I am currently on my third Droid Eris. The first Eris I got was perfect - no issues at all. I had what I thought was a software bug with location-based services that VZW couldn't fix over the phone so they sent me a [dirty, flithy] Certified, 'like-new' replacement. (The issue ended up being a non-issue) While grocery shopping with my family my kids (3 and 7) knocked the replacement Eris out of my hands while running circles around the shopping cart. (I was using ShopSavvy at the time) I had some chips and dents in the casing after that, but could never say the right things on the phone to get a replacement. At most VZW replaced the battery.
I installed the 2.1 leaks like most did, all the way up to v3 in anticipation of the 2.1 OTA. I foamed at the mouth like a rabid dog until it was pretty much determined the v3 leak was the same as the OTA. I was also dejected like many that my phone with the v3 leak was unable to obtain root access for the time being, and that many devs were turned off at the prospect of working on it further because of the hyenas in the forums bugging them daily for rooting on v3 installed devices.
A month and a half had passed since the last call to Verizon to get support on my phone. With some prodding on my part I was able to get another replacement and it had not been tampered with. I followed the guide over on XDA and I was able to get rooted no problem. I picked a good time to root - the vanilla roms were coming out around that time. Over time I'd adopt White Widow as my build of choice, and started the official Google Wave discussion before it was later atacked by the haters. Later I moved to Conap's ELB as I debated keeping my Eris for different reasons.
While I didn't change up my device as frequently as some of the more serious offenders, I still did a lot of tinkering with my phone. In the end, whether this phone can do a million things at once or not, it's still a phone. Not every rom was perfect, or even stable enough for full-time usage. I'll leave most of my negative, unconstructive comments to myself because the devs are doing more with these devices than I could or have time to. I really do appreciate their work.
So, earlier this week, I unrooted. Why?
If I need to use my camera, I want the stock app to work. I don't want to spend a few bucks on something my phone should already have stock. I don't want to have to use Handcent for MMS. You know, things like that. And yes, over time bugs are fixed - such as stock MMS working on ELB 2.8. I actually do have patience, and held out for a while and tried different builds and incoporated .apks or APNs that were compatible to get around certain issues I encountered.
But, I also had to know why something worked. I am not the type of person that will just do something because it works. I have to know why. I couldn't devote as much time as I would have liked to for rooting and exploring Android. I didn't want to be another "me too" guy with a custom build that was just using it because it did "XYZ" and it was the cool thing to do. So when things like the camera preview in Conap's Froyo 1.4 didn't work, or I couldn't use Root Explorer properly, I admittedly got frustrated because I didn't understand why or how to try and fix it on my own.
Bottom line: my phone has got to work. The only quirks I had with 2.1 stock were:
Notes in Contacts (w/ HTC Sense) didn't expand
Dialer lag
"Slowness" is subjective, and for the time being I can't say I've got a laggy device other than dialer lag.
With root I had issues with the following:
Camera - generally working @ 50%
Stock MMS - early on working only w/ Handcent (eventually from Stock)
Compatiblity issues - apps2sd on ELB 2.8 going to Froyo, for example, root explorer not working
And maybe its me, but going back to stock I'm not seeing much of a slowdown on my Eris. I was never really a major multi-tasker and I never seemed to tax my device beyond what it was capable of doing. I got the Eris because I live out of Google Apps, plain and simple. I wanted a better device for handling PIM than what I was accustomed to from RIM and Microsoft. The Eris succeeds in that based on the Android pedigree it is based on, and its tight integration with Google Apps.
If the Froyo builds stablize and stock apps work - meaning I don't have to go out of my way to download "compensating apps" from the market to make up for lost functionality by flashing the build - I will root again.
phone's not bricked, just wont boot into the custom recovery
