Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20676 in Cell Phone Accessories
• Color: Red
• Brand: Palm
• Model: Centro
• Released on: 2007-10-14

Features

• Onyx black smartphone with 320 x 320 color touchscreen and 1.3-megapixel camera
• Full QWERTY keyboard for messaging; offers text, e-mail, instant messaging, and web access
• Comprehensive organizer functions, including contacts, to-do lists, calendar, and more
• Expandable microSD slot (up to 4 GB)
• Includes: Battery, AC Charger, USB Sync Cable, Palm Software Installation CD and User Documentation

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 in such features as a 1.3-megapixel camera, 64 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth 1.2 support, a microSD expansion slot, and a full QWERTY keyboard and you have a terrific smartphone for all your messaging and personal needs. In short, there's no better way to stay in touch.

The Palm Centro's full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to type text messages, IMs, and e-mails (the red version is pictured).

Design
The Palm Centro boasts a sleek black housing that measures a mere 2.11 by 4.22 by 0.73 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 4.2 ounces. It's notably smaller than many competing smartphones, yet doesn't sacrifice functionality at any point along the way. Users will also love the 320 x 320 touchscreen (up to 65,000 colors), which offers a crisp resolution for photos and videos. And thanks to the full QWERTY keyboard, you can say L8R to those tricky keys on your old cell phone.

Phone and Messaging Functions
The Palm Centro smartphones offers a ton of ways to stay in touch with friends, whether you're calling Brian, firing off a quick text to Jen, instant messaging Chris, or shooting an e-mail to Kat. From a phone perspective, the Palm Centro lets you dial people right from your address book, set up three-way calls from the touch of a button, or use the speakerphone to talk hands-free. The keyboard, meanwhile, makes it a breeze to type complete messages whether you're sending text, pictures, or even audio or video clips. Plus, the Centro keeps all your messages in a chat-style view, so it's easy to keep track of the conversation.

The 320 x 320 color touchscreen is crisp and vivid, making it ideal for viewing photos or watching videos.

Want to keep up with all the latest gossip when you're away from the computer? Turn to the Centro's instant messaging functions, which support all your buddy lists on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and others. Similarly, the Centro lets you access your personal e-mail accounts, such as Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo. As a result, you can reply to invites and answer e-mails when you're out and about.

Web Functions
Whether you're keeping up with friends on MySpace or looking up directions to the new bistro across town, the Centro's touchscreen and keyboard make it fun to navigate around the web. The Centro includes a fast built-in web browser that lets you check out photos on Flickr or watch videos on YouTube, with broadband-like speeds on the EV-DO network that are guaranteed to impress. No more waiting around for your favorite sites to load. The Centro is also compatible with Google Maps, making it simple to get directions or see which freeways are clear and which ones are parking lots. Google Maps shows you red, yellow, or green traffic routes in real time.

Organizer Functions
The Palm Centro includes a complete organizer for keeping track of all your daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities. The contacts list gathers all your friends' phone numbers, addresses, and more, while the calendar keeps you from missing upcoming meetings, events, and parties. You can even enter a friend's birthday in the contacts list and will automatically show up in your calendar. As with the best organizers, the Centro also offers a to-do list that lets you check off items when they're complete. As a result, it's easy to keep track of what you did and still need to do. And should you come across a tidbit that doesn't have a logical home, simply turn to the memo function, which lets you store random information such as hot spots in Vegas or the names of movies you'd like to rent. Say goodbye to carrying around crumpled scraps of paper in your pocket or purse. Finally, it's possible to save a copy of all those names, numbers, appointments, photos, and videos on your computer thanks to the sync function.

Multimedia
Whether you want to take pictures, play videos, or listen to music, the Palm Centro has got you covered. The 1.3-megapixel digital camera (with a 2x digital zoom) lets you shoot pictures and send them to friends, store digital albums, or shoot videos. The built-in MP3 player, meanwhile, lets you take your tunes everywhere you go. With 64 MB of storage, there's plenty of room for your playlists, plus you can add up to 4 GB more with a microSD card. And thanks to Pocket Tunes Deluxe, you can play the songs you downloaded from places like Rhapsody or Yahoo. As a bonus, the Centro supports a ton of fun stuff from Sprint, including the ability to watch such TV channels as CNN Mobile, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, the Disney Channel, and E! Entertainment. There's never a dull moment with the Palm Centro around.

Other phone details include a removable lithium-ion battery that offers 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time; a Palm OS 5.4.9 platform; and support for Windows XP and Vista and Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.

Customer Reviews

Every phone has a compromise
What soooo many reviewers (professional and amateur) seem to fail to realize or even note is that EVERY phone has a compromise if you want something in return. If you want a smaller phone, then there is 100% chance that the battery will be smaller and not last as long as a bigger phone using the same technology with a bigger battery. If you want a smaller phone AND qwerty keyboard, you are going to get a cramped keyboard. No way around that fact. Let's face it, no one who is serious about having an actual PHONE is going to put up with those huge and bulky HTC slide out phones in their pockets. And the hip holster people are just not living in the same world as most people. First, they are bulky as all get out. Second, you need two hands to use the keyboard....which is still small. If you want a comfy keyboard, buy a laptop. But you can't carry around a bulky phone and call yourself serious about having a PDA phone. The only phones on the market right now that meet an acceptable size requirement (and have a keyboard) are the Dash, BB Curve, BB 8800, BB Pearl, Q, BlackJack, and the Centro. I have used them ALL. They all have downsides.

As for the Centro, the may downside is this: The Palm OS does not allow multi-tasking. That is it, folks! You don't need Wi-fi on your phone. What is the point if you are paying for a data plan anyway? The only thing that is cool about wi-fi is T-mobile's BB 8320 that can make calls for free (well, $9 more a month for home service) over wi-fi. Now, THAT is a reason to need/want wi-fi!

The Palm OS, as out-dated as it may seem, still kicks the snot out of BB and Windows. It is far more intuitive. Hey, folks, the Windows smartphone OS is not much different than it was 5 years ago either..even with the recent version 6 that came out this year. Until Windows 6, you couldn't even edit a document or write a note or cut and paste on most phones. So, why bash Palm OS when it has had that functionality for years?? Bash Palm because it still does those things? The Palm is an OS that requires that the device has touch screen. Is that a bad thing?

The Centro phone beats the 755p and the 680 and the 690 for one reason: It is smaller. I mean, this phone feels great in your hand. The only other phones that feel this good are the Dash and the maybe the BB Pearl (and the none-qwerty keyboard on the Pearl is deal-killer for most people). The BB Curve has a nice rubbery backside, like the Dash. If the Centro had that rubbery plastic back and sides, it would be much better.

Everyone keeps referring to this phone as a "first time" or "entry level" pda. That is silly. It is no more "first time" or entry level than a 755p. The Centro does EVERYTHING any other Palm OS phone does and it is smaller to boot. And I happen to think smaller is a plus not a minus. Everything is still very usable. Sure, the keyboard is cramped. But, I'll take that compromise to get a smaller overall footprint. The iPhone may be thin, but it is still too large to put in your front pocket and sit down with. The Centro, the Dash, Curve, and Pearl can do that very well.

Email: Everyone raves about the BB's email. What is so great about it? Sprint's Email and T-mobile's email (and others, I'm sure) can do the whole "push" thing just as well as BB. And, with BB (depending on your provider) you are going to pay another $40 per month for that push service, compared to $15 for the exact same thing using this Centro with Sprint.

Camera: OK, a 1.3meg camera was silly. Why, in October 2007, come out with a 1.3meg camera on ANY phone. Centro losses points here for sure. BB's Curve is a 2.0 and takes great phones consider it is a camera phone AND it has a flash. Love that flash! And it is a true flash, not this poser-flash stuff you see on the HTC products. But BBs have no video. That is very lame of BB because camcorder stuff gets used a lot by folks with camera-phones. Where would YouTube be without at least a cheap camcorder? Centro should have a 2.0 or 3.0 meg camera AND a flash. Now that would make it even more appealing to folks. And no way would it drive up the cost that very much.

BTW: I have owned a Dash (liked the phone, horrible volume interface--deal killer, and silly HTC mini-USB headphone thing), HTC 8525 (too big), BB Curve (hated BB interface and horrible web surfing--web surfing was a deal-killer), some older Palm phones, and now I own the Centro.

Bottom-line is the Centro feels like a great phone and has a slightly updated format. I would really like multi-tasking (BB's do this well), but if you absolutely need this then you should just get a laptop. The Web surfing is as good as it gets (other the iPhone), especially with Opera Mini loaded. When you factor all the pros and cons of the OTHER phones out there, you realize that the Centro is the best Palm phone around to date. And if you don't mind not have multi-tasking, then Palm is still the best OS out there.

BTW 2: Palm is finally going to get rid of its proprietary connectors and just go with the mini-USB connector. This is a great move. Too bad the Centro does not have that. But the Treo 500v does.

A smartphone that actually fits in your pocket.
The Palm Centro is one of the very few smartphones that can fit in your pocket and still deliver quality power features. However, it has a few minor drawbacks.

SCREEN
I've owned a Palm IIIxe, Palm Tungsten C, iPAQ rx4240 and have test driven an iPhone, Blackjack II and Moto Q, and a couple Blackberry models. The Palm Centro is probably the smallest screen of them all save the Blackberry Pearl. However, the Centro offers 320 x 320 resolution which is higher than most Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs out there. The result is a small, but crisp display with adjustable font sizes for most applications. I found the touchscreen to be about as sensitive as other Palm devices in the past, which is to say it's fine (see stylus comments below). The screen is slightly recessed into the phone which I find to be necessary so I don't hit the screen with my fat face while talking on it.

KEYBOARD AND BUTTONS
Have you seen this thing? The keyboard is small. And you know what? I'm glad it is. The Moto Q, Blackjack and Curve, etc might fit in the front pocket of your tight jeans, but it's not comfortable. The Centro passes my "jeans test" by sliding into my front pocket while letting me sit and stand with no problem. As a result, you get a smaller screen and a smaller keyboard. The Blackberry Pearl is the about the same size as the Centro, but it doubles up two letters per key button. Personally, I hate that. The Centro scores huge points for giving me dedicated keys for each letter on a small phone that fits in my pocket. It took me a day to adjust to typing with my fingernails, and I have large hands. But I can easily type with two thumbs or one--something that I can't do on my Palm Tungsten C or the Moto Q. Therefore, Centro is an outstanding one- or two-handed phone. The 5-way directional key also works better than i thought it would. After moderate use I find myself actually liking it a lot. The remaining buttons work just fine and can be assigned to whatever you want, including the side button below the volume keys. The dedicated ringer-off slider on the top is a very welcome bonus.

SOFTWARE
The Centro comes with a great suite of software preloaded onto the phone. The two email programs work very well with POP3 and IMAP email accounts, although I prefer the VersaMail over Sprint Mobile Mail. I've also been somewhat partial to the Palm Organizer over MS Outlook. It also comes with Documents To Go, which lets you open and edit Word and Excel files and lets you view PowerPoint and pdf files. There's a free download available to upgrade Docs To Go so you can open Office 2007 files and it gives you some basic Power Point editing abilities. The GoogleMaps and IM software are nice and work very well. The entertainment package of pTunes, Sudoku and Solitaire are nice and work ok, however I found that Sprint TV had some problems syncing up audio and video. The video seemed a step behind. But I loaded SlingPlayer for Palm OS on it and the Centro works great for watching pocket-sized TV in conjunction with a Slingbox.

The Palm OS gets knocks for being outdated, however, it works very well and is simple to use. Plus it's alot snappier than Windows Mobile. It doesn't really multitask, although some programs like IM let you sign onto an AOL, MSN, or Yahoo account and still receive messages after you've backed out of the program. The Centro syncs easily with Vista and XP, but I haven't tried it on a Mac. The other benefit is that there is a plethora for Palm software apps out there, both free and for purchase.

The web browser is just ok. I find that it loads pages much quicker than Internet Explorer on Win Mobile devices. Unfortunately it's not quite as good as Opera Mobile, and definitely not as good as the iPhone's Safari (to date nothing is...not even close).

PHONE/VOICE
I've been on US Cellular and Cingular/AT&T networks for years and never used Sprint. Sprint service is fine in my area, and the voice quality of the phone is nice. The earpiece volume can be raised to high levels when in noisy areas and people on the other end said my mic has no problems and sounds like any cell phone. The Centro syncs well with my Plantronics 640 bluetooth headset and people on the other end say I sound great with it. After 3 weeks, I haven't been able to complain about the phone or data signal. The addition of a WiFi radio would have been nice, but so far I haven't really missed it because of the high speed EV-DO network touted by Sprint.

CAMERA
It's a 1.3 megapixel camera, which is pretty weak by 2007/2008 standards. There is also no flash. The camera actually takes decent pics, though. I never even consider the camera on the phone when I buy it, but if it's really important to you, you probably want at least a 2 megapixel one with a flash...so maybe pass the Centro on by.

PROBLEMS AND SHORTCOMINGS
There are a couple things that annoy me about this phone and keep it from a full 5 star rating. First, the stupid Palm connector at the bottom. I've always hated the Palm connectors. Why the company can't switch to mini-USB like the rest of the world is a mystery to me. The jack isn't the easiest to pull out, it's big, and I have to buy all new car chargers for it. Also, there's no cradle. My previous Palm devices have a cradle and I miss it, although this is cheaply remedied with some poking around the internet. The stylus is also very thin, lightweight, and cheap. As a result it's doesn't provide enough tactile feel and weight to effectively use the touchscreen. I had to purchase a replacement metal stylus to bring the touchscreen use up to par. Again, a cheap fix, just a little annoying. Even with these shortcomings I would still be inclined to give the Centro 5-stars except for:

The battery cover. Ugh, the manifestation of evil itself! You have to take the battery cover off to remove the SD micro card. You also have to take the batter cover off to reset the unit. Now, I've only had one system crash in the first 3 weeks, but that was because I was trying to load some really old AOL software that wasn't designed for this Palm OS version--and I paid the price. The cover isn't the worst thing to get off, but putting it back on sure is. I've kind of gotten the hang of it, but man, total loss of a star because of it. There is no inset reset button on the back of this phone like other Palm devices of yesteryear. Having one of these small reset buttons in the back could have made me somewhat overlook the battery cover. Bummer. Palm, what were you thinking?

OVERALL
If you want a QWERTY smartphone but don't want to lug around a bulky unit your choices right now are either this or the Pearl. And the Pearl does the whole two-letters-on-one-keypad set-up. If these features are important to you, then the Centro is your choice. Don't worry, it's internal abilities don't disappoint. The Centro is great for text messaging, writing quick emails, doing some casual web browsing, and reading through Office files. However, if you want a better camera, or do HEAVY smartphone typing then I would look to a fatter smartphone that has a bigger screen and more spaced out thumbkeys. But in a world where size matters...the compact Centro delivers amazingly well. I've been very happy with my purchase. Now can somebody help me get this battery cover back on?

(P.S. If you found this review helpful please click yes below so other prospective shoppers will read it. I place a lot of weight on amazon reviews before I make a purchase too. Thanks!)

must-have tool for physicians
I'm a busy doctor, and I was getting tired of carrying a cell phone, Palm Pilot, and pager. All my medical programs and notes are on my Palm, so I didn't want to switch to Windows handheld. Treos were a little too big. After all, "dangit Jim, I'm a doctor not a Best Buy salesman!"

Then the Palm Centro "for kids" came out, with full Treo features in a small spiffy package. Hmmm.... THEN it made the front of Consumer Reports magazine this month, and a good review there. AND, Sprint has a 30-day money back guarantee. WOW. My new Centro arrived Friday, and I've loaded up all my good old Palm medical programs and notes on various conditions, and calendar, etc. Up and running no sweat. Incredibly clear screen, easy to read even for my middle-aged eyes. Great reception and call quality in our rural area of Wisconsin, with only a few spots between hills when I'm driving from hospital to clinic where it loses parts of words, but doesn't drop the call. My pager will be turned off and in at the end of the month, and now instead of carrying 3 gadgets to work with, I only need one. My old cell phone is now in the truck for my wife, who always forgets to turn her ringer on....

Phone list on cell phone to Palm? I just exported from my Nokia onto the laptop, and imported in to Palm Desktop. No problem.

Little keys on keyboard - yes. Do I have big hands (size 8 and 8-1/2 gloves)- yes.
Works OK? - yep! I just use fingernails or stylus or tip of pen.

Phone + pager functions, without having to be a programmer - it's built into Sprint's voicemail already.

For the doctors out there - it runs Epocrates great- 'Nuff said. (And you can install onto the Centro without having to buy Epocrates again. Just re-download/install from Epocrates.com.)

Will it hold programs, clinical pearls notes, texts? I bought a 1GB microSD card at Walmart for $27.84 while I had a mom in labor this weekend. I'll probably never fill it up.

Durable - I already dropped it once (on to carpet), no loose shaky rattles or problems. And mo'ly insurance is only $7.84.

MAJOR GOOD DEAL - BUY, BUY, BUY!

The only downside - the cool looking red ones are already sold out. I had to settle for boring but professional black. But there are cool looking covers for Christmas wish list....