Droid Eris MIA on Verizon's website

By Cory Streater
last updated

In our not-so-humble opinion, the HTC Droid Eris on Verizon never got the respect it deserved. It came in at a lower price point and a lower speed than the ballyhoo'd Motorola Droid and so seemed to get lots in the shuffle and now has pretty much been eclipsed by the HTC Droid Incredible. It was a shame, really, because the Eris was an inexpensive way to get in on both Android and HTC's Sense UI and a good looking phone to boot.

Notice all the past tense in that last paragraph? That'd be because the Eris no longer appears on verizonwireless.com and presumably is in the process of getting cleared out of physical store shelves too. It's not like we didn't already know this was coming, but that doesn't mean we can't say that the little tyke coulda been a contender. At least it managed to get some 2.1 action before it headed out the door, eh?

[Verizon Wireless (opens in new tab) via Engadget] Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

Cory Streater
Cory Streater
20 Comments
  • first
  • second
  • third
  • Ive been checking veizon and htc's sites for about a week now and its been missing. im not suprised no ones noticed being that the eris is the red headed bastard step child of the droid world. But this isnt new it was just noticed tho. thank god with all of the problems ive had with my eris verizon is allowing me to upgrade at the introductory price and send this phone back. just waiting on droid x to release. ps if you number your comment 1st and so on please tongue kiss a mouse trap.
  • I've got a Cellular South HTC Hero, and a co-worker has the Eris. I'm still waiting on my 2.1 update (*sigh*), but the co-worker absolutely loved his Eris before the 2.1 update, and hated it afterward. His phone gets lagged up frequently (not responding for 3-6 seconds at a time), the UI got extremely sluggish, applications started hard-locking the phone. He's on his second one, and is sending it back for his 3rd Eris. I wonder if that's not a reason it's getting pulled as well.
  • well ive not recieved many phone calls and text messages. and for the life of me i cant figure out why my phone sends out the same text messages from the previous day to the sender automatically when i turn it on. Very buggy be glad when my x is in can only be better.
  • Did you ever figure out the auto texting issue? There aren't many threads about it.
  • I'll miss ya Eris, but not much once I switch to the DroidX. I loved my Eris, but it wasn't until I rooted that it became what I wanted.
  • I kind of hate my eris. I only bought it because it was the only android phone I could afford. It's so laggy that I often miss phone calls because I can't always pick it up as soon as it starts ringing. I have so many other issues with it but I don't really feel like listing them all. I can't wait until I can upgrade.
  • I'm happy that I wasn't eligible for an update when both of these phones came out. I preferred the form factor of the Eris over the Droid. Also, when I played around with them in the store I liked the sense UI on it as well. Now here I am with my Moto Droid and I couldn't be happier...(well I COULD if I was a bit more tech savvy and could root and what not).
  • Predictable, given the release of Droid X and Droid 2, later today. Gotta make some room.
  • hopefully this is opening up the door for another entry level htc android phone at the big v ;) (if anyone notices, probably not, but i'm going to keep commenting about the htc bee until we get some freedom from the republic!)
  • Nope, it means that the droid X will be released as the Droid Eris 2. It's going to turn out to be another crappy phone! Oh noes!!1!!11
  • I like the Eris...wish they would have done more with it. I had some problems with the phone, but I think it's from the 2.1v3 leak. My first one I put it one worked great for awhile then start having problems. The second I tried rooting, but downloaded the wrong file and it did the same thing. They sent me a new phone and it has 2.1 leak pre-installed. Guess this one will be going back soon
  • They sent you one with the leak? Sure it wasn't 2.1 OTA which is like 99% the same as the leak V3? Just curious.
  • Looks like Verizon wanted to make Droid lineup as android phones at first (you know, Droid and Eris were the first android phones from Verizon), but somehow they changed it to "high-end android phones" later so kicked out Eris.
  • Maybe I've just been lucky, but I have almost no complaints about my Eris. I'm on Android 2.1, all stock. My device runs smoothly and relatively quickly given the limitations of the processor, I have none of the calling problems that have been reported by some and the only time I really experience lag is if I've been streaming audio or video for an extended period. And this usually clears itself up after a few minutes. The only thing I really hated about the phone was the keyboard lag that I sometimes experienced. Yes, this was a big problem, but it's no longer an issue because I'm using Swype, which rocks. I recognize that there are faster phones with more nimble processors, but with the 2.1 update and the recent improvements to such apps as Google Maps, this device is plenty capable. When I show off the widgets, the ability to customize the phone, the seamless syncing with Google mail/contacts/calendar, the Facebook contact linking, the navigation fucntion and apps like EasyTether, even some of my iFriends get a bit envious. Sure, I'd love a more powerful Android, but I'm getting not letting myself get caught up in the arms race. My Eris works, I like the size and feel of it, and after owning it for six months I feel like it keeps getting better. I can live with it happily until the end of my contract period.
  • For all the problems I've had with my Eris I still love it more than my old blackberry.
  • It's dead Jim!
  • For me Eris was a great phone. Most people having problems after the update, probably got some corrupted files from the OTA download, and didn't bother to go to the store to get it fixed, and are using the excuse to get a free or discounted update for the incredible/droid X. Trashing a phone for sport, convinience or incompetence is really not fair. All my friends that had problems with it, went to the store got it flashed and all problems were gone. I do not believe you are gonna get a droid cheap as this one for a while (maybe the old motorola droid now). I got my Eris free with 50 dollars cash back from a reputable online provider, will not get any cheaper than that.....