The other Droid launching tomorrow gets unboxed: Eris

The lesser known droid, the HTC Eris, is finally shown in an unboxing event. This Droid, unlike the Motorola Droid, has not hardware keyboard. The Eris is a touchscreen beauty running Android 1.6 with Sense UI skin for an HTC feel.

Boy Genius notes that their source says the phone feels lighter and thinner than the HTC Hero. Another tidbit is this phone supposed is the next best Android phone to date, after the Motorola Droid with 2.0 software.

Our Shawn Ingram had this to say about the Eris:
“The Droid Eris appears to be a repurposed model of the HTC Hero. It features the same Sense UI as well well as the exact same specs as the Hero. The only real difference comes in the phone’s body, carrier and price. While the Hero sells on Sprint for $180 (after rebates), the HTC Droid Eris will be sold by Verizon for $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. Given the price point it’s obvious that Verizon views it more as the lesser model to the Motorola Droid. The phone does have a less powerful processor, a lower resolution screen, no hardware keyboard and runs on Android 1.5 as compared to 2.0 on the Droid so that viewpoint does make sense.”

Read: [Boy Genius Reports]