AT&T's Palm Centro en route for launch next week?

Can't you just feel the excitement in the air? AT&T stores are apparently starting to spout off about white, $99 Centros being available starting next Tuesday, February 19, and it seems like a pretty plausible date. We've separately been told that the cute lil' Garnet handsets are expected to be shipping to stores some time this week -- just in time to make the 19th a reality for customers eager to get their paws on the latest tech Palm has to offer -- while previous intel had indicated that it'd definitely be available some time before early April. In other words: yeah, we believe it.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

[Alvin @ Feb 13th 2008 3:59AM]

Unfortunately, based on looking at the Sprint Centro, this too is too little too late. In 2006, it would've been nice. But there is little upgrade here - and a smaller screen - over older Palm devices. Internal memory is woefully inadequate. The screen size has been reduced over previous Palm handhelds, and it offers few new features.

I have a Palm Tungsten E, and have been wanting for years to replace it with a proper phone, but nothing has come out yet that can really beat my Palm. I am using a Sanyo Katana phone for now, because I haven't seen any reason to buy a Treo, and once I put my hands on a Centro at the Sprint store, I was very disappointed.

[WebOn @ Feb 13th 2008 4:32AM]

Hey palm dudes wheres my TX2?????

centro=fugly

[nxtiak @ Feb 13th 2008 4:36AM]

About time.
I want to sell my T-Mobile Wing and my Sony Ericsson m600i and get one of these unlocked for use on T-Mobile.
My friend has it for Sprint. I used to have a Palm 650 a long time ago, can't wait to go back.

[trumpton @ Feb 13th 2008 4:57AM]

The Centro looks great to me: cheap, powerful, small and able to run the thousands of freeware/shareware programs available on the Palm OS. and it does cut and paste!

It'll be a worthy replacement for my Treo 650.

[Jnetty @ Feb 13th 2008 8:46AM]

"Cheap" if you get in another contract with AT&T for two years.

I want one, but I'm sure it will cost more than $200 without a contract.

[iphoney @ Feb 13th 2008 5:31AM]

Definite win

[Mark @ Feb 13th 2008 5:52AM]

Hahaha, no 3G. Suckers.

[freakmarket @ Feb 13th 2008 5:21PM]

Blazer is the worst mobile browser on the planet ... it doesn't need 3g. The lame outdated Palm o/s can't even keep up with the speed of 3g anyways unless you are using it as a tether to amother device.

These substandard outdated devices are selling great on Sprint though.

Next gen palm=can and string ... coming 2008 ... no ... 2009 ... no ... 2010?

[pliu @ Feb 13th 2008 6:38AM]

To me, this thing is quite good looking. Considering the price, I'd take one.

Like Trumpton said, long history of FREEWARE + SHAREWARE = GOOD!

Too bad I am in Canada. Heh.

[John P @ Feb 13th 2008 8:34AM]

My girlfriend is on AT&T and has been wanting a centro for awhile now, so this is good news for me. Anniversary present just fell into my lap this morning. Only white, though?

[Jeff @ Feb 13th 2008 8:59AM]

I got a Centro at Christmas. The email client sucks. It doesn't work with Gmail IMAP. The Web browser sucks. I installed Opera but it would crash the phone every time I tried to start it. At least GMail works well in the browser. I'm on an employee plan through Sprint so I get unlimited data real cheap, but even so, I plan to switch to an iPhone as soon as the next generation one comes out.

[d503 @ Feb 13th 2008 12:08PM]

Ya know they have an update for that Gmail issue?

It's on their website

[Joel @ Feb 14th 2008 10:02AM]

http://blog.palm.com/palm/2008/01/versamail-updat.html
click on above link for Versamail update which will fix your problem

[Bj Sisco @ Feb 13th 2008 9:43AM]

Can you buy stock or have stock in Palm? If so...

Sell! Sell! Sell!

[Mike @ Feb 13th 2008 10:27AM]

A stylist, gross.

[Jason @ Feb 13th 2008 11:06AM]

Palm has to get out of bed with the carriers and start serving users or they're dead.

[keithwwalker @ Feb 13th 2008 8:39PM]

Wonder what an unlocked version would cost???

[elt @ Feb 13th 2008 11:18PM]

i love love love my sprint pink centro! it's the best phone i've ever had!!!! check the plans too, sprint plans are much better for data and evdo (high speed), i did my homework...

[Chris @ Feb 15th 2008 5:02PM]

I think ATT will sell quite a few. I gave my girl a Treo 650 a few years back and she loved it. When Sprint came out with the Centro, she jumped on it and loves the smaller form factor. Most people that are looking to get the Centro are not power users and just want a cute smartphone that makes calls, checks on some web based email, social network sites, texting, etc. Now for me, I have the Treo 755p and would like a bigger screen. I used to have the Samsung A900 tethered to Palm TX, and before that a Treo 650 and Palm 600.

[Ramon @ Feb 17th 2008 5:02PM]

I purchased one at local at&t store on Sat, Feb 16 so it's out now. Wonder if it was a mistake... great deal as an upgrade, $200 with $100 rebate with unlimited messaging and voice plan. So sync'ing issues but all resolved, may be user error coupled with a not-to-clear 'be careful' directions. I love the form factor and am so relieved to get out of the BB Pearl I have been using on and off with Treo 650. I hate the BB OS!