The HTC DROID Eris has been announced and is now on sale at Verizon stores for $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract.

The DROID Eris is the second DROID device but does not run Android 2.0, instead it runs 1.5. This choice was made so that the device could run HTC’s Sense UI.

I stopped by my local Verizon store to try out both the DROID and the DRIOD Eris and although I didn’t mind the Eris, I did not like the DROID. The Eris seemed polished, like it was really ready to hit the market, on the other hand, the DROID didn’t. Neither the hardware or software keyboard felt comfortable to use, the design of the software and hardware didn’t feel finished, and the home screen reminded me of Windows 3.1. Honestly, how am I supposed to take a mobile browser seriously when it has zoom in and zoom out buttons in the bottom corner?

Previously:
10/29/09: Motorola DROID
10/18/09: Verizon Debuts Teaser for ‘Droid’ Handset
10/11/09: Verizon and Google Partnering on Android

Update 11/12/09: DROID Limited to 256MB of App Storage