My review of the unlocked Palm Centro
Thanks to Palm for the Centro, just to give you a description of what the Centro is all about as taken from the Palm website, "life starts after five o'clock. That's why there's the Palm® Centro™ smartphone. Palm Centro gives you voice, text, email and web, all in a phone that's a lot smaller than you think. It even has a touch-screen and a full keyboard, so you can say L8R to those tricky keys on your cell phone. Carry names and numbers, shoot photos and video, and meet up with friends. Centro. Let's go."
I first saw the Centro on my recent trips back to New York. I got to spend a couple of hours playing with it in New York, it was the red Centro and loved the design of it. I was given the heads up on the Centro from Sheldon at the Morning Paper when he wrote to me telling me that he had just posted images of what seemed to be a new design for Palm. I couldn't help but think that elements if the design was similar to that of the Zire 22 and I always liked the design of Palm's entry level PDA. So when I got to play with one in NYC I excited and impressed but what surprised me the most was how small the Centro was.
If you have not seen PATV155 which sees me unboxing the Centro then check the video out here, but as I mentioned the first thing that you notice is just how small the device is. The whole device is smaller than the Treo 650 and is smaller than the Treo 680. Below are some pictures comparing the Centro to various devices
Centro compared to a Treo 680
Centro, Treo 680 and Treo 650
The Centro I have is the black version. The casing is glossy, it looks nice but is prone to finger prints but the quality of it feels good. It feels pretty robust too, when you squeeze it there are no creaks, I picked up the squeezing test from the many reviews I have read from the-gadgeteer website. The navigation and the application buttons are silver plastic coated and are big enough to press and are flat in nature. They give a response when pressed as does the navigation button in the centre whilst the select key wears the Palm logo, a nice touch. The keyboard is probably the smallest I have ever used on a mobile device which I have to admit I thought was going to be prove to be a problem, it turns out not to be. In fact this editorial is written on my Centro and whilst initially it does take a little getting used to especially if you have used a Treo 650 or a 680 then you will find after a short period of time that the Centro keyboard is a pleasure to use [well it is for me anyway :-)] The keys are illuminated especially useful for those of you who use your device during the evening or at night, you know how this works, you mat be in ned and you need to add some notes, send an email or a text message or like me you want to moblog from bed, well of course you can.
Infrared port on the Centro
It is good to see that the Centro offers an IR port to transfer information from one Palm device to another or whatever else takes your fancy whilst next to the slot houses the Micro SD card slot which is discreet. My Centro is loaded with a 2GB card which houses all my photographs and a number of tunes and You Tube video's that I have saved and use the likes of Kinoma Player, Pocket Tunes and Splash Photo to access.
The top of the Centro houses the sound mute toggle switch which is easily activated by sliding across to mute or to allow volume, which is handy for those meetings or in areas where cellphones need to be silenced.
Bottom of the Centro
Nothing new here, my Centro fits most of my connectors that I have used for the Treo 680 and Treo 650 respectively, the only peripheral I am having trouble with is the Enfora Wifi Sled which the Centro doesn't recognize but more on that in another post.
Headphones plugged into Centro using an adapter
The headset jack is 2.5mm which is a shame because I know so many people who want to use their iPod headphones and the Blackberry Curve offers a 3.5mm jack and I can use my iPod headphones without any problems. As an alternative then you will need a adapter which when used with the Centro works fine however I would love Palm to consider putting the headphone jack at the top of the device it would make life that little bit easier however this is only a small annoyance.
The display on the Centro on dim mode compared to it's brightest setting. [Click each image to get the full size]
What can I say about the display apart from it being crisp and easy to read. Yes it is somewhat smaller but it is lovely to look at and I can see the screen without any problems despite it being slightly smaller and yet this does not prove to be a problem. To conserve battery I tend to have the display dimmed and even when this is the case I am able to read the display without any problems. The above image shows the display at it's brightest and what I have it set to at the dimmest level.
The camera on the back of the Centro alongside the vanity mirror
I love having a camera on my Palm device and although the camera is not the most powerful at 1.3mp it is great to have. I take pictures of everything from friends to places that I have been to and of course store them on the SD memory card. The Centro also has a Ca,corder program so I can record short brief movies which is pretty cool and I will experiment with this throughout the week and may upload the video's on PA. Pictures are clear and sufficient but it would be great if Palm could include a 2mp camera in future devices but in the meantime I am pretty happy with what is included. A vanity mirror is also included and sits next to the camera lens.
Bonus software screen on the Centro
There is also a program on the Centro called My Centro which offers some bonus software for you to take advantage of including free versions of Astraware Solitaire and Astraware Sudoku which are all fine games in themselves. I downloaded Astraware Solitaire to play on the device for those times when your either traveling or don't have anything better else to do. I also think it is a nice little bonus that Palm includes some extra software titles for you to take advantage of. I mist also point out that there is a file management program which is also offered as well as Vox Mobile. Nice touch Palm.
The support program on the Centro
There is also a comprehensive user guide on the Centro which gives you some good pointers if you get stuck or good to learn about what the Centro offers and of course you can register your Centro too.
I am going to wrap things up here but needless to say that I really like the Centro, it's compact size makes the device pocketable but it still remains functional. Although I have heard many people call this a entry level consumer device I have to say that for someone that has used Palm devices for years the Centro is refreshing change compared to former devices that I have used such as the 650 and 680. Despite a couple of improvements which I think would be welcomed such as a more powerful camera and the headphone jack at the top of the device the Centro has all of the features that I want in a mobile device. The Centro is better than what I thought it would be helped by the design and he good battery life. It is also proving to be a talking point to and I have already had two of my friends comment that the Centro is a really nice phone which has never happened before when I have previously shown off my Treo 680 or the Treo 650. In terms of functionality well all the applications that I need are here and to enhance my Centro experience I have Chatteremail and Toccer installed. Pocket Tunes is great to listen to my music collection and Kinoma allows me to watch my You Tube video's, so everything that I want is here.
Unlike the iPhone the Centro feels robust, I wouldn't be too scared if I dropped it, as I am with the iPhone. The Centro has a nice feel in the hand and when in the pocket is discreet and light. To conclude I think the Centro is the best designed Palm smartphone to date, it has everything that I want plus some nice extras too. I am also pleased to see it unlocked and my Orange SIM card works just great with the Centro. So whilst the Centro is small and pocketable, Palm has made the design of the Centro attractive and appealing and with forthcoming colours on the horizon I think the Centro should certainly appeal.
Technical Specifications
Platform: Palm OS by ACCESS 5.4.9 ®
Display: 320x320-pixel Transflective colour screen; supports 16-bit colour (up to 65K colours)
Radio: Quad band (850/900-1800/1900) GSM/GPRS/EDGE Class 10
Platform: Palm OS 5.4.9
Bluetooth® Wireless Technology: Version 1.2
Memory: 64MB available user storage
Camera: 1.3 megapixels with 2 x digital zoom and
video capture
Battery : Removable 1150mAh, lithium-ion up to 4 hours talk time, up to 300 hours standby time
Expansion: microSD card (up to 4GB supported, sold separately)
Connector: Multi-connector
Dimensions: 107.2 mm (L) x 53.5 mm (W) x 18.6 mm (D); 124 grams
Colors: Black
System Requirements: Windows® XP
Windows Vista™
Mac OS X v10.2-10.4
Software included:
Bluetooth®, Calculator, Camcorder, Camera, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Memos, Documents to Go® Professional Edition 10, Google Mobile Maps, HotSync®, My Centro, Phone, Pics and Video, PocketTunes™, Quick Tour, VersaMail® 4.0, "VoiceDial" , Voice Memo, Web (Blazer® 4.5), World Clock, Solitaire and Palm® Files.
This review was typed on my Palm Centro, and pictures were taken with either a Treo 650 or a Treo 680 or Blackberry Curve. The unlocked Palm Centro can be purchased from Palm Europe, whilst in the US the Centro tied to various networks can be purchased from Palm.com
