Palm Centro drops to $70 on contract with AT&T

Remember how we told you to expect some totally edge-of-your-seat, riveting price news in regard to Palm's Centro? Yeah, how's about $30 off? Presumably in conjunction with the iPhone 3G launch, AT&T has hacked the Palm Centro down to $70 after rebates (from $100) with a two-year agreement. There's no telling if the new price will sashay on over to those CDMA carriers or not, but we've got our fingers crossed real tight.

[Via Electronista]

[OneLove @ Jul 11th 2008 4:39PM]

ATT is the devil!

[Vance @ Jul 11th 2008 4:43PM]

I LOVE my new Centro (on Verizon), and think it was well worth the $99 I paid, much less the nearly "give away" price of $70. Now, if I was going to do a lot of web surfing on my phone that would be different, and I would go with the iPhone. But, for use AS a basic smartphone, with the TON of apps available, etc, I really like it.

[Cynthia @ Jul 11th 2008 5:05PM]

I had a Palm Centro for all of 4 days - On Monday, I paid $99 for the phone and activated a new account with Verizon Wireless. Friday, my phone stopped working. When Verizon customer service could not get a new Palm Centro to work I gave up and canceled the whole thing.

[Shane @ Jul 11th 2008 10:41PM]

I picked mine up for a whopping $74 on VZW after my corporate discount. It replaced my aging Treo 650. Sorry the poster above me had such a bad experience...Try asking them for a FRU (Field Replacement Unit). They will do it and in my experience in the worst case they will charge you $50 for it. For such a new phone, however, it should be under warranty.

[iofthestorm @ Jul 12th 2008 3:24AM]

I'd like to get a Centro on Verizon but my only problem with that is that I'm sure their data rates are going to drain my wallet ridiculously fast. I see that I can get 450 minutes and data for $80 a month- that's far too much for me, nearly $1k a year. And apparently the old SERO plans have been replaced with smaller discounts off their unlimited plans so I can't go that route. What am I supposed to do now? Is there a T-Mobile prepaid type phone that has Wi-fi?

[Nightmare @ Jul 12th 2008 6:44PM]

its way cheaper at radioshack i got mine when it first came out on sprint for $99

[Dillon @ Jul 11th 2008 4:45PM]

I think I'll have to get the white one. Who wouldn't want that anti-gravity that allows it to stand on an angle like that?

[Giles @ Jul 11th 2008 4:46PM]

Hmm...I hope VZW drops their price too...I just bought one and maybe I can $30 back!

[azim @ Jul 11th 2008 5:02PM]

Letstalk.com offers the CENTRO for free in various ways, some without rebates, some with where you MAKE money

[Wicker24 @ Jul 11th 2008 6:32PM]

We have had these for $50 regularly and $30 on sale since release at RS.

[Vance @ Jul 11th 2008 5:04PM]

First, I think it looks cool.

Second, it is smaller than most smartphones (including the iPhone) which is a good thing.

Third, as for Palm, the Centro has saved their bacon for now, and they are coming out with a new OS and new GUI in a bit, which could get them right back in the game. We'll see.

Right now, their stock price is SO low, I don't see how it could NOT be a good buy.

[OziD @ Jul 11th 2008 5:05PM]

got mine for free through sprint in october *yawn*

[Graham @ Jul 11th 2008 5:24PM]

70?? I just bought mine for 50 on their site. Whatever, now I wonder how much I could have got it for here after the supposed drop

[John @ Jul 11th 2008 5:47PM]

Palm centro on amazon.com

$0.01 with new activation (-49.99 after $50 rebate)

[Sarig @ Jul 11th 2008 5:56PM]

*yawn*

[Vance @ Jul 11th 2008 5:58PM]

Ocean, there are a lot of reasons.

1. Some don't find it ugly at all.
2. $200 or more back in your pocket.
3. a qwerty keyboard.
4. smaller form factor.

There is definitely a market there, and that is why it is selling so good.

[Vance @ Jul 11th 2008 5:58PM]

Oh, and it comes on just about every carrier, you are not locked into ATT.

[Dan @ Jul 11th 2008 6:19PM]

That thing should be offered at flat out free on contract for 1 or 2 years. Even if I was a AT&T rep I wouldnt offer that phone for a $100 to anyone...

[Eric @ Jul 11th 2008 6:21PM]

I would never recommend another Palm Phone. My company had three users with Treo's all of which had to be replaced at least once in the first year. One user went through 3 Treo's before replacing it with an HTC phone. Software issues, rebooting, locking up, etc. etc.

[Robin @ Jul 11th 2008 7:25PM]

I got the Centro the minute AT&T got it b/c I LOVE the Palm platform & was thrilled to combine my palm & phone into one device. And I thought it was a steal at $100. I can't believe they're dropping if from there. I would recommend it to anyone. I LOVE mine!

[trumpton @ Jul 11th 2008 9:11PM]

The Centro may not enjoy the dribbling adulation of the Engadget iSlaver fanboy mob, but it's a superb cheap smartphone offering a load of functionality for its price point. And it has a really good keyboard and more useful software than you can shake a stick at.

And it also does video, MMS and crazy wild things like cut and paste and global search which a few users might find useful.

(Apologies to Engadget for such a deeply unfashionable post - no doubt they'll have a far more important bulletin about the latest iPhone queue situation in some city or another coming up any second now)

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jul 11th 2008 9:33PM]

It might be a bit difficult for Palm to stay in business if they're going to chop $30 off of an already inexpensive smartphone. It's not like they can depend on revenue from the Treo or anything else. I doubt if the reduction in price will make people start buying the Centro in droves. Palm will just lose money on the few they might sell. Maybe people that are using really cheap handsets will move to the Centro for the extra functions.

That Centro is a really odd-looking handset. It always seems to me that it looks like a child's toy. No matter, Palm is already dead and they're just looking around for a final resting place.

[Snatcher @ Jul 11th 2008 9:41PM]

I have a 650 for two years, never used any kind of protection, the case is destroyed. Got an Iphone for one week and couldn't use it anymore. First, typing with the onscreen keyboard doesn't compare to an actual keyboard. Signal was weaker (TMobile) on all the places I went with both. The old Palm browser is 10x faster then the Iphone, as the Palm loads first all the text, what I use most to read the news and Iphone wastes time loading everything. Blackberrys don't have touch screen. I'll have another Palm when my dies.

[chris @ Jul 11th 2008 9:42PM]

At Best Buy Mobile, it is only $50 and has been only $50 for quite some time

[Rodney @ Jul 11th 2008 11:28PM]

If you guys like the centro you might like to know there is a really nice blue one coming out next month from att with white numbers

[stevenguillory @ Jul 12th 2008 12:41AM]

The blue one came out today...

[k @ Jul 12th 2008 2:18AM]

i got my centro free about a month ago. while i'd love to have an iphone for the web browsing and all the other features it has, it's not important enough for me to pay so much. plus, if i lose my centro, i'm not out as much money as i would be with an iphone

[caleb @ Jul 12th 2008 5:25AM]

As is stated in earlier comments this phone is only $30. Why does this $70 number keep getting posted?

[Ken @ Jul 12th 2008 8:47AM]

Dude your comments are way off topic and not useful.

Many people find this phone attractive in its own right, specially for the size.