Palm Centro Review
SPECIAL OFFER: For a limited time get 10% Off your purchase of any accessories (see my Editor’s Choice recommendations at the bottom of this post) in our Centro Store. Just enter coupon code CENTRO10 during Checkout.
I kindly received my Centro review unit from Palm yesterday and after playing with it for a full day (as well as looking for a whole new bunch of Centro accessories) I can now confirm that my very positive original impressions when seeing the device for the first time at Digital Life in NYC have not changed – on the contrary I’m loving my Palm Centro more by the minute.
On the hardware front here are a few points that I’m particularly delighted with:
- Colour: I’ve been wanting a Black Treo for some time and now I finally have one (Palm call it “Onyx Black” and there’s also the “Ruby Red”).
- Form Factor: this smartphone is very compact, solidly built and shaped just right (rounded back and edges) to fit comfortably in your hand or pocket.
- Weight: at only 4.2 oz (119 grams) with its battery the Centro is extremely light (up to 1/3 lighter than previous Treo smartphones). It shaves a full 2.2 oz (62 grams) from the Treo 700p and 1.4 oz (40 grams) from the Treo 680 and you’ll notice the difference this makes the moment you hold one (image below and see also Palm Centro & Treo Comparison Chart).
- Full QWERTY Keyboard: some people can argue this point all they want but the fact is that I still consider that there is no substitute for a full usable keyboard on a smartphone. Yes, the Centro’s keyboard (below) is incredibly small but what is even more incredible is how well it works – it’s not quite as fast or comfortable as my Treo 680 but it comes very close (it’s also a hell of a lot faster than the virtual keyboard on the iPhone).
- Touchscreen: again, the touchscreen is smaller in size but luckily Palm kept a high resolution 320x320 display. I didn’t have any problems at all viewing all sorts of information on this screen but admittedly the smaller size does make it just a bit harder to reach some buttons or menus with your fingers using the touchscreen.
- Memory Expansion: although I’ll be missing the 8GB SD cards currently on my Treo 680 the present maximum of 4GB on a microSD card for the Centro should nonetheless prove plenty for most Centronauts.
- New 5Way and Flat Hard Buttons: these new larger flat/flush buttons make the Centro a more elegant (reducing the relative clutter of so many keys) and slimmer looking device.
- Back Speaker: until you hear it it’s hard to describe just how LOUD the new back speaker is – making it perfect for an impromtu music session, for your morning alarm clock and naturally more importantly to ensure that you actually hear your phone ringing when someone calls or texts you (comparatively I’ve been missing about 50% of calls on my test iPhone because both the speaker and the included ringtones are designed for people with bionic ears and not the average user).
- Camera/Video: I haven’t yet been able to make some proper comparisons but based on first impressions both the images and video that the Centro takes appear to be much improved over earlier models.
One of the few downsides on the Palm Centro is a relatively low battery life with a Talk Time of 3.5 hours but as with the Treo 680 previoiusly I found that an extra spare battery as well as maintaining regular charging cycles (overnight in a cradle for example) significantly reduce the limitations. Additionally, it’s also clear that as before we should expect to see an extended battery introduced within the next few months.
On the software front I have found an equal number of features to like:
- PalmOS: it may be old/ageing but the fact is that the PalmOS is not only perfectly usable but it also still does things much better than competiting operating systems on a great many fronts such as the Onscreen speakerphone and mute buttons, “Ignore with text” function, Google Maps integration, Messaging, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks among others. The additional benefit for existing Treonauts is that like me they’ll be able to simply plug their Centro to their PC and synchronize it using their current HotSync ID to have a fully customized new smartphone in minutes. There are also a few additional minor modifications within the OS and I’m trying to get a full list of these from Palm.
- Pocket Tunes Deluxe: with a value of $39.99 the full version of this top MP3 player is conveniently included in your Centro purchase ready to provide you with hours of fun with music on the go (something that I use almost daily).
- IM: bundled for the first time, the new IM application provides support for AIM, MSN and/or Yahoo! to instant message your buddy list while on the go – it works great and even lets you know of incoming message via an alert when you are out.
- Sprint TV & On Demand: part of the exclusive Sprint content and services found on the Centro (also includes Sprint Mobile eMail). Most of the programming is free (On Demand alone used to cost up to $10 per month) and includes things such as streaming news, video, music, radio as well as news, sports, weather, 411 and TV Guide.
- Google Maps: the latest version of Google Maps is also now pre-installed in ROM and provides a superbly useful solution and now also includes Contacts integration so that you can quicly view directions to a contact’s address.
- Nuance Voice Control: this voice recognition service works surprisingly well and the only downside is a relatively long delay as it’s an application that runs wirelessly via a server instead of being an on-board application.
- Third-Party Software: with hundreds if not thousands of fantastic third-party software designed for the PalmOS, you can customize and further enhance the functionality of your Centro to your hearts desire (see my Top 100 Treo Software).
Overall the Palm Centro will prove to be a terrific smartphone for existing Treonauts wishing to greatly reduce the size and weight of the device that they carry in their pockets every day without having to make any significant compromises. Newly minted Centronauts for their part will find a device not much larger than their current standard 12–key phone – one that now offers them all the amazing benefits of owning a Treo smartphone.
Editor’s Choice Centro Accessories
Seidio 2in1 Pen Centro Stylus
If you’ve ever been anywhere struggling to find a pen at hand to write something down you’ll quickly understand just how useful this dual pen/stylus for your Centro really is.
SPE Centro Screen Protector
You could risk scratching your screen accidentally or simply choose these great screen protectors for your Centro instead.
Cellet Cradle Dock
This is the slimmest and most elegant Docking + Battery Charging cradle available for your Centro and my own top choice.
Palm Air Case
My favourite and Editor’s Choice Centro case provides a slim but very robust all-round protection against scratches and drops for your smartphone. (See my review)
Centro Screen Protectors
The simplest way to ensure scratch protection for your delicate Centro touchscreen these screen protectors are the #1 bestselling accessory.
SPE Retractable S&C Cable
Probably the single best value accessory and one of the most essential items in my kit – this is one product you should never be without. (See my review)
Another great offer for Centronauts is the price drop of a spare original 1150mAh Palm Centro Battery which is now available for only $29.95 – saving you $20 (40%) off Palm’s MSRP.
This 1150mAh spare Centro battery from Palm (see my review) will provide you with an additional 3.5 hours of talk time or 240 hours of standby time – perfect for that extra juice you’ll need while on the go.
Both the AT&T Centro and Sprint Centro are now available for FREE with a 2 year contract or for $99 directly from either AT&T or Sprint. For additional information and full specifications please see these previous posts:
Treonauts & Centronauts are always amazing… 
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» 7 Takes On Palm Centro from Gizmodo
Released just yesterday, the Palm Centro has our eyes for a few reasons. First, their Treo smartphones have some of the highest ratings in smartphone history on review sites like CNET. So when Palm essentially shrinks their famous Treo and... [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 15, 2007 11:35:50 AM
» Palm Centro - Best of Both Worlds from Office Mobility Blog
Affordable way to manage your social life and work life. It’s been well documented that Palm’s marketshare has been declining over the past few years as RIM/BlackBerry and Windows Mobile have taken a more dominant chunk of the US smartphone... [Read More]
Tracked on Mar 5, 2008 4:12:00 PM
Comments
Just returned from a few days of meetings in Switzerland; in Zurich I picked up an unlocked Centro since here in Canada we have yet to see any sign of their arrival. I love it! It took me exactly half an hour during a lay-over in Toronto to transfer all contents and software from my aging 650 to the Centro; nothing new to learn, no change in interface, just a smaller and smarter looking machine. Now I can happily wait a while longer for the LinuxOS, Wi-Fi, etc. in the Next Great Palm without having to look out of step with phone fashion.
Hello. Is there a way to export recorded voice messages from the Centro? You know, like reminders or free style songs that you capture on the Centro. Does the voice recorder work with ease? Im debating about buying an additional $65 Sony voice recorder, but if the Centro can handle that, then there seems to not be a reason to pick up the extra hardware. Any thoughts?
[I have emphasized on the cons unlike most]
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DESIGN
When it comes to the buttons, the interpretation with the symbols provided on the buttons(between the keyboard and screen) are really confusing.
The button with the phone symbol is only meant to open contacts while most of the phones design it to either accept the call or to dial a call. Moreover, this button is not customisable. When you open an contacts and select a contact, you cannot call that perticular contact directly by pressing the Green button unless you have both the name and phone number of the contact in an line. In case, if the name of the contact is large, the phone number is stored in the next line for which, you need to select the phone number to dial that number.(Finding the contact is not enough, the phone number has to be selected to call them which is tedious)
The red button has multiple functionality which is not convinient and effective. A single press on this button will turn off the screen to save power. The same button is used to end an call. Adding to this, when you hold this button for a while, it will disable the wireless signal and let you use the remaining features which doesn't use the signal. The wireless signal can be restored when you hold this button again for a while. The phone do not have any option to completely switch it off.
The lid to cover the battery is very irritating. It takes all your patience away to place back the lid. Unfortunately, the MicroSD card slot is placed in such a way that, the lid has to be opened to pop in-out the MicroSD card
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KEYBOARD
Apart from the cramped keyboard, some of the keys are missing basic functionalities. There is no key provided to completely enable the keyboard in numeric mode. The funny part is that, the sysmbol '_' (Underscore) cannot be typed without pressing spacebar. The "alt" button only shows the symbols when there is a space. So, in order to type it, you have to press spacebar button, type underscore symbol and then go back to delete the unneccesary space given.
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CAMERA
The pictures and videos are coming out dull (not bright enough)
Bluetooth
When you transfer a file from PC to Palm via bluetooth, the palm directly stores in the in-built memory rather than asking for the desired location(Palm/SD)
The screen will keep the light on until the file gets transfered no matter how long the file transfer may be.
The transfered files are hard to locate.
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MICROPHONE
The quality is not to the expectation.
Battery
The battery doenot long enough. Even without using much of the applications, the batteries drain quickly.
Office Documents
Unless the device is loaded with an external memory card, the office files cannot be droped into the phone. The pdf documents doesnot open properly.
Navigation
The return/back button is not provided in this phone. This makes the navigation through applications into a hassle. As you can not go one step back, you have to directly jump to the home.
Will Active Sync update Subfolders in the mail inbox and tasks (from exchange to the Centro email/tasks)? The 700P doesn't sync either of those (it does main Inbox, Contacts & Calendar).
Will the unlocked 680 work on the sprint network? The phone is 1 yr old. Sprint says no. Thanks Mg
does this phone sync with microsoft outlook? I currently have a hp 6500 series smart phone that is blowing up and need to upgrade/replace. AT&T does not offer the hp phones anymore, I have my calendar full of stuff and would hate to get a phone that would require me to move all my stuff to a new calendar and contacts system. The AT&T website says it will sync with outlook, but I have not seen it mentioed ANYWHERE else?
i have had 2 centros, my fault one got wet. i love the one i have , it can download podcast from internet large mp3 files. yes it does sync w/outlook and yahoo. keyboard could be bigger but i do have large fingers. overall 8/10
yes, the centro sycs to outlook. and the ms exchange setup is RIDICULOUSLY easy. allows up to 5 email accounts to be synced with it.
overall the menu navigation is pretty easy, although I can't figure out how to delete the pre-loaded for pay applications like Get MobiTV, Get XM Radio from the applications menu.
the biggest con for me so far is the lack of a back button (as mentioned above) -- it makes navigation a bit time consuming and it just annoys me to have to add the bulk of a headset adapter. yes, there's an option for stereo for whoever asked that--the factory preset is mono so you have to go into the menu to change it.
my other complaint is that this has the most retarded alarm clock feature (as part of world clock) i've seen on any phone. can anyone recommend an application i can download to take its place?
I'm new to the palm family of products--does anyone have any recommendations for applications (for just about anything)--especially free applications? I checked cnet and they didn't really have anything. other google searches turn up applications i wouldn't download without a recommendation, ditto for the palm site itself.
Also, I'm not sure how many men will be using this unless they have extremely slim, small girly fingers. Even I find the keyboard a little small at times.
Overall, I have to say I'm pretty happy with it even though I wish it were able to accept larger than a 4g memory card. Good value for the price, which I got on sale at at&t for a net price of $79.99 after 100 rebate and resigning my contract which had expire for another 2 years.
Sorry, but I don't understand the back-button issue. Doesn't the backspace key perform the required function? There is an application hack that is loaded into the prefs screen that will allow you to hide unused apps that I find very useful. You can find it on the above site. The inbox folders from MS EAS will not transfer. Sorry, that sucks. The push e-mail function of Versamail works very well.
The main difference on the Sprint Centro is that Pocket Tunes Deluxe and Versamail are both in ROM, not RAM. This makes them both run more efficiently and prevents the music from stuttering when e-mail syncs. The best part od the Centro is that all of the favorites in the phone app can be one-touch activated from almost any app. Just hold down the assigned QWERTY key and the app, speed dial, or web address is launched. Have fun. - Palmgeek
I think palm really messed up with the centro when they left out wifi. The iphone, while w/o most of the features people have gotten used to on the palm os, at least has wifi. And with wifi, you do not have to pay $20-$30 per month, you just have to be near a wifi hot spot. And the screen? I think it could be a little bigger, but its not as important as having bigger keys that you can actually type with, such as with the treo 650. Yes, it is smaller. Yes, it looks really cool. It also has an intuitive button layout for those used to palm. But it fails in several simple areas that are very hard to overlook. In my opinion, it still beats out the current iphone, but it could be a LOT better if palm would knuckle down and add the important HARDWARE in addition to the SOFTWARE that makes palm
devices so convenient. Palm needs to take a lesson from the Iphone and LG Voyager as far as Internet and ergonomics are concerned. The iphone has awesome wifi, screen, and media features. The voyager has an awesome keyboard and mobile web browser, and the centro has an amazing form and ergonomic feel for one handed use, in addition to the support of 3rd party add ons. Combine the three and you have a phone to rule all phones.(Until something comes out the next year).
I am not trying to start a debate on whether the iphone is better than the centro, mostly because I think such a thing is childish. I am merely asking palm to step up and meet the demand of the people.
Just got centro from 700p & menu functions are missing Add to Contacts from call log as well as text messages. Does anyone know how to modify menus?
[email protected]
I need help getting my old IMs from my 650 to Centro. Any suggestions? I transfered the numbers by beaming them and I used Palm since 600P, 650P, 750P and now Centro but I have IMs I like to keep and transfer into centro and it is not taking them. Help!
Answer to Sarah:
Hi Sarah, to find the underscore key you must type a symbol, like hyphen (above the S letter), and then press "alt" key. The underscore symbol is just the second one on the right.
i was wondering if it had a hold button so you dont acidently start calling people or go onto the internet without you knowing it?
i was wondering if it had a hold button so you dont acidently start calling people or go onto the internet without you knowing it?
i am thinking about getting a palm centro. i am a teenager and have only had a razr is the palm centro a good chioce if u just need to call people and do lots of texting. i dont want the internet or anything like that. just wondering if it is a good idea to try it out.
My review of the centro.
Coming from the 600 and 650 treo I was loath to pay the premium on the modern treo p series due, primarily, to what I read as just that.. a treo premium. I think I've made the right choice so far.
Cons:
1) battery life is pathetic.. period. talk or no talk.
2) This cpu misses keypad (5-way) interrupts every third or fourth push in certain apps (add ons).
3) I don't think I have a third yet but there are a handful of "palm" quirks which continue to aggravate (i.e. headphone jack, camera quality etc) Maybe this though.. the five-way navigator, the directional ring is a little too slippery.. Treo key style slippery.. If you navigate with a fingernail edge this will get ya.
Pros:
1) I read a lot of anti-keyboard posts prior to acquiring this beastie. My fingers are in the "larger" catagory and I must say I'm really quite pleased. It is now possible to "thumb" the entire front of the phone (without device shifting) including touch screen and keypad maneuvering. Something difficult to do on the Treo. The keypad, though smaller, is really quite nice. I would attribute this to the rubbery key coating. A few goes is all it took to acclimate and get the "feel" for using it. I would have to say this is really a non-issue (so far) but I am not a rabid texter either but I do my fair share and.. don't let the keypad scare you. It's fine.
2) It's far and away more pocket friendly
3) The screen (the complaints that it's smaller are nothing but fodder) It's like about 1/16th of an inch smaller on all sides. It's sharper.. it fits.. it works fine. (get a screen cover, keep it healthy) The raised edge is a bit of a bother yes but.. palm quirk.
4) No mast!!! yeah! (I've had my last treo for about five years or so)
5) All my accessories are compatible save the mini SD cards. That, I must say, is a first for any phone in (my) history. The Treo 600 to 650 jump really irritated me in this regard.
6) It's PalmOS. Yeah, everyone gripes about the ancientness but, frankly, I think it's fine, fast, friendly and functional. Applications galore and all the pretty skin apps you can handle if that's what you desire. Restore from Treo backup was perfect.
7) Lanyard post.. yeah!
8) must have apps.. take yer friggin pick there's all kinds :)
Freebies:
tide tool
converter
cryptInfo
blockbustingbabes (strip tetris)
db
filecaddy
pssh
keycaps600 (you probably wont regret this one)
worldclock
diddlebug
and
record your own dang ring tone..
9) Cheap, real cheap, like almost free cheap
Things I'd like but will never see (that's a dare)
Wi-Fi (come ooonnnn)
full metal jacket (aluminum.. something)
A battery life
Reduced screen depth (even a little to easily get your nail to the scroll bar)
A better stock stylus (is the flexibility a feature?)
A better camera (give me threeMP, I know you can do it)
Have at it!
\r
Im planning on getting the palm centro and i have a few questions....
Are the keys hard to use because i read that there are very small?
I also read that the end button doesnt end everything; So how do i exit out of everything?
I was also wondering if it is hard in general to use.. like to figure everything out..i can use a computer well but what about this phone?
Hello, can anyone tell me why doesn't the callerID ringtone and the text message ringtone come through the bluetooth device? The only ring is a standard ringing tone not what's assigned to a contact or the messaging ring tone.
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