Hands-on impressions: HTC Droid Eris

Looks like Verizon Wireless will have not one, but two Android phones for sale Friday: the Motorola Droid, and now this, the slim-and-trim, $99 (with contract) HTC Droid Eris. I got a quick hands-on look during a Verizon preview event in Manhattan today; read on for my first impressions.

As expected, the Droid Eris ($99 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate) looks like a retooled version of the HTC Hero on Sprint; not a carbon copy, mind you, given that the Eris's face is completely flat, compared to the angled mouthpiece on the Hero. Also different: the four buttons at the bottom of the screen (Home, Menu, Back, and Seach) are touch-sensitive, although you still get the same pea-sized trackball for navigation.

The Eris may lack the Moto Droid's slide-out QWERTY keypad, but it's also lighter than the Droid; according to my digital scale, the Eris weighs in at just 4.4 ounces, compared to six for the Droid, and it's even a bit lighter than the 4.8-ounce iPhone. That said, the Eris is a hair thicker than the 0.48-inch thick iPhone, although still slimmer than the half-inch-thick Droid.

More importantly, though, the Eris feels thin and light, and I also like the rubberized feel of its rounded shell. Slipping it into a jeans pocket is no problem at all.

So, what about performance? One of my biggest pet peeves about Android phones is that they tend to be sluggish, but the Motorola Droid wasn't, and I'm happy to say that the Droid Eris is relatively peppy, as well. Flicking back and forth across the Eris's various home screens was a smooth proposition, and my taps on the phone's virtual (and custom-built by HTC) QWERTY keypad registered almost instantly. That said, firing up the Gmail app, for example, takes a few seconds, while the touch-sensitive Home key below the screen occasionally took a tap or two to wake up. I'll have a better sense of the Eris's performance once I spend a little more time with it, but for now, I'd rate it as above-average speed-wise, if not quite a screamer.

As I noted in previous posts, the Eris doesn't come loaded with the latest iteration of Android, version 2.0, so don't expect Google's new Navigation app for free turn-by-turn directions or native support for Facebook. (The reps on hand at Verizon's event today promised that an Android 2.0 update for the Eris is definitely on tap, although they didn't have a timeline for it.)

That said, HTC's custom "Sense" interface adds some interesting features of its own; for example, gorgeous HTC-developed widgets for weather, stocks, and photos, the ability to log into your Facebook account and link profiles to contacts in your address book (although the syncing process isn't as seamless as it is on the Android 2.0-powered Motorola Droid), one-tap access to your latest e-mails and text messages, and tabs that let you view e-mail, SMS threads, and recent Facebook updates from your pals within their contact cards.

I'd also like to call out the Droid Eris' excellent Web browser, which quickly and accurately renders tricky HTML pages and—surprise, surprise—appears to support multitouch gestures like "pinching" for zooming in on embedded text or images. I didn't quite believe it at first (the Motorola Droid's browser, for example, doesn't do multitouch), but hey ... my fingers don't lie. It's a nice bonus.

Other notes: The Eris' five-megapixel camera is good, not great; it has auto-focus but not a flash, and my test shots looked about as good (or bad, depending on the available light) as those from my iPhone. No word on tethering quite yet (it's "under consideration," I'm told). Wi-Fi and 3G are part of the package, of course, as is a bundled 8GB microSD card. No access to V Cast videos, although you can always watch clips on the YouTube app or download songs via the Amazon MP3 application. Last but not least: The Eris data plan will go for $30 a month, same as the Moto Droid, and my understanding is that it's mandatory, not optional.

That's all for now ... I need to spend a few more days with the Eris before I can render any final judgments or get a feeling for battery life.

So, what do you think: Like what you see so far? Have any questions? Let me know.