Palm Centro review
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted October 13th 2007 11:49PM
posted October 13th 2007 11:49PM
After seeing scores of "leaked" photos of the Centro, and hearing enough internet chatter about the device to make your brain vibrate like a tightly-wound piano string, actually getting our hands on the phone was honestly a bit of a surprise, both bad and good. We're going to break it down piece by piece and hopefully give you a rounded impression of the smartphone crown-chaser (or at least princess-in-waiting).
The design
First off, let's get a few basics out of the way. Yes, the phone is considerably smaller than past Treo devices. Having used a 650, 680, and 750, we can honestly say there is a massive difference between holding this phone in your hands and holding any other Palm device. Is this a good thing? For the most part, yes, though there are drawbacks to its diminutive size, which we'll get to in a moment. But for now, let's talk aesthetics.
The Centro has a rounded, symmetrical design that works without being especially fussy or impressive. We would have liked to see Palm put the real estate to better use with a larger screen and less plastic, but this is certainly a step in the right direction for the company... though a few more steps would have gone a long way.
The major difference beyond the overall width and length is the thickness. The phone is thin, though not as lean as the BlackJack, Q, iPhone, or Pearl (which it most closely relates to in terms of size). No, the fact is this: amongst all of these phones, the Centro is still the fattest, though we couldn't tell you why.
The phone comes in two glossy colors, a cherry red and metallic black (it's actually got silver flecks in it). They're attractive enough, but we continue to take fault with Palm over the gray stripe -- it makes the phone look like a Sony Ericsson from 1999 2001, and serves no purpose as far as we can tell. When Helio designed the Ocean, they used a silver line splitting the sides to create a slimming effect, and if we didn't know better, we'd say that's the impetus for this out-of-place touch.
The screen is a miniature 2-inches, though it looks fantastic at its 320 x 320 resolution and fairly high pixel density. It's impressive for its size, and certainly easy on your eyeballs. We'd again like to congratulate Palm on overcoming the 2-pixel white border surrounding the screen which has plagued the company's devices for as long as we can remember. Kudos.
We know the keyboard is on your mind, so here's the deal: it isn't that great, but it isn't a deal breaker. The phone is designed with the youth market (and women, from what we can tell) in mind, and if that's the case, they should be happy with the full QWERTY of the Centro. The jelly-ish buttons aren't exactly a joyride for us to press, though we've got massive, bear-like claws. The keyboard works; certainly better than T9, and definitely better than no keyboard at all. Still, you'll find yourself backtracking plenty when your nail hits a key next to the letter you meant to press.
The buttons on the "gray stripe" are more standard Treo fare, though their tactile feel on this phone is nonexistent, and we found ourselves re-pressing them constantly. They're too flush, and frankly too big for the purpose they serve. The 4-way rocker is good, however, and should be plenty responsive for anything you'll need it for. This is a good time to nitpick Palm on a design change they made a while back that really rears its ugly head here -- the movement of the "menu" button to the lower right hand corner of the keyboard. Sorry guys, you have to get to drop-down menus too often for it to be relegated to this useless and hard-to-reach corner. Fix please.
Another flaw which Palm's designers don't seem to get is the sunken screen. Look, do you even use your devices? It's a nerve-rattling pain to try and tap the sides of the touchscreen when you've got it buried seemingly four-inches-deep in the phone. The screen needs to be flush with the surface, or near-to -- this is a maddening and obvious problem which the Centro does nothing to correct. In fact, it seems to be amplified here.
Other than that there are no design surprises. All of the side buttons, sound on / off switch, awkward HotSync port, and 2.5mm headphone jack are in exactly the same place as every other Treo.
The OS
You'd think there wasn't much to say here that hasn't already been said, and you would be mostly correct. We won't bore you by detailing our complaints about Palm's aging (aged, rather) OS, but we will point out a few items of interest.
Firstly, this reviewer, having switched to the 750 and its Windows Mobile interface, had quite a shock returning to the Palm OS. We forgot how fast and responsive it can be, and it was a reminder of why we liked Palm to begin with. We know that WM has a lot more bells and whistles, Symbian is kept current, and the iPhone's OS X iteration is fancy as all get-out, but Palm still shines in a lot of ways. The system is fast, has very low loading times for applications, and makes getting most tasks done crushingly simple.
Of course, you know the trade-offs. This is not current software, and it shows. Palm has gone to the trouble of updating the look and functionality of some apps, like the camera and PTunes, yet most remain staid and ancient in appearance. We don't get it -- why not just give the OS a paint job if you can't rebuild it? Our minds are still boggled by the fact that Palm can't even fix the anti-aliasing on highlighted icons. Call us Ed, we know anxious teenagers just dying to skin your UI.
The company has added a few new apps as they've gone along, bundling the aforementioned PTunes, plus Google Maps, as well as a new IM app, On Demand (a kind of one-stop portal), and of course Sprint TV.
Speaking of, Sprint TV is a nice addition, giving you a pretty wide range of channels to view, with solid EV-DO connections -- though the resolution leaves something to be desired.
The IM app is also a plus, with a simple and straightforward interface that doesn't require much time to get comfortable with.
They also include DataViz's DocumentsToGo, a PDF / Word / Excel editor, but you're still stuck with Blazer for web duties, and the rest of Palm's vintage fare for general tasks. It works... but, bleh.
The phone
What can we say? The phone is good, and the sound quality is solid. Palm equipped the Centro with a nice loud earpiece and speaker, and both do their job admirably. One problem of note is that if you lay this phone on its back during a speakerphone call, you lose about 50-percent of your sound. The effect is almost akin to sweeping a resonant filter down on the signal, like the "underwater" effect you hear in your favorite rave anthems. Point being: keep it on its face (hey, you won't have to worry about scratching that screen!).
The 1.3-megapixel camera is nothing to write home about -- in fact, it's terrifically mediocre. The performance on the camera and camcorder apps is also sluggish to the point of annoyance, but we've learned to not expect too much in this department.
Little details -- like the prompt to add a number you've dialed that isn't stored in your contacts, and the "avoid with SMS" feature for incoming calls -- are Palm hallmarks that still feel plenty helpful.
Wrap-up
The real selling point on this device for a lot of people has been its much-touted $99 price point. Of course, you have to keep in mind that the figure takes into account an "instant discount, mail-in rebate, and qualifying two-year Sprint service agreement." Which means the phone isn't nearly as cheap as it sounds. That said, the fact the offer is on the table is a great move for Palm, and should help push a lot of these out the door.
It would be easy to love this phone, but there are too many minor hang-ups that contribute to an overwhelming sense of letdown. Nostalgic affection aside, it doesn't feel like Palm is taking advantage of the opportunities it has right now. Things like its complicated syncing process (particularly with Macs) don't jive with Palm's bid for the "youth market," who undoubtedly are interested in iTunes-like simplicity
Still, brainy teens, casual tinkerers, and young technophiles of all suits will probably be stoked on the wide variety of options for the money. Power users, early adopters, and those seriously jaded by Palm's inability to really deliver something new might want to look elsewhere.
I got a Palm Centro yesterday and I think its way cool ! I mean for that kinda price I never woulda bought a smartphone in the first place ... I think it looks kinda cute too !
It lacks safety feature Voice Activated Dialing.
I just bought a centro two weeks ago (upgrading from the 650 Treo), already had to take it back because it wouldn't stop trying to sync with the cradle in a frozen mode. Now only 4 days later, the brand new one they gave me is having the same problem. Actually, I can't even get it to power on at all at this very minute. When it does work, my "power vision" service fails to connect EVERY SINGLE TIME, causing me to hit cancel and re-connect. After the second or third try it will connect. I have talked with sprint about this and they blame my location saying I am too far away from the service area. My husband has the same phone, same account and never has problems. Hmmm...I think I am about done with this sprint centro business, but of course I just signed a 2year agreement for my great deal"!!!
Oh, and don't try to take off the battery cover because it is the flimsiest piece of plastic ever made and you will have a hell of a time trying to get it back on without cracking it.
"the gray stripe -- it makes the phone look like a Sony Ericsson from 1999"
Too bad Sony Ericsson formed in 2001 :P
And no, no - it looks like the K550i, released this year.
Grab the Centro from Sprint SERO and for $30 per month you'll get unlimited EVDO, unlimited SMS, unlimited MMS, 7pm NW as well as sprint to sprint calling.
http://www.sprint.com/sero
Being 15, and owning a treo 700wx from verizon. I can honestly say, even if i had a sprint account i wouldn't run out and buy it instantly. Or at all for that matter. This thing is really for the teenagers that want it because its "cool" or can't get an iPhone. I don't mind WM5 and i don't really find it laggy. My friend has lent me his treo 650 on many occasions and i don't see a difference. Also, the cramped keyboard will be a problem for everybody, even with the nimblest of fingers. Hell, it lookes cooler then my Treo, and is $300 cheaper but i don't think I'd ever buy it.
Both Sprint & Palm have become insignificant in the market.
I was going to pick this phone, but it had too many different problems for me. These include the following-
-No wi-fi. I'm not going to pay a ridiculous price for ev-do coverage, but I still want to browse the web
-it runs palm OS, not Windows mobile, and I wanted my first smart phone to be WM so I can have something that will work good with all of my vista machines without any additional programs. I also don't want to be running an old OS I ran on one of my first PDA's, my Palm Tungsten.
-Only on Sprint and rumored to be coming to AT&T is not good enough for me, I'm not switching carriers for my choice of phone, and unfortunately this phone unlocked still wouldn't work with verizon, which has the best plan for me
-It's web browser seems very mediocre, too mobilized for me, I want something with a full browser
-I've been hearing complaints about the keyboard, and since this would have been my first smartphone, I don't want to have to get used to a small keyboard and then later on upgrade to a phone with a bigger keyboard
Does anyone have any suggestions for a Windows mobile 6 device with Wifi and a full qwerty keyboard that runs on verizon? ( a touchscreen would be nice, along with a small design)
I like the sprint mogul from HTC. But it doesn't have a loud ringer.
Price point & function are the key points here. Its not sexy or modern but it will sell like Big Macs.
Hey Palm, how about a real 3.5mm headphone jack with video output.
Support for H.264 (720x480), Mp3, AAC and good syncing software for automatic podcast downloading/syncing.
A nice touch screen web browser like mobile safari.
Maybe next year?
You can buy superb Core Player for Palm OS or look for older freeware TCPMP with H.264 (AVC) plugin.
MP3 and AAC are onboard thanks to Pocket Tunes and yes Pocket Tunes can even sync with Windows Media Player on desktop as any other mp3 player. Whats more you can listen podcast from Pocket Tunes directly.
Anyway you are right about 2,5 mm jack, I don´t get it ...
Why don't we like it? Because its plastic, and everyone knows people love shiny gadgets more.
To all those who are considering buying this phone, wait a month. The Treo 700p had largely positive reviews when it came out, and look how that train wreck turned out. I hope I'm wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if some disastrous issues show themselves after a month or two with this device as well.
Hello Treo 680 dressed up as a new phone.
Nothing to see here but a new case on an old phone.
Shades.
Ask a female with long fingernails to try the keyboard.
ask her to try iPhone
Well, I have to agree that it is time palm make some changes. I owned my firest palm pilot in 1996. Right about the time they were introduced. Even running at there original 16mhz, The device was snappy. I clicked Contacts and INSTANTLY had my contacts. Same with ever other application out there. And palm GAVE away it's development kits to people who wanted to develop apps for it. In 1999 I jumped to the HP Jornada 420. It had a 100mhz CPU and more memory and was COLOR!. What a POS. I used it for a month. I Tried I really did Try. I remember timing the applications. IT took 28 seconds to switch from my calander to my contacts. something that took a fraction of the time on my 16mhz palm. Back to my palm. My Jornada became a dust collector. I've had a dozen palm devices over the years. Now on a Treo 700p, Today even with 300mhz cpu's and tons of memory. The Palm OS still is Instant in applications, were it's windows counterpart is quite sluggish (tho much improved from the days of the jornada, just not good enought for me)
I'm looking forward to the new palm OS. I hope they keep it snappy.
I agree with everything said in the article (good work Engadget) but frankly, It doesn't make much difference because palm is STILL the best OS on the market (for me at least).
You said you wanted a better browser? But which OS really has a better browser, Windows Mobile's explorer is terrible, slow to load and the resolution looks like crap.. it doesn't do flash or java or anything secure and doesn't rearrange the page very well. Blackberry has an average browser at best but for me blackberry will always be out of the question until they add a touch screen!
Sure, iPhone has a great browser, but the device itself (like every other apple device) is constricting and limiting!
If you can live with letting apple dictate what you want, than the iphone is for you. Me, I want to be able to turn off my iphone dictionary text helper thing, I want to be able to change every option I can, rearrange the icons, install more applications and downloaded movies / music and not be limited by iTunes or need to keep converting in and out.
With it's GIGANTIC third party software library, palm still comes out on top. Sure, they're A-holes for not releasing a new operating system in forever, but the SAD reality is, that they still have a place up front just because they're phones and devices are like MACHINES.
They JUST WORK. you click on something and it happens, right away. And THAT is something that no company has been able to compete with!
Is there a flash player for the Palm OS running Blazer? I must have missed that, someone point me in the right direction, please!
As a long-time user of a PALM OS TREO, who has recently switched to something else for reasons I won't elaborate here, I say hats off to Engadget. Surprisingly, it is incredibly hard to find objective unbiased reviews of anything on the Internet these days. Most reviewers seem to have a pre-established agenda (PALM lover, PALM hater, APPLE lover, APPLE hater, etc.) before they even get their hands on the product, and an unbiased review is impossible. I am a journalist by trade, and I must say Engadget's review of the Centro just tells it like it is - the good, the bad, and the ugly. We might not expect journalistic integrity from Internet blogs, but Engadget provides such. Great review!
I'm actually impressed. The screen looks great. I might have to pick one up, and since I'm already on Sprint, couldn't hurt.
What utter and complete BS! Who besides Superman can detect the icon anti-aliasing without magnification?
@Aron
yeah, lol, a real browser that can't save no pages and download nothing, how nice.
you can argue iPhone is pretty, but to argue functionality, iPhone is in 19th century.
Wow. Steampunk, man.
I'd kinda love to see an Edwardian iPhone.
Slam the iPhone for its real flaws like carrier lock and no 3rd party apps. Or maybe that its email isn't as good as a Blackberry's.
Browsing the web on the iPhone is better than on any other device that size, so slamming it for that is just silly. I honestly did not think a handheld browser could be this good. Apple went above and beyond the call of duty on that one.
The hardware looks mediocre but the icons and user interface look decidedly 1997. It just doesn't make any sense on a very high rez screen.
I bought a Palm Centro yesterday and I think its way cool ! I mean for that kinda money .. I'm in it man ! I wuda never thought of getting a smart phone in the first place .... and it looks kinda cute too !
Looks like a good phone to me .. I've tried out some features and even though the interface is simple, it looks clean and fast to me. I'm glad that I bought the Palm Centro ... (I'm happier knowing what it cost me overall :)
Just give them a little bit more time, they're working hard.
Check it out for yourself.
http://alp.access-company.com/
So much for the $99 dollars, I knew that that one requires a 2 year contract, my contract ends in 10 months, and for me, the price is $324 for 1 year contract extension, and $399 without a contract, I would understand maybe 100dlls more but $225 sounds unreasonable to me. just my 2cts
I just got one and so far I have run the battery down with what I would call minimal use. I swear it had 1/2 battery last night and just sitting on the table, ran down complete over 8 hours
Got one last night, I'm pretty happy with it.
One niggle (and it could just be a setting that I haven't found yet) is that if I miss a call or SMS, then the phone only alerts once. My old phone would give me a poke once-in-a-while. Along the same lines, there's no visual indication that I missed a call. I have to hit the power switch periodically. Not a deal breaker (for me)...
I've owned Palm devices since WAY back when.. I'll NEVER own a CE device. I've spent too much time coding in that crap OS to ever own something depending on it.
The Centro blows the i-Phone away. It's very comparable and 1/5 the price. No brainer.
I bet that everyone saying bad things about the CENTRO is because they are angry waiting for their contracts to end to get one.
Don't be cheap, pay the EARLY TERMINATION FEE and get a CENTRO.
$99 for this MASTERPIECE is better that carrying a BULKY HEAVY AND SILLY BOX in your belt.
Kudos to Palm!
I just traded my Treo 650 for the Centro. My initial impress are very good. I was happy with my 650 so this is a definite upgrade. Additionally, the Centro addresses my main pain point: I can comfortable fit it in my pocket; the 650 would fit but it was bulky. I can’t stand wearing a phone on my hip.
Palm Centro Sprint Lacks Vital Safety Feature - Voice Activated Dialing.
Terribly disapointed to learn my new Centro "Smart Phone" lacks Voice Activated Dialing feature. Due to Centro small screen and keys, it is extreamly difficult to dial a phone number while driving -not to mention possibly dangerous. This is probably an oversight by Palm, and have no doubt they will eventually incorporate this safety feature (like the Sanyo mobile phones) for free without the need of Sprint "Voice Command" paid monthly service in their next software update before a tragedy occurs.
i wish there was a gsm version i would totally ditch my blackjack for this i hate windows mobile but the BJ is the smalist pda with qwerty keyboard on market so far, you all complain to much that phones done have features you need or want, just be happy they released it, and that it works. you young people wont be satasfied untill your phone can tie your shoes and whipe your asses lol
I have had my Centro for about 2 weeks and every once in a while it vibrates for what seems to be no reason. the phone is set to vibrate when the sound is off, but it this happens when the sound is on, and the phone is just sitting idle. Has this happened to anyone else? Am I missing something?
This has happened to me as well. I've had the phone for about a week and a half. I'm still not sure why that happens. It's weird.
I was able to figure out what it was on my phone. It was vibrating everytime I got an email. I went to my email and pushed menu. Under option, preferences, there is a place for alerts (the 3rd box)
I have had a couple times where my battery has totally drained throughout the day. Usually it lasts about 3 days. I thought maybe there is an application running in the background that is draining the battery, but I can't figure out what. Is there somewhere you can see what's running? Like the task manager in windows?
I still have a Palm III. It starts up everytime, never has any conflicts, and doesn't interrupt my phone calls because it's NOT a phone. In fact I have several replacements just in case somebody steals this one like they did my last. No problem, I just bought a new one on ebay for $7.00, popped it in my cradle and was back in business in about 3 minutes.
When will these dip headed, techno freaks realize that a "smartphone" should not actually be a "shitphone" in a smart package? And when will we "stupidheaded" consumers stop buying crap that only works some of the time, when all the stars in the galaxy are in perfect alignment?
Idiots and dreamers!
Hello Everyone,
Over the past week, I've been researching phones in preparation for purchasing 3, which I'll do tomorrow. My 11 year old will get the Razar phone he's been dreaming about every night. After doing enough research and visiting AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Walmart, Best Buy, and a few others, my wife and I will get Palm Centros. Before deciding last week to dump our 4 year old Samsung's,(Cingular/ATT) we had no idea what a "smart phone" was. But thanks to the many informative websites like Engadget.com, we have increased our wireless phone IQ by several notches.
Heck..we're not even sure if we'll use more than 2 or
3 functions on the Palm Centro, but at only $99.00 out the door, it cost very little to explore the waters.
BTW..if you go to the Sprint website, Order all the way to your shopping cart and then press "Cancel Order" a new window will ask if you would come back and purchase for $50 additional credit per phone in the cart. Just say "yes" and viola!, you have just garnered an additional savings. You can order online, or print out the shopping cart page with all the discounts and take it to the Sprint store where they will honor whatever price is shown. In my case, the $249 that I would have paid with credit card online, was reduced by $150, to only $49.00 total for 2 Centros, + 1 RazarV3, thanks to this $50.00 per phone credit that Sprint awarded because I wanted to cancel the online transaction. How cool is that! I'm taking the shopping cart printout to the Sprint Store tomorrow to get the phones through Brett, because he's a nice guy. Also, the editor/reviewer here at this website stated incorrectly that there are mail-in rebates. The rebates are actually instant credits. Maybe when he did the review in October07, they were mail-in, but not any more.
There were 3 other customers in the Sprint store tonight and 2 of them were purchasing family plan palm Centro's. I bet +90% of the world has no idea what a SmartPhone is. As they start to burn out their conventional phones, they too will investigate options, be intrigued by the concept and latch onto a small entry-level model like Centro. There's very little to lose, but a whole world of potential to broaden one's horizons with this little beauty!
-Allen in Suburban Chicago
Kristi- the random vibration is an email alert.
It sound like you are all a bunch of disgruntal cell phone owners. I just got the centro. I love the new size, It surfs the internet quicker, the palm applications are awesome. If you have over 1000 contacts on a Mobile windows platform, the system is so slow when searching. Plam is designed for many contacts, I have over 3000 and the search is instantaneous. No other PIM out there is quicker. I have bought them all. I switched to Mobile Windows for 1 year. Now I am back to palm. Sometimes simpicity to an operating system has its rewards. And what is wrong with marketing in a smaller sleeker version. Honda and Toyota are a perfect example. They run the same models with very little change for years before they do a major revamp. You Complainers of Centro (probably iphone or windows based pims) keep complaining. I have yet to see and medical related applications for your phones and they are everywhere for palm.
All phones have flaws. And I dont think its hideous at all. for having everuthing it does im surpised it doesnt look like a shoebox and be the size of a house phone. Dont get me wrong, it could be desingned better and inhanced but for someone who wants a phone that does just about everything, this would be what i would suggest. I just ordered it and I expect to be happy. I dont want an all touch screen I like having a key board, much easier, in my opinion. The only phone that comes close is a black berry and my brother had one, not the best device in town. But of course everyone has opinions, so if your thinking about getting the blackberry dont think that just because I dont like it its not a fantastic phone. And I give props to whoever wrote this review, great details, and great pictures of the phone. Im not sure how you got them all because I heard it is new.