DROID ERIS by HTC

DROID ERIS by HTC

According to ZDNet, the HTC Droid ERIS just might be the best smartphone in its price range. This critically acclaimed Android phone brings Google’s industry shattering mobile operating system to the vast Verizon Wireless network and is a direct descendent of the HTC Hero – but with a few improvements. Design

The HTC Droid ERIS is adorned in an understated in classic styling – black casing, rounded corners and chrome accents. But what really commands attention is the sweeping 3.2-inch HVGA touch screen with a vibrant 320x480 resolution. The accelerometer automatically kicks the screen into landscape or portrait mode depending on how you tilt it and a proximity sensor disables the screen once you lift the phone to your ear. Navigation

The virtual keyboard is a cut above the standard Android keyboard, with bigger keys that are easier to navigate and haptic feedback for a tactile touch type experience you won’t find on any of the Droid ERIS’ contemporary competitors manufactured by Silicon Valley giants bearing fruit monikers (an emphatic iDon’t). You also get three handy physical buttons: a trackball navigator, a talk button and an end/power key.

Navigating the HTC Droid ERIS is an exercise in pitch perfect customization. Unique to HTC phones, the Droid ERIS has the HTC Sense interface built on top of the Android OS, which gives you seven customizable home screens with numerous handpicked widgets and shortcuts. Another cool feature: Scenes, which lets you change the theme of your Droid ERIS depending on the occasion: work, play or travel.

Multimedia The HTC Droid ERIS packs all the multimedia features you’d expect from a powerful smartphone. It’s got a 5.0-megapixel camera with video-recording capabilities, geotagging, digital zoom, self-timer and a wide palette of image editing effects. The Droid ERIS also supports, Windows Media Audio 9, MP3, AAC, AMR-NB, WAV and MIDI with the ability to download songs directly to your phone via Amazon.

You can sync and save your tunes onto a microSD card (8 GB card included), meaning you’ll never run out of space, and the 3.5mm headphone jack makes the Droid ERIS ready to rock with any standard set of headphones. The volume rocker let’s you pump up the jams or tone it down with ease.

Everything Else What else does the HTC Droid ERIS have? A whole lot: GPS, Bluetooth, voice dialing, calendar, WiFi (yes!), USB mass storage, voice recorder, Verizon visual voicemail and everything that Google has to offer (Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Voice, YouTube and more). Keeping in touch is a snap, with (obviously) ready-to-go Gmail syncing plus support for POP3 Yahoo and Hotmail accounts, corporate mail and Microsoft Exchange Active Sync .

Bottom-line: This is the Droid you’re looking for. You’ve got a great balance of features that are inherent to HTC’s winning design plus the backing of a strong wireless provider (Verizon) and one of the most innovative tech companies (Google). Chances are, by the time you read this review, there’ll be bigger and better things happening for Android, and with one of the best (and most affordable) Android phones in your pocket, you’ll be the first to get in on the next big thing. If you’re serious about Web 2.0, photos and video, music and games, documents and email and – well, pretty much everything that matters about the mobile experience – get the HTC Droid ERIS.