DROID’s Other Brother – The DROID ERIS Review

By: Tariq Bamadhaj (Senior Editor)

When you mention Verizon and Android in the same sentence, the name DROID usually comes to mind. Just DROID. Not many know about the DROID ERIS, mainly because not much marketing has been done about it but that’s not to say that it’s not worth considering. The DROID ERIS is actually a repackage HTC Hero which was released to the rest of the world with much fanfare earlier this year and continues to win fans with its highly customized system.

Specficiations

The DROID ERIS has specs very similar to a Windows Mobile device, not that it’s a bad thing. A Qualcomm MSM7600 processor clocked at 528 MHz, 288 MB of RAM and 512 MB of ROM powers the device. Screen resolution is a common 3.2” sporting 320×480 display. You get your usual cellular radios for running on Verizon networks which includes EV-DO Rev A but there’s no support for a SIM card or world bands so this not what you would call a world phone.Let’s also not forget the Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and WiFi B/G, GPS/aGPS as well as a microSD slot capable of supporting SDHC cards, all standard on Hero models. All packed into a 56x113x13mm body weighing in at 120g with battery.

If there is a drawback to all this, it’s the Android operating system. While there’s only one device sporting 2.0 firmware, the DROID ERIS is still stucked at 1.5. This is probably due to the extensive customizations (which I will discuss shortly) that requires proper updating to work with newer firmware. There have been rumors floating around that all Hero devices would be upgradeable to 2.0/2.1 in the near future but as to when exactly is anybody’s guess. Till then, while you enjoy SenseUI, have faith that HTC is working hard to bring you newer firmware which brings with it cool apps like Google Navigation.

Design

For most parts, the DROID ERIS has the same functions and features that other HTC Hero models and variants sport but Verizon did request some tweaks to the hardware. Its candybar form factor with a metal edge gives it a more sophisticated look than its other variant brothers. The front is dominated by the screen and this is where you start to notice the differences.

All the Android buttons (Home, Menu, Back and Search) and no longer traditional hardware buttons but capacitive ones instead. While the this adds to the look of the device, it was at the compromise of function. Each button tap comes with a haptic feedback vibrate but here were times where you did not feel that vibrate, thinking the function was not activated when in fact it was. Then there were times when there was the vibrate but no action. While I should point out that this was not a common issue, I would have wished for real buttons like you get with the phone and end key.

The other change that Verizon made was to shrink the trackball and remove the chin. I do appreciate the chin removal which gives it a svelte look but the smaller trackball does not really help matters when you have quite a bit of scrolling to do. For most parts, the trackball handles the job well; it was smooth and responsive and when you needed to make a selection, pressing on it gets it done. If there’s one feature that the DROID ERIS trumps the DROID in, it would be the inclusion of the trackball for navigation.

The perimeter of the device is rather bland with Verizon/HTC trying to keep to a minimal look. On the left, you have you 2 volume buttons, the base sports your charge/sync port and the top sports a 3.5mm headset jack, a port that is now standard on all HTC devices (hallelujah!). I didn’t miss anything on the right because you’ll find no buttons/ports there which has me wondering if it would have been too much to ask for a camera button there seeing as to how the DROID ERIS is piqued as a social device, among other things.

Flipping the device on it’s back continues the minimal design with the 5MP camera lens and speakerphone to its side. Other than the ‘with Google’ branding, there’s nothing there.

Pictures

So at 5MP, the camera on the DROID ERIS should take some really great shots right? They say a picture paints a thousand words so here are 8,000:

These shots were taken with the highest resolution and finest quality. For most parts, you’ll get decent pictures with the DROID ERIS’s camera but nothing that would win you an award. In some photos, the pictures turned out all sharp, then there were some were that wasn’t the case. Macro shots were not too bad as long as you are not too close to it.

Software

As previously mentioned, the DROID ERIS sports Android 1.5. While this is not a bad thing, you do miss some of the applications that are only for firmware 1.6 and higher such as the new Market and Google Navigation. On the flip side, HTC has done a really nice job with SenseUI that if don’t mind not having those 2 applications, you’ll come to realize that you actually have an Android phone that knows you and helps you get through your day to day tasks.

Thanks to the power that’s packed on the DROID ERIS, it handles applications you throw at it really well. That higher amount of RAM does go a long way to helping you running multiple apps continuously as well as the SenseUI skin. That skin, in early versions, was really slow and buggy but after several revisions, you actually have something that works as it should. Good things really come to those who wait!

SenseUI

This deserves a whole heading on its own just because of what it does to the Android platform. In fact, if you were to show someone a vanilla Android device like say the DROID and one running Sense UI, they’d think it was 2 different platforms, or that the one running SenseUI was a newer version.

For one, you get 7 home screens with it! That’s 4 more screens than most Android devices to place your shortcuts and widgets on for easy access! But all that screen space would not be as useful if all you filled it with were shortcuts and the widgets that came standard with Android.

So HTC decided to do one better and added it’s own set of widgets as well. And boy, are there a lot of them. For example, you get 12 styles to choose from for just the Clock widget alone! 12 styles for a clock? Are you kidding me? Well you don’t get that many choices with a Calendar widgets, having only 2 to choose from but based on those permutations alone, you could customize a screen in over 50 different ways.

Customizing the screen is also a lot easier when you have SenseUI. When you choose to add or move your shortcuts and widgets, it draws a boundary box as to where you can move it to which is really useful when you they come in 16 different sizes.

Another cool feature that SenseUI brings to the Android platform is that of Scenes. Think of this as the profiles that you get on a Nokia Symbian device or Blackberry but on steroids. Not only does it come with 5 Scenes (that you can customize), you could even add your own to make it 100% YOU! Each Scene lets you choose which background and shortcuts to go with them so your Work Scene could have your Calendar and Work Email widget while your Social Scene displays your Twitter updates prominently on the first home screen.

One last feature which many will find useful is the inclusion of Mail. This inconspicuous name packs a lot of power for Enterprise users as it not only allows you to receive email based on an Exchange server, but it also lets you sync Contacts and Calendar entries on that same server to your DROID ERIS as well! What’s even better is that entries from your Exchange server show up side by side with entries from your Google account but they don’t cross-over. So if your Exchange has only work contacts and your Google contacts are all personal, they will remain that way.

Besides adding useful features, you also have HTC tweaking various aspects of the Android operating system for a better user experience. For example, when you open the Contacts application, you are greeted with the bottom slider which Windows Mobile users are familiar with on their HTC devices. Sliding your finger across this bar will bring up different filters such as All, Favorites, Groups, Updates and Events and your Call History. Like I said, HTC has gone a long way to integrate all your information together and it makes you wonder, why couldn’t Android be more like this?

That same bottom slider is seen in many other programs as well such as Mail, Stocks and Time as well.

One last feature which I think many users who have used the Android platform will love is that of Smart Dialing. With this feature, you just press the number that corresponds to the letter of the name that you want to call. So if you wanted to call Michael, you would pres 6, 4, 2 and so on and all entries that match your search will pop up as you see above. This makes choosing the contact to dial a really simple task and save you the trouble of scrolling through your list of contacts!

Battery

With so much going on for the Verizon DROID ERIS, you wonder if the battery holds up to this behemoth? 2 hours of phone calls, 100 text messages, web surfing on a mobile network and WiFi for about half hour, updating Twitter and Facebook throughout the day and I still had 30% of battery at the end of the day. Not too shabby and granted, I did have sync, GPS and brightness turned on, all of which constituted to a larger drain than usual. Turning these off or even tweaking brightness slightly would give you a better battery life than what I saw.

Conclusion

The DROID ERIS, while not as widely advertised as the DROID, can definitely hold it’s own. With the SenseUI overlay on top of Android, HTC has made the operating system a lot more polished and complete. Not only does it fill many gaps that exist in other devices running the same firmware (and in newer firmware as well actually), it also brings with it a level of sophistication that you don’t normally see on mobile devices.

If you’ve been waiting for a while for the Android platform to mature before jumping on, the DROID ERIS is a great stepping stone to begin your journey. Not only does it integrate well with your professional and social life, it’ ever-growing number of applications in the Market ensures that as your use grows and evolve, the DROID ERIS will follow suit.

What I Like About It

• SenseUI makes Android a lot more sophisticated and functional.
• Great looking device that feels just as nice to hold.
• Inclusion of 3.5mm headset jack to use your favorite headphones.
• Good amount of RAM to ensure the phone runs smoothly.
• Decent battery life with moderate usage.

What Could Be Improved

• A new version of the Android operating system could have been included.
• More memory for application installation
• Ability to take a SIM card and support for international bands so it would appeal to international travelers.
• A larger trackball for better navigation.
• Hardware buttons instead of capacitive ones for the standard Android buttons.

Reality Grade: HTC has done really well to mesh form and function into the DROID ERIS and while the Android 1.5 firmware might seem jaded and old when compared to the DROID, you just have to give it a shot to see why the HTC Hero is a must-have for many Android fans and curious onlookers out there.