Hands-on with the Palm Centro

Well, here's the shiny little Centro, in all its slightly-less-than-breathtaking beauty. Truth be told, the phone doesn't look or feel too bad -- we still don't get the gray stripe through the middle, but what can you do? The keyboard is unbelievably tiny, but we'll take it where we can get it. The surface of the cherry red or metallic black phone is quite slick, and we suspect will go tumbling out of sweaty hands like gang busters. Of course, the EV-DO connection was snappy, but the thing we're most stoked about is the fact that Palm has finally eliminated that 2-pixel border around the screen. Hey, no new OS... but that border is gone. The Centro is due mid-October for the shockingly low price of $99.99, which should help push more than a couple of these out the door. Hit the gallery and check out all the hot photos.

Hands-on with the Palm Centro

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2007 2:20AM]

Only GSM phones use SIM cards. CDMA, like Sprint and Verizon use, ties a specific phone to your account.

[Scott R Posted Sep 27th 2007 9:54PM]

I remember noticing that one of the early leaked photos of the Centro made
it look like the Centro might not have the 2-pixel border and I see that
Engadget has confirmed this. While I think that allowing the border to be
turned off programmatically is needed (and a couple of Palm devices already
allowed for this), getting rid of it completely isn't a great idea. I
remember owning a Sanyo Palm OS phone way back when (featuring an
unconventional 160x240 screen with virtual Graffiti area). I think it was
the first (and up till now only?) color Palm OS device without the border
and the borderless display presented usability issues. In short, apps were
designed such that they assumed the border was there and, as a result, used
the border as a margin. Without the border, the first letter on a line in a
memo, for example, touched the outside border, hurting readability. It also
made it difficult to position the cursor in front of that first letter (on
the Sanyo, you were still forced to use a stylus - I imagine that cursor
positioning is a non-issue with the Centro since you don't need to use the
stylus very often on Treos...er...Centros).

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2007 10:18PM]

To find more selection on http://www.beltal.com

[Dr Truth Posted Sep 27th 2007 10:25PM]

Only $99 and YOU CAN ADD CALENDAR APTS AND YOUR OWN APPS!!! WOW!!!!

FU Apple

[cloud9ine Posted Sep 27th 2007 10:54PM]

please note that a minimum $25 data plan is required to get the $99 price on the centro..

http://sprint.com/centro

[kcellb Posted Sep 28th 2007 1:51AM]

Palm just lost me to Apple. I was hardcore Treo for a while but they refused to upgrade the thing. This Centro thing is more of an insult than anything else. They already had a customer base and they pretty much just skipped right over them to get into a new market. Smart business move? I don't know. It's a bummer though because Treos worked awesome--they're just outdated. Anyone that picks up this Centro will realize that the only thing that is new is the looks---it still has the ancient Palm OS on there.

Karim Baz

[phacops Posted Sep 28th 2007 8:03AM]

I still don't get it why the designers keep putting the keyboard at the bottom where you almost drop it every time you try and type. Put the dang on/off buttons down there. Ergonomically speaking - these things are up-side-down.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 28th 2007 10:41AM]

Did no one else notice the "Powered by ACCESS" logo on the back of the device?? What's that all about? Scoop or tease?

http://www.engadget.com/photos/hands-on-with-the-palm-centro/416219/

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 28th 2007 4:49PM]

http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2007/01/access_debuts_n.html

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 28th 2007 4:15PM]

Its starting to grow one me. I think I am going to pick one up

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2007 11:52PM]

Who really cares if the Palm OS is out dated. Don't get me wrong a new OS would be nice, but Palm does one thing very well. It's phones and features are very easy to use. You press a button and you have your calendar..you press another button and you have email...etc. No the Palm phones are not sexy, but they work and they work well period. I could buy a Centro for everyone in my family and still spend less money than buying an overpriced Iphone. I have tried many different PDA's and Smartphone, but I always come back to Palm because they have it figured out. It would be nice to see some updated models. I feel with this new product they are aleast taking a step in the right direction instead of just coming out with another silly Treo.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 14th 2007 1:41PM]

I am a Junior in high school and i had been looking forward to getting the LG RUMOR for christmas.... well they wont sell anymore because of something to do with sprint and LG so my next option is the centro its looks cool to me and touch screen would b a great feature so i would be the flyest kid on the block my sister got a blackberry pearl for christmas but she has the worst service ever *SUNCOM* so with sprint ill get the centro so at least i can get better serivice than her...

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 15th 2007 10:05AM]

I went to the Sprint store yesterday to get the Rumor and I was advised that something was wrong with the parts and would not be shipped until next year. So, I went for the Centro. This is my first smartphone and I really like it and have no problem with it at all.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 23rd 2007 5:32PM]

wow these comments are harsh. after having all of these models of the palm this one by far is the best. who cares about the OS look, i thought it should be about what the software offers? this phone has google maps, on demand (which is great), sprint tv (which includes NFL network for free), mobiTV (live TV), versa mail (for EAS and other email accounts), sprint mail (for hotmail, gmail & yahoo), voice command (where you can compose email, dial & visit websites while driving), text messaging that saves as a chat (oh and you can send picture mail, video mail and voice mail FYI the iphone does not have this feature!!!!) and IM with AOL, yahoo and hotmail plus many other features. oh and did i mention that you can get the phone insured unlike the iphone!!! the only downfalls that i can complain about are these 1.) no flash for camera and 2.) if you break the phone i mean really break the phone beyond IT repair get ready to wait awhile for replacement!!!!

before you knock it try it! you always have that window of return with sprint if you don't like it.