If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. One of the most prolific Windows Mobile players in the Smartphone world seems to have been bowled over by the Android. After the success of the Hero, HTC seems to have decided to release a squeal, albeit with some minor changes. With the successful conversion of HTC to the Android religion, which is still in its nascent stage, the last windows bastion seems to have fallen. The Eris is a toned down version of the Hero but with some subtle improvements.

Verdict:

The phone takes the Droid experience to the next level. And accompanying the excellent software is the new and improved slim hardware. The phone is the best Android phone you can lay your hands at the moment. And at a very affordable price!

Design and display:

The Eris comes packed in a rubber clad shell with a bright screen and a tantalizing design. At just 120 Gms, the phone weighs just about average. The design seems very reminiscent of the HTC Touch though this design is very very refined. HTC has added a nice touch by converting the standard Android buttons to touch. The only hardware buttons are – call and end with the navigation wheel in the middle. A dedicated volume rocker completes the list of hardware buttons.

The screen of the Eris is what is most fascinating. Not only is it bright but also comes at a magnificent resolution of 320×480 pixels. The text is crisp and the images are bold and sharp. The screen does full justice to the icon based interface of the Android. Unlike the Motorola Droid, the Eris does not have a hardware keypad but a full QWERTY virtual keypad works just as well.

The Eris features the HTC Sense user interface which offers 7 home screens instead of the standard two. The UI builds upon the Android’s excellent graphics capabilities to deliver excellent results. The only gripe we had was that the Eris runs Android 1.5. How unfair when there are much more advanced versions already released.

Camera:

The Eris comes with a neat 5 MP camera with geo-tagging enabled through the HTC footprint application. HTC has packed in plenty of features in the camera like image resolution settings, white-balance settings, a brightness meter, digital zoom, self-timer, autofocus and ISO modes. Unfortunately the engineers at HTC forgot the most important technology for supporting a camera – the flash. One simple omission from HTC has ruined the entire set of effects provided with the camera.

Video recording is again lackluster but is better than the HTC Hero or the Touch.

Multimedia:

The music player is typical Android – plays good music and supports a variety of formats. You can do just about everything you could do with the Hero.

The video playing experience though is something different. Though the options are not many, the screen emerges as the ultimate winner and delivers a fantastic video experience.

Internet, messaging and GPS:

The Android puts every other operating system to shame in this category. The internet browsing is fabulous and the email support ubiquitous. Even then busiest web pages download in a jiffy.

The phone supports a variety of email formats(Gmail,Outlook,MS Exchange) and makes syncing between them a breeze.

The phone supports threaded messaging and comes with built in social networking support.

The powerful GPS works hand in hand with Google Maps and has some very interesting results for directions and locations.

Full Specifications:

Display: 3.2 inch TFT capacitive screen with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels and support for 65K colors.
Dimensions: 113 x 55 x 13.2 mm.
Weight: 126 Gms.
Camera: Main camera – 5 MP, auto-focus with touch-to-focus / geo-tagging, white balance, brightness, digital zoom, self-timer, spot metering, ISO controls.
Secondary camera – No.
Audio: Music player with support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA.
Video: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV.
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, IM, and Push Email.
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB, Wi-Fi.
Internet: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Web Browser and Flash support.
Games: Built-in and downloadable.
Memory: 512 MB internal with support for microSD.
Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh with talk time of 3.5 hours and standby of 373 hours.
Extras:
* Virtual full QWERTY keypad.
* Android 1.5.
* PIM with organizer, calendar, to-do and alarm.
* Built in social networking.
* Built in speaker and 3.5 mm headphone jack.
* Sense UI with customizable screens.
* Voice commands.
* Document viewer.

Full review