Droid Reports - "It's All Good"

I have been keeping up with the reports and reviews that have been coming in since the big Verizon Droid release yesterday. So far the results are positive. A friend of mine bought the Motorola Droid and he is thrilled with it. He said it's "Blazing Fast" and "Ridiculously Customizable". I am slightly disappointed that Moto Droid docking station doesn't not pull any A/V data through the USB port. That's kind a fail in my book but it has so many other plusses that I will have to consider it.

I like to be able to put silicone skins on my phone and have never liked the cases available for slider phones. After having the Pre for 4 months and then using my friends iPhone the other day, I don't think I really need a physical keyboard. I can type just as well or probably better on the virtual keyboard so I am going to be keeping a close eye on the HTC Droid Eris. My Verizon contract is up in March 2010 so that will give me time to consider dumping Sprint and keep reading reviews.

Moto Droid (Sholes) vs. HTC Droid (Eris)

Form factor:

- Slider vs Candybar

- Candybar easier to protect with skins and has less moving parts.

Keyboard:

- Physical vs. Virtual

- HTC has the best virtual keyboard out there and the d-pad on the Moto Droid seems a little pointless to me. They should have done a mini mouse pad like or something. Again, less moving parts.

Screen size:

- Sholes 3.7"

- Eris 3.2

- Doesn't matter too much for me. I can read everything perfectly fine on the Pre which is 3.1" so I'm not too concerned about screen size.

Processor:

- Sholes - OMAP3430 – 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 + PowerVR SGX 530 GPU + 430MHz C64x+ DSP + ISP (Image Signal Processor)

- Eris - Qualcomm MSM7600 processor operating at 528MHz.

- I Really don't know how these chips stack up against each other but I would guess that if the HTC Eris doesn't have a GPU it's going to be slower opening programs and web pages. I have watched some review videos of both phones and neither one seems laggy.

OS

- Sholes - Android 2.0 w/ Google GPS!!!

- Eris - Android 1.5 with Sense UI.

- This will be one of the biggest factors for me is whether or not the the Eris gets 2.0 in the next couple of months. If the Eris were on Sprint then I wouldn't care about Google GPS because Sprint Nav works quite well. Sense UI is pretty nice though but without any kind of GPS Navigator I wouldn't go for it over the Sholes.

These are the most important factors for me and currently with the exception of the OS difference, I am seriously leaning toward the Eris. I don't really like the Sprint Hero physical buttons for Menu, Search, Back and whatever the other one is so that is why I am kind of tempted to go with the Eris.

My carrier situation is as follows:

Verizon family share contract with 500 min - contracts ends March 2010, 90% of family is on Verizon, I like the Eris better than the HTC Hero.

Sprint single Simply Everything account $200 ETF. - I have used 1700 minutes this month with about 3 days left in this billing period. That is actually low for me with the top end being 2400 in a month. I get better service with Sprint and with the Everything plan I can roam on Verizon.

I'm trying to figure out if I should just stick with Sprint or just can them and keep Verizon and get MetroPCS for unlimited calling. I'm probably thinking about this way too much but I really don't like to waste money especially if it is going to Verizon.

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On a side note, my Pre just shut off as I was writing this because of low battery. The last time I used it an hour ago it had plenty of battery left. It's probably due to some homebrew app or tweak I have installed but I find the Pre pathetic without tweaking and homebrew. My infatuation with the Pre is officially over.