Palm Centro Black Phone
Posted by adminAug 18
- Black-and-silver Palm-powered smartphone with 320 x 320 color touchscreen,full QWERTY keyboard, and 1.3-megapixel camera
- Quad-band connectivity for global roaming and EDGE data network compatibility for AT&T Mobile Music streaming and downloads
- Comprehensive organizer functions, including contacts, to-do lists, calendar; text, e-mail, and instant messaging; Web browser; Bluetooth for wireless headsets; MicroSD memory expansion
- Up to 3 hours of talk time, up to 300 hours (12.5 days) of standby time; measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches (HxWxD)
- Includes: Handset, A/C Charger, USB cable, Battery, User Documentation, Getting Started CD
Amazon.com Product Description
Life starts after five o’clock. Not coincidentally, that’s also when the Palm Centro smartphone comes alive. Not only does the Palm Centro handle all your favorite voice functions, but it also offers text, IM, e-mail, and web access–all in a body that’s a lot smaller than you’d think. Add a 1.3-megapixel camera, 64 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth connectivity for headsets, MicroSD expansion, and a full QWERTY keyboard and you have a terrific smartphone … More >>
A truly perfect phone (for what it is.)
I needed a ‘smarter’ phone and I certainly didn’t want to be like the droves of people flocking to the IPhone. I can find my own ‘style’ thank you, I don’t need a phone to ‘define’ me – (really you should hear some of these people go on about it…)
Anyway, it performs all the business apps I need, has a nice little built in audio player, and through the wonders of the PALM OS, has freeware for almost anything (medical, e-books, GPS, etc) as far as the eye can see.
I can spend my idle time switching between playing emulators of my favorite old NES, SNES, or Genesis games (at full FPS speed – in as good of quality as the old consoles did it)and when not doing that I can watch DVD’s I transcoded into MP4′s on the 320×320 screen. My average DVD only takes about 350-400mb, so you can fit quite a few on a 2 or 4gb card.
Further, I like that I am able to buy/download whatever applications I would like without having to sidestep the limitations built into my phone or void all warranty and possibly ‘brick’ it like the Apple.
Overall quite a nice little phone. The keyboard takes a few days to get used to, but once you realize its a nail press and not a finger press, you are fine.
I liked it so much I bought a 2nd one for the wife. She is not a power user of the aplications or OS, but loves that she can watch a full length movie or play SNES games while she waits for something/someone. The simple platform/interface didn’t intimidate her like some of the Windows Mobile products did.
5 Stars.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’m having a blast with the Centro. The only downside is that the internet connection is not as fast as a blackberry or iPhone but I needed to stick with the Palm format. Overall, I’m very satisfied.
Rating: 4 / 5
but in all honesty it fails to please on many levels. The first one I had the four-way browsing button stopped functioning in two weeks. This wasn’t from dropping or hard use, but just casual, in the pocket carrying.
The second phone I was using a plug in style hands free device and when I removed it the phone would not come out of hands free mode: the ear piece was disabled and the microphone was muted. I refuse to pay $50 dollars for the insurance deductible to replace a poorly made, fragile device that will probably break again in the next six months.
I will give it that it is a wonderfully sized PDA that is easy to carry and great to text on but Palm’s quality control has failed me for the last time. I’ve had four of their PDA’s just to have everyone of them stop functioning within a year from casual use, not dropping, getting wet, or any other abuse. I’m going to Blackberry and reccomend you do the same.
Rating: 1 / 5
First off, let me start by saying the Centro is not trying to compete with the Iphone. I’m sick to death of reading comparisons and those comparisons invariably come back to Apple’s evil stepchild. The Iphone is so buggy it should come with it’s own can of Raid. Have you tried using the QWERTY on that thing? It took me 60 seconds to type in an URL. I would toss that POS out the window in under a week.
Now, the Centro on the other hand, has a physical QWERTY keyboard which is a little cramped but stays within it’s small footprint. I also love the Palm OS software and how user friendly it is. Also, the third party Apps are second to none. I have a free startup App that makes my Home screens look just like the Iphone (which I like). The fit-n-finish isn’t quite up to snuff with the Iphone but then again I don’t look like a mindless drone pulling it out of my pocket as the Apple users tend to. Someone couldn’t give me an Iphone, Ipod, Touch, whatever…because I just don’t feel it’s user friendly in anyway in the real world. Where I do feel the Centro fills a very needed void in the marketplace (small, powerful, easy to use, cheap, and highly expandable). Best deal out there right now.
Rating: 5 / 5
If you’re wedded to the Palm platform, this is a good choice, providing your familiar applications in a compact package with a 3G phone.
I hadn’t used a Palm since my Pilot went kaput in the 90s. What I found with the Centro was scary on the one hand: they haven’t updated the software in a decade! OK, there are some color accents and obviously the phone, web, and email functions are new as is the operator-loaded crapware. On the other hand, the original software was OK and fairly easy to use. I’ve also enjoyed loading old freeware games to play, written in the Palm’s heyday and still available on the web.
I mainly use the phone, email, and web features (the newer software). The phone is fine. For email, I use the built-in VersaMail. IMAP access to my work ISP and gmail works well. VersaMail is suitable for basic stuff like checking mail and replying. The keyboard (vs Graffiti) is convenient but slow if you use only one finger to peck instead of two thumbs (a bit hard with the small kb). The web browser is passable, being hampered mainly by the small screen. It allows you to turn off css. Without doing turning it off, sites, such as Wikipedia, render really poorly. There’s no user-agent spoofing, so sites know you’re coming from a mobile. Some dish up a mobile optimized-version of their site which can either be good or craptastic (e.g., ebay).
I enter little to the calendar and address book directly, instead syncing data with these applications via Entourage on the Mac. It took me a long time to figure out if the address book is hooked into email. (It is: you can access the address book from email but you can’t email from the address book.) It’s definitely hooked into the phone. Syncing with the Mac isn’t perfect. Too little time has been spent by Palm in this area. The Palm Desktop app on the Mac is clearly ancient. I think it may actually be an OS9 app (keeping with the 90s theme). Unfortunately, integration and synchronization with Entourage or Mac’s native apps isn’t on par with Outlook integration on Windows.
I have the Sprint version of this phone. 3G speeds are great. I’ve topped 1Mbps on a PC tethered to the handset and haven’t had speed issues with the built in browser and email client. Voice quality is great, too.
The first popular touch-screen PDA, the original Palm was well designed–well enough to make the Centro a decent smartphone despite relying on a lot of ancient apps. Because of its decent (albeit creaky and certainly not flashy) software, low cost, and small size, the phone is well worth considering if you’re a long-time Palm user or a newcomer.
Rating: 4 / 5