Droid Eris - the real Dark Horse

[roxito]

Today I happened to pass by a Verizon booth at the local mall and they had the Droid and the Droid Eris both on demo. Since I already own a Droid I just causally picked up the Eris and started playing with it. Oh Boy.. was I impressed!!

It really makes my Droid look like an early engineering prototype. So nice to hold and not that bulky or boxy. Pinch and zoom were functioning too. Easily at least 2 generations ahead of the droid in terms of polished software. I'd say far slicker than the iPhone too. The desktop somehow had this surreal 3D background effect.. i don't know how they do it.

Now I am wondering if I should return the Droid and settle for the Eris. Do try it out next time you have a chance.

 

[Retribution]

well it should be a lot more polished, its running 1.6(nm the fact that its just a rebranded hero) or some such not 2.0 like the Moto, so its had a lot more time to be polished. the Eris is a really decent phone overall though, cant beat the price and you can update it to 2.0 later( manufacturer wanted to polish their UI for 2.0 which is why it was realeased with 1.5 or 1.6, whatever the heck its running).

I wanted a physical KB and while the droids isnt the best I have gotten used to it. Also the Droid is running better hardware and its only a matter of time before 2.0 gets a good spit polish

 

[roxito]

The scrolling of the desktop screens was also smoother on the Eris. Love the way you unlock the screen on it.

Do you feel the vanilla android 2.0 with all the spit polishing will ever be as slick as the HTC's enhancements. I wish their Sense UI stuff was available for the Droid.

 

[Cole119]

From what I understand you'll be able to load the Eris rom onto the Droid once it gets rooted.

 

[YukonCornelius]

Hopefully, someone here will post the files and "how to's" as they do in the BB world. I've been hacking BlackBerries for a number of years and I'm brand new to the Android world... But darn it if I'm not loving it!

 

[Retribution]

In all honesty I really like simple, and so I love the simplistic interface of the vanilla android os, but like some one already mentioned if you want to root your android you could load the eris os into your droid, so you will get that slick look and faster hardware

 

[New2u]

The scrolling of the desktop screens was also smoother on the Eris. Love the way you unlock the screen on it.

Do you feel the vanilla android 2.0 with all the spit polishing will ever be as slick as the HTC's enhancements. I wish their Sense UI stuff was available for the Droid.

The reasoning is that the droid allows for all customization, where as with the HTC, they have already taken some of the customization for you. The user interface is decent but not my style.

 

[Erron]

I was impressed with the eris in the store as well. But....BUT.....

It doesn't have a real keyboard. I didn't like the positioning of the camera. The way my hand would sit would cover it if I were typing. No google navigation like we have ont he droid.

The ui may be smoother but there are tons of home replacments for that. The processor is slower and in tests much slower. The battery life is no better. 320x480 resolution. It only comes with an 8gig card. I know its easy to upgrade but that is an extra cost. It will almost put you at the cost of the droid if you get it online.

 

[2v snail]

I was actually going to buy the Eris, but the three main features I wanted with a smartphone...Good camera WITH flash, turn by turn GPS and the ability to teather (soon to come i hope)...

Didnt want the physical keyboard at first, but when i seen the droid still had the digital qwerety I knew having the physical would only be a benifit.

anyways, the eris is nice, but DAM i love the droid, i cant put it down...

 

[m3scott]

Here is what you can do to slick up the Droid, all from the Market.

Get the latest PandaHome that has the Droid fix.
Get the Aero skin and get rid of the ugly Pandahome themes.
Download Beautiful Widgets and install the Beautiful Home flip clock.
Then change the background. The one default brown background that comes with the phone looks great with the cool flip clock/wx app.

You don't have to use PandaHome. It was just the one I liked best.
I'm sure there are other ways to do it as well.

I bought one of my managers the Eris, and she absolutely loves it. It is a great phone, but I like my Droid. Especially after making it more Eris like.

 

[broosewee]

My wife got the Eris and I must admit, it's much better than my Droid for now. The trackball and Sense UI make it really slick and the virtual keyboard is better.

I hope forthcoming updates will make the Droid just as good or better.

 

[iiimegamaniii]

Physical Keyboard + Virtual Keyboard > Just Virtual Keyboard

IHMO of course. I really was looking out for the Samsung Omnia Pro as opposed to the Omnia II just for the simple reason the Pro had a physical keyboard. Since they made me wait too long for it to be released (on whatever network), I got impatient. Sometimes it does pay to just "pull the trigger".

Like it was stated--once the DROID has been rooted then you'll be able to do whatever the heck you want.

- Mega

 

[New2u]

While it is a good phone, in my opinion its just not as good as the droid. The droid is more powerful in just about every way. It all comes down to personal preference, while i like the droid more, there will be someone to say they like the eris better. It's really whatever device works for you. It's not a who is bigger then who battle. They are both on the same network, and can practically do the same things. If you like the eris better, get the eris, if you like the droid more, then get the droid.

 

[broosewee]

Sure, both are great phones and you can't go wrong with either.

This whole debate is subjective based on the fact that it's running on the same platform and has > 95% same functionality.

But there are certain intricacies that are revealed only after hours of usage and those who have used both extensively would generally say that the Eris environment feels more mature. Maybe it's the Sense UI, maybe it's the trackball, maybe it's the 7 home screens. In that regard, Eris > Droid at the moment, IMO. The person next to me may disagree though

 

[romeov]

Most of these comments seem based on not the eris, but the Sense UI.. which is just that, a UI. It is extremely polished yes, but once the phone is rooted, we'll be able to load a rom of Sense onto the Droid and get a smooth/cool UI on a vastly more powerful/cool phone in my opinion.