After playing with the HTC Eris I’ve only come to one conclusion, but you will have to read through to the end to see what that is.

Out of the Box
You can read my initial reactions here but straight out of the box I love how small the Eris is and how well it fit in my hand.

It’s really fast; there was some initial lag when I first started it up, especially when moving through the home screens, but over all this phone is just as fast as the Droid.

Play Time
You have all read the specs so I’m not going to bore you with the details that you’ve seen all over the web already. Playing with the Eris was fun and the Sense UI made it a joy to engage with the device. The lack of hardware keyboard will put some off but if you aren’t planning on typing much then this droid is the one you are looking for.

Since it isn’t running Android 2.0 there are some things that aren’t on this device that Verizon has advertised are on the Droid, namely Google Navigation, a slower browsing experience, and the older Marketplace. Of course an over-the-air (OTA) upgrade to Android 2.0 is rumored to be hitting the HTC Hero and HTC Eris in the near future so that could all change.

There’s not much more about this phone to say, it’s a great little phone — it is fast, reliable, and Verizon’s 3G makes it the best non-hardware keyboard phone the carrier has out. If you don’t like the bulk of the Droid or don’t need a hardware keyboard then definitely go check this little beauty out today. (Currently, for a limited time Verizon is selling the HTC Eris for $99.99 with a NEW 2-year agreement, $199.99 for existing customers.)

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