Is the Hero and the Eris the same phone?

nbnguy98

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Oct 26, 2009
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Are these the same phone, but on different carriers? If so, why is the Sprint one so pricy ($179 vs. $99), and will Sprint drop their price?
 

maddmatt02

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Oct 28, 2009
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verizon has got to do something like that to get a new customer to go with them and the eris instead of the hero w/ sprint.

Id still probably spend the extra 80 on the phone with sprint and make it back in the first 3 months with my cheaper plan.
 

kriEv

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they don't share the same name and the look of the phone is different, i doubt they will match, they will simply say its not the same phone.
 

dseiden

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Nov 3, 2009
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I read in the specs that the battery is a bit smaller in the Eris. As it is the battery life is not great so I am not sure I would want to opt for a smaller battery.
 

KSmithInNY

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Oct 7, 2009
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that's ghetto. *sigh*. Maybe Sprint will drop the price. How can Verizon sell phones at such a discount?

Verizon has the largest customer base of any wireless company in the US ... Sprint has the 3rd largest ... The math is pretty simple.

If I sold 1 phone for $5 or if I sold 2 phones for $2.50 each the end result is still $5. The larger carriers (VZW & AT&T) have the luxury to make less profit off phones if they want because they also have the luxury of being able to sell more phones and continue to make income off monthly plans.

Not "ghetto", it's good business.
 

Semantics

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Oct 31, 2009
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that's ghetto. *sigh*. Maybe Sprint will drop the price. How can Verizon sell phones at such a discount?

I dont get what is so hard to understand. Pay 99 up front on verizon and over 1000 more over the life of the contract for the plan, or pay 179 on sprint and still come out WAY ahead.
 

Jerry Hildenbrand

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that's ghetto. *sigh*. Maybe Sprint will drop the price. How can Verizon sell phones at such a discount?

They can't, and they aren't. Think of it as $99.00 down and $19.99 a month for 24 months, vs. $179.00 up front. Vzw doesn't care about selling phones, they care about selling service. That's why a $600 retail phone (droid) on verizon sells for $199 and a $600 retail phone (TP2) on sprint sells for $379
 

osubrad04#AC

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Nov 7, 2009
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One thing that I noticed is that the Eris has a capacitive LCD like the Pre. It's a cross hatch touch sensor that, in my opinion, is not as touch accurate as the iphone, Hero or Droid. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the usage of a lower quality touch capacitive LCD.
 

headcase

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Oct 14, 2009
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I've been using the Hero for the last 30 days, and I picked up a Eris yesterday, as I'm still undecided on which phone to go with for the next 2 years (perhaps the HTC Passion is going to be the winner). The key differences I've seen so far (putting aside the different networks & pricing):

Advantages for Eris
- Eris is slightly smaller, lighter, and thinner -- nice on the hands
- Button layout seems a little easier to use, given better spacing between keys
- Phone app is a little more intuitive, while in a call
- If you like black, certainly looks better
- No bloated crapware from the carrier

Advantages for Hero
- Stronger battery
- Superior glass (seems to resists smudges a little better, doesn't have the cross hatch touch sensor / visible dots, the graphics are still visible when turned on side while looking through rose-tinted sunglasses -- yeah, the last one was a surprise -- try for yourself)
- Double-click of physical menu button allows you to quickly wake device
- Sprint Navigation (until Android 2.0 and Maps comes out)

Other comments:
- When talking on the Eris, you can hear your voice slightly over the built-in ear speaker; I assume this is by design, to give the effect of home phones. Not sure if I like it, as it almost feels like an echo effect.

- If someone called on my Hero while it was paired to my BT headset, answering the call on my phone would result in the audio going through the normal handset mode -- I would have to turn on BT mode while in the call for the headset to pick up the audio. On the Eris while paired & connected to the BT headset, when I answer incoming calls via the phone, the audio comes through the BT headset right away as you would expect. Probably a small bug with the Hero BT.

- Some apps have yet to be visible in the Android Market via the Eris (eg. TV.com, PhoneMyPC, etc.) -- something Google will hopefully fix soon, since this seems to be the same OS as the Hero.
 

Jerry Hildenbrand

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- Some apps have yet to be visible in the Android Market via the Eris (eg. TV.com, PhoneMyPC, etc.) -- something Google will hopefully fix soon, since this seems to be the same OS as the Hero.

hmmm. T-Mo had apps blocked from the market for their phones....is big red doing the same? If so...shame on Google
 

sprint_fan

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Oct 25, 2009
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Why would they block apps from the market? And good for Sprint if they are the only carrier not doing this now, if Verizon is actually doing it.
 

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