Verizon to Continue Droid Line of Phones with Droid Eris

The Motorola Droid has been wowing people with its snappy Android 2.0 operating system and solid build. We found no shortage of praise in the roundup of early reviews. But Verizon isn’t content to offer just a high-end Android phone. The Motorola Droid will be followed by another Android phone that should be quite familiar: the Droid Eris.

The name may not be familiar, but if you’ve been following Android phones at all, you’ve seen this phone before. The Droid Eris is actually a rebranded HTC Hero, like the one that received high praise when announced by Sprint several months ago. After the media storm about the performance of the Motorola Droid, the Droid Eris from HTC may sound like a step backward; it’s got a slower processor, and it will only be running Android 1.5. However, it’s part of a larger plan at Verizon to turn Droid into a line of Android phones for all types of consumers.

The Droid Eris won’t be quite as zippy in the spec department (it only has a 528MHz Qualcomm processor, not exciting at all), but it will be significantly cheaper, opening the Android platform up to another consumer demographic that might not be able to foot the bill for a Motorola Droid. While nothing is official yet, Droid Eris has shown up in Verizon training material, and over at gdgt they have a solid source saying it will debut for $99 on Verizon.

It would be way more acceptable to go with a slightly less powerful phone when it’s $100 less than the Droid, and about $80 cheaper than the same HTC Hero on the Sprint network. And with the news that the HTC Hero will get the Éclair (Android 2.0) update, it’s likely the Droid Eris could get it too, making it even more desirable at that price point. It’s obvious Verizon is trying to appeal to all types with the new array of Android phones. If it works, the Droid Eris could be just as important for Verizon as the flashier Motorola Droid.

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Dan Hope writes for TopTenReviews.com.