Android Cup Round Two, Game 2: Google Nexus One vs. HTC Droid Eris

And so the Incredible moves on.

Of all the Android phone makers, HTC seems to be leading the pack in terms of designs that people like. So it’s no surprise that, of the eight phones to make it to the second round, five are from HTC.  Today’s match features two of them, the Google Nexus One against the HTC Droid Eris.

When it released the Nexus One, Google tried to mix things up, by offering it subsidized through T-Mobile for $179, or unlocked for $529 from its own site. That didn’t work out so well. Regardless, the phone itself is fantastic: it has a large 3.7-inch, 800 x 480-pixel AMOLED display and a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU inside a sleek 4.6-ounce body that has a soft-touch finish. When we reviewed it, the Nexus One was running Android 2.1. We tested Android 2.2 on the device, found it worked well, and are now just waiting for the official release (ahem).

As we mentioned in the first round, the Droid Eris was the best sub-$100 smartphone on Verizon Wireless when it debuted in November. The Eris features HTC’s Sense interface, which not only adds two more home screens to the Android interface, but also integrates Facebook and Twitter well.

The Eris has a 3.2-inch multitouch display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. It lacks a physical keyboard, but we found the soft keyboard generally worked well. Other hardware includes a 528-MHZ Qualcomm MSM7600 processor with 512MB of ROM and 288MB of RAM; EV-DO Rev. A; and 801.11b/g Wi-Fi.

Now’s when you cast your vote. Do it! Now!