Went to the Verizon store on 57th St and 6th Ave. in Manhattan to check out the Droid and Droid Eris. Played around with both. Fairly crowded there, but not packed. Lots of Verizon rep and even someone from HTC. Nobody from Motorola.

My impressions:
*Not as bad-looking in person, but not beauty contest winner either.
*Camera is slow and not that great.
*Didn't like the physical keyboard at all and not that easy to type on.
*BEAUTIFUL display - maybe the best I've seen on a phone.
*Virtual keyboard is nice and responsive and I liked it better than the physical keyboard.
*Voice command is pretty neat.
*Seemed a little sluggish, especially with the web browsing.
*No multitouch (i.e. pinching) and was disappointed with that.
*Maybe it's just me, but I just can't get to like that Android operating system so much. I think WebOS and iPhone are much easier to use.

Actually, after playing with the Droid and Droid Eris, I preferred the Eris. Beautiful phone and it didn't seem as sluggish. Virtual keyboard on the Eris is better than the one on the Droid. Disappointed that the camera didn't have a flash, though. If I were to choose between the two phones and if I had Verizon, I'd choose the Eris.

Other things I got out of the visit:
*HTC rep said the Eris was the same as the Hero, but just different in terms of specifications Verizon asked for (most likely physically). But I've played around with both phones and thought that the Eris' pinch zoom was smoother.
*He said that Eris would get Android 2.0 sometime next year.
*I asked him what he thought of Verizon itself and their plans and he said he couldn't understand why people go to them because they're so much more expensive than everyone else. He thought they do a good job at marketing and that's why nobody leaves their network. Also complained that Verizon is more demanding on what ask the phone makers compared to other carriers and it frustrates HTC.
*Also said that as soon as the Hero came out, T-Mobile's My Touch sales plummeted.
*Overheard lots of conversations with potential customers there who were iPhone users. And while it was universal that they loved the iPhone, they all HATED AT&T.
*Spoke with a Verizon rep and asked him why the European Droid had the multitouch zoom but US version didn't. He had no idea, but speculated that it was due to copyright reasons. He admitted that the phone was really missing out on that.
*NOBODY was looking at the Storm2. I even went to the same store the day Storm2

Overall, I think the Droid is a good phone, but not revolutionary. Maybe the best offering on Verizon (along with the Eris). I think it will sell well, but it's doubtful it will break records and won't beat the iPhone.

Reply