better Keyboard to be a more suitable fit for me. The stock keyboard in portrait mode is jammed but still typable while the landscape mode is pretty well laid out but isn't in my opinion up to the standards of the iphones on screen keyboard. Better Keyboard isnt only easy to skin with available skins in the marketplace but also provides more useful features than the stock keyboard. With better keyboard you can switch from t-9 style with tapping for different letters, or go to the full one by swiping your finger and using as a gesture. The keyboard is a little more spaced and has larger buttons at the same time making typing a breeze. If you have larger hands I would go with Better Keyboard but for those users with smaller hands the stock keyboard will suite you just fine. The keyboard at first took me some time to get used too, i was typing wrong letters, typing multiple of the same letter and so on so fourth, but once i got used to gliding across the board and barely touching the screen it is a true dream even on the stock keyboard. I would use landscape mode for all messages over a couple of words to tell the truth. (look at images below for why.)



Data/SenseUI/GPS- I was curious coming over from WM after 2+ years with them to android on how the browsers and such would compare, well my decision is that the browsers are better than the ones on WM. Not only is the stock browser descently fast but it is stable as well unlike my experiences with Internet Explorer. I also have adopted another Browser that i use when looking for speed and its named Dolphin Browser. Dolphin Browser is best described by the creator as the FireFox of Android. I have to agree he nailed it right on the head, better security measures, faster speeds, better look with easy tabbed browsing, and stable.
Sense runs off of your current GPS coordinates and noticed on my Touch Pro 2 that it would show the city next to me time to time and not my actual city. (when in downtown Grand Rapids it would display as Wyoming, Michigan) With Droid Eris this wasn't a problem. No matter where I go it updates quickly and efficiently with my location and pushes that right through to my SENSE clock widget so i have the weather of my current location only one look away. I havent experienced any troubles with Sense on this device as of yet.
The GPS on this beast locks down in an instant. Google maps is very accurate and locates me before the app has even fully loaded even when inside of buildings! I have also tried a program called Waze on the Eris and it runs great overall. the only problem I have had is it dropping the internet connection and not updating the maps but it seems more as an application problem rather than the device and GPS problem if you ask me.

Task Management- stock the device doesn't come with a task manager like x-button in the corner on WM devices or anything similar. This is a bummer since this device was made for multi tasking and if you don't close the apps multi tasking becomes slow if not impossible with all the other apps running in the background.My personal choice that I use is Advanced Task Manager to close out of the apps quickly and easily. Also included in the app as if that wasn't enough is the features to kill certain processes, check the system statistics, and uninstall apps fully without having to worry about traces being left behind in the registry or icons left on the devices program launcher. in future devices I would like to see HTC and other companies include a easily accessible task manager stock in the roms so people can fully use their devices with no needed application to be installed period.

Apps/ Store- Coming from WM i was a little worried to be honest on whether or not there was going to be an app that matched with what I used on WM for Android. I can say that I have found an app that replaces or is comparable for almost all of my WM applications. This is great in my opinion because not only do i have everything i had on WM devices but I now also have a stable device, over 17,000 apps to choose from through the app store, and in most cases have multiple apps to choose from that do the same basic thing which is nice since one may have a feature or style that you like better than the other and why should a junkie have to settle? Right!

Battery Life- The battery life on the Eris is overall descent for being only 1300 MAH compared to the 1500 MAH that the motorola version of the droid got. I can make it through about 75% of the day under HEAVY use with texts, email, some internet browsing, (gotta keep up on fantasy sports)and talk time. Overall I send and receive 400 + texts a day, 100+ emails, 15-20 minutes of net time, 45 minutes of calls, and some normal tinkering and gaming and the battery last about 14 hours which is 3 below what i was getting with my Touch Pro 2 which has a 1500 MAH battery included. With the size difference in the batteries I would guesstimate that the bettery life between the two devices are pretty close to equal overall but can use some fine tuning in the future once the root is released and custom roms are out. (or for non root users stock update through Verizon)

Overall I love the HTC Droid Eris and it has successfully kept a WM fanboy using it while the WM device in the TP2 sits there on my shelf collecting dust. This is not my first experience tinkering with an android device (bought a t-mobile g-1 but used for testing and not service since cdma) but is the first time i have used one with service and have been very impressed so far. Remember if you have any questions don't feel shy to ask :smile:

Thanks For Reading

[D/\SH]

huh i had so many requests for this and only a thanks from weesje and no replies :sad: need some input from you guys if possible so i van better my reviewing skills so i can continue to get free devices to test with.

[angiekay]

WHOA, that's alotta stuff there Dashy, very in DEPTH review!!! (but you are aware that I "thought"you were reviewing the motorola droid), until I later found out that you were getting the Eris, LOL. Very good work, Dashy, very nice, as usual!!!!!!!