As previously reported, the DROID Eris is functionally identical to the Sprint Hero with pricing set at $469.99 Retail/Month-to-Month, $269.99 after a new 1 year agreement and $199.99 after a 2 year, with the $100 mail-in rebate bringing the totals to $169.99 and $99.99 respectively, undercutting the Sprint Hero by $80.

Buy the HTC Droid Eris from Verizon Wireless

The complete featureset consists of the 3.7 inch WVGA resolution capacitive touch display, QWERTY keyboard, 550 MHz application processor, microSDHC expansion slot with included 16GB card, 5.0 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, autofocus and DVD resolution video recorder.

Secondary specifications include Bluetooth with stereo audio support, Wi-Fi radio, light sensor accelorometer, proximity sensor, GPS support with transceiver, WebKit based browser with HTML5 and future Flash support scheduled for 2010 along with speakerphone.

The device is now available for $499.99 Retail/Month-to-Month, 269.99 on a 1 year agreement or $299.99 after new 2 year agreement before an additional $100 mail-in rebate, bringing the totals to 269.99 and $199.99 respectively.

Buy the Motorola DROID from Verizon Wireless

The LG Chocolate TOUCH is a music oriented touch screen device that features an FM radio with 12 presets, Song ID, dedicated side key foraccess to favorite songs, Bluetooth with stereo audio support,“Join the Band” music accompaniement feature, Dolby Mobile equalizer technology, 3.2 megapixel camera and video recorder with speakerphone.

The LG Chocolate TOUCH is now available for $259.99 Retail/Month-to-Month, $199.99 on a 1 year agreement or $129.99 before a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement on a Nationwide Calling Plan, bringing the totals to $149.99 and $79.99 respectively.

Buy the LG Chocolate Touch from Verizon

Get $15 Cashback

Verizon will begin to offer the service in 2010.

Update: Verizon has clarified to PhoneNews.com that the rate for the tethering add-on for consumers will be $30 on top of the required $30 data plan for the device, with corporate accounts being priced at $45 for handset data with the tethering add-on at an additional $15, totaling the same $60 a month rate as the consumer account and the source of the initial confusion on pricing.

The increase will apply to all smart devices sold by the carrier and is seen as a way to retaliate against customers that would work the system set up by the carrier with its frequent BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) offers (e.g. BlackBerry devices) and sell smart devices for profit by taking out a second line, acquiring another device, then paying the $175 ETF in order to profit later on the sale of the second device on auction sites, making the ETF increase a deterrent against the above practice.

Customers signing up and purchasing smartphones before the 15th will be grandfathered into the old ETF policy, with the $350 ETF not applying to Corporate Liable lines of businesses with a Major Account Agreement and Enterprise Customer profile, Government and Telemetry account types.

Read More for Verizon’s internal explanation of the change.

ETF Policy
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Updated:

11/03/2009 16:35:51|

Policy & Eligibility
If a customer cancels service early or if Verizon Wireless terminates their service for good cause, then the customer is charged an ETF (Early Termination Fee) per line of up to:

$175, or $350 (if the customer’s contract term results from the purchase of an advanced device after 11/14/2009).

Note:

The up to $350 ETF for advanced devices is not to be discussed with customers prior to the 11/15/2009 launch. In the event a customer receives a Direct Mail Letter which references the up to $350 ETF and contacts Verizon Wireless, Representatives can assist the customer and explain the up to $350 ETF is for advanced device purchases effective 11/15/2009.  The higher ETF associated with advanced device purchases fairly reflects the higher costs associated with offering feature rich advanced devices to customers at attractive prices and investing in our network to support these devices.

The $175 ETF decreases by $5 a month and the $350 ETF decreases by $10 a month for each full month the customer completes.
The up to $350 ETF does not apply to CLEU (Corporate Liable End User) lines of businesses with a MAA (Major Account Agreement) and ECPD (Enterprise Customer Profile Database) profile, Government and Telemetry accounts.

If adopted by the 3GPP, One Voice would utilize the IMS (Internet Multimedia Subsystem) network overlay to send voice calls and SMS over LTE networks, with the companies involved in its development believing the proposed solution will allow for the widest range of compatibility for wireless network operators, equipment manufacturers and handset manufacturers while ensuring worldwide roaming over LTE networks.

One Voice is currently competing with other proposed voice over LTE delivery standards such as the aforementioned VoLGA and the 3GPP’s own Circuit Switched Fallback standard (CSFB). The CSFB standard as proposed by the 3GPP would allow LTE devices to revert to GSM or UMTS for incoming/outgoing voice calls as well as SMS.

Image courtesy of Engadget Mobile

On the same day as the launch of the Motorola DROID, HTC will be launching its DROID series device in the HTC Eris for Verizon, which will also mark the debut of the DROID branding as a series of devices on Verizon Wireless.

The HTC Eris is functionally identical to the forthcoming Sprint Hero with Android 1.5, 3.2 inch HVGA resolution capacitive touchscreen display, HTC’s Sense UI overlay, 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7600 processor with 512MB RAM/288MB ROM, microSDHC expansion slot with pre installed 8GB card and 5.0 megapixel camera with video recorder.

Pricing is set at $469.99 Retail/Month-to-Month, $269.99 after a new 1 year agreement and $199.99 after a 2 year, with the $100 mail-in rebate bringing the totals to $169.99 and $99.99 respectively, undercutting the Sprint Hero by $80.

First, we’ll get the obligatory iPhone boilerplate out of the way. Yes, contrary some fist shaking, iPhone (3GS) was the phone to beat, until today. Be it in the performance arena, the App Store arena, be it the basket of features or the pure style… adding it all up, iPhone stayed ahead.

So, how does Droid force Apple back to the drawing board? The sum of its (new) parts.

Motorola and Google have unloaded a ton of new technology into Verizon’s first Android phone. Google has brought Android 2.0, along with the world’s first free turn-by-turn live GPS solution. Motorola matched that with hardware that reminds us why Motorola has stayed relevant in the industry.

I have to admit, we were skeptical about Droid’s design. It looked like Motorola’s Sidekick… a match made in hell, with design language to match. Holding Droid however is a completely different story. It looks amazingly well-built. The in-hand build quality even manages to surpass that. This phone is a winner in the design category. In short, it’s thin. The keyboard and display sections are evenly distributed, the lower half of the phone is only slightly thicker than the display portion.

So, we’ll cut to the chase. We like small reviews now, we think you will too. Here’s why we it’s the best smartphone out there, the new phone to beat. Android 2.0, combined with the 550 MHz processor that Droid carries, sets a new standard. Literally, from start to finish, it beats the iPhone. Verizon Wireless’s EV-DO Rev A network also makes the ping rates and throughput of AT&T’s HSPA network frown. Make that seriously frown. Verizon and Droid beat AT&T and iPhone in nearly every web page we loaded, and both sported excellent reception (our offices happen to be under a jointly-shared cell site for both companies).

It’s important to note that the 550 MHz CPU that the Motorola Droid carries is using a different core from comparative Samsung or XScale-derrived processors. The megahertz myth is a live and well in the mobile sector, as the performance yield per clock cycle means that Droid rivals 1 GHz Snapdragon phones. It is also why phone makers always hesitate in touting the processor of a phone…

But it’s the small things that this fusion create that make the difference. There is no lag in this phone. None. No “screen blur for 4 seconds while rotating”. No “wait for the on-screen keyboard to appear”. No “wait for apps to toggle”. And, no “wait for the interface to draw from one screen to the next.” If you’ve used Android, this is music to your ears. If you haven’t used Android, we strongly suggest starting with the Droid, you won’t look back.

Oh, and be sure to try out the accelerometer. It’s faster than iPhone… something we weren’t sure Android’s Dalvik platform could ever pull off.

Likewise, the keyboard is a sigh of relief. We’ve been waiting for a good Android phone to replace the T-Mobile G1 for having a keyboard and touch screen. The Samsung Moment on Sprint has been long-awaited for this reason. Thankfully, the keyboard on Droid is excellent. It’s flat, but a easy to use. The layout is well-articulated, with dual alt keys on both ends of the keyboard, and excellent backlighting. It’s the best keyboard on any Android phone released to-date.

This isn’t to say that Android was dysfunctional before Droid, far from it. Droid and Android 2.0 simply put it on a new playing field. A playing field where you can multitask like a Palm Pre, but with the native code that Android 2.0 allows. Oh, and that brings us to the other side: Android 2.0’s future in the App Store arena.

First, we’ll talk about what Android 2.0 and Droid deliver today. The long-rumored and sometimes-shown new Android Market is in-place and fully working. It’s faster than iPhone by a mile. Apps install instantly. We could not find an app that took more than 10 seconds to install. Try that with an iPhone. Try that with Windows Mobile, or even the Palm Pre. We’ve suffered through the freezes, stalls, and lag on their app stores. Not so on Droid. In short, it just works.

Car mode is a nice touch. We’ll be reviewing Android’s Maps with Navigation beta in a separate article (since it is in beta, and we don’t cast judgement on betas). But, for those of you not glued on every move that Droid has made, Car Mode is a special GUI written by Google for devices that function well in cars. We expect that to mean all future phones, but for now, it’s only on Droid. At first, you might get the notion that it isn’t necessary. But, then you touch the voice search button, and fall in love. It has the best voice recognition we’ve ever seen on a phone. There are some faults, for example, Voice Search doesn’t connect with Bluetooth voice commands. So, you can’t tap the screen and say “call 800-466-4411″, but you can say “directions to Best Buy” and Maps will load ready to start a new turn-by-turn GPS session.

Basically car mode takes the taps out of driving. Voice commands route to their natural functions. If you’re saying something related to a web search, it loads Google and runs the search. If you’re asking for something related to GPS, it takes care of tapping through all the menus for you… since, you’re, well, driving.

Not a 360-point landing

There are some faults though. The “with Google” branding stifles innovation. No HTC Sense UI here. While Sense UI blew away CLIQ in our offices, the lack of both is a bit painful. It means juggling IM apps, weather widgets, and other stuff that should just be there. This isn’t as much of a concern to the tech-savvy, as it is to those that are new to smartphones. With Sense UI, they get an instant level of data integration that would be cumbersome for the average person to get acquainted to all at once.

There is a real fear to “with Google” that is still present. And, that is that many will only use it as a glorified web browser and email client. They will miss out on the key features that can be tapped into with this powerful, multitasking phone.

Oh, and please, give us pinch and zoom. If HTC can implement it by dropping the With Google, why can’t Google embrace gestures? They seem to have no problem with flicking, but pinching still escapes them. Because Android 2.0 is so responsive, it’s not as much of a concern… but it’s still a concern near the top of the list.

The road ahead… now with Navigation and Street View…

For Droid to thrive, developers will have to up the ante as well. Android is still, unfortunately, cumbersome to take full advantage of. The abstraction of native code gives iPhone a waning edge. Google continues to cut off their nose, in order to spite their own never-native face in this regard. Android is an Operating System, and Google needs to accept that its head is, still, stuck in the clouds. To take advantage of the arsenal of OpenGL power that exists in Droid, Android must give a better C implementation, and fast.

Thankfully, Motorola has done the hard work, of building a device that shows how imperative the notion of simple native code is. With Palm stuttering on the subject, Symbian in shambles, Maemo not out of the gate, and Windows Mobile admitting their weakened state… Android has the sole power to make their native code suite robust, and challenge iPhone at what they do best (and still be open, too).

For Motorola, there are some other complaints. For example, the camera is not at the top of the universe. HTC’s Hero camera is superior, with touch-on-autofocus and a more robust camera app. Again, “with Google” branding probably forced Motorola to use the Android 2.0 camera app. We were looking for more here, and we’ll post photos in a follow-up. Still, kudos for the dedicated pressure-sensitive camera button.

The screen size also leaves us a bit perplexed. It’s an odd one. It isn’t as wide as a standard 3.5 inch, but is longer, giving it about double the resolution of iPhone, while only weighing in at 3.7 inches total. It seems nice and long for vertical reading, but in landscape mode has us asking for more. Lots of pixels, but slightly sub-par longitude on the display front. At least it’s bright and responsive.

Finally, Verizon seems to have spent a lot of effort making the battery door easy to open. While battery life will take some time to fully condition, owners can rest assured: Moto Droid is no Palm Pre. Unfortunately, the battery has to be removed to change the microSD card slot. We prefer thin devices, and we certainly prefer microSD over narrow-minded phones that lack any form of capacity upgrade. However, having to powercycle a phone this modern just to copy a few files over to the microSD card seems short-sighted.

Verizon has some work, too. The only app they offer right now is a $2.99/month visual voicemail application. While VZ Navigator has been made obsolete by Google Maps with Navigation, their other services; V CAST Video and V CAST Song ID, as well as an on-device account management app, all could bolster the Droid movement for the company.

Another note to Verizon. Developing your own Android UI would be a fatal error. We still have to ding each and every non-smartphone on Verizon for their battery draining, useless, damaging smartphone UI. Worse, Verizon knows it drives customers into buying smartphones, and we really hate that kind of crippleware. Leave your in-house developers to in-house apps, and not into cushy for-life jobs controlling Android UI on Verizon (yeah, we know that’s how Verizon BREW UI got the green light).

One Final Thing™ that we would like to see on the device, is a 2GB microSD version. Many people already have large microSDHC cards, and don’t need to pay for the bundled 16GB card that comes with the phone. At least as an online-only option, offering a $179 version with a small memory card would be better for everyone.

Conclusions, Final Thoughts

The CLIQ and Droid clearly come from different camps. The Motorola CLIQ was meant to be a Sidekick killer. Not bad timing for that, either. Droid was built for a different purpose, to give Motorola new life with the most informed customers in the world. It’s the new superphone.

But, as usual, we love competition. Droid will make the competition finally ask questions that they’ve tried to dismiss. Like, why can’t I have a phone with a great keyboard, and a giant touchscreen? Or, why can’t I have a phone that is at the top of the power heap, and has removable storage? And, why am I paying to use that GPS chip in my phone, when the maps are already free? These are questions that have been out there for a long, long time. Droid combines power that will keep the tech-savvy, with a phone that answers all the checkboxes.

Motorola has just reinvented themselves, and we can finally say that with a smile, not the perpetual chagrin that we’re unfortunately become all too accustomed to about the company.

Pros: Lag-less UI, Android 2.0 power, Great keyboard, Extremely fast processor, Free GPS navigation
Cons: No multitouch UI, Stifled “With Google” options, Moto’s typical weak camera performance
Final Score: 5/5

FTC “Change You Shouldn’t Believe In” Boilerplate

That all said, we do love your comments and questions, so please share them below!

The Droid will be the first device to feature Android 2.0 and Google’s new Google Maps Navigation service which lets Google Maps act as a turn-by-turn navigation application that uses the onboard GPS transceiver and features A-GPS and Street View support.

The complete featureset consists of the 3.7 inch WVGA resolution capacitive touch display, QWERTY keyboard, 550 MHz application processor, microSDHC expansion slot with included 16GB card, 5.0 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, autofocus and DVD resolution video recorder.

Secondary specifications include Bluetooth with stereo audio support, Wi-Fi radio, light sensor accelorometer, proximity sensor, GPS support with transceiver, WebKit based browser with HTML5 and future Flash support scheduled for 2010 along with speakerphone.

The device will be released on November 6th for $299.99 after new 2 year agreement before an additional $100 mail-in rebate, bringing the total to $199.99.

The BlackBerry Storm 2 features a 3.25 inch 480 x 360 capacitive touchscreen display with integrated Send, End, Menu, Escape functions and new SurePress version, EV-DO Rev A/UMTS/HSPA on 2100 MHz and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks for international roaming, new Wi-Fi radio, 256 MB of RAM, 2 GB of onboard storage and a microSDHC memory card slot with a 16 GB card included.

The phone is available now for $539.99 Retail/Month-to-Month, $349.99 on a 1 year agreement or $279.99 on a 2 year agreement, both before an additional $100 mail-in rebate, bringing the totals to $249.99 and $179.99 respectively.

Buy the BlackBerry Storm2 from Verizon Wireless
Get $15 Cashback