Life starts after five o'clock. Not coincidentally, that's also when the Palm Centro smartphone comes alive. Not only does the Palm Centro handle all your favorite voice functions, but it also offers text, IM, e-mail, and web access, all in a body that's a lot smaller than you'd think. Add in such features as a 1.3-megapixel camera, 64 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth 1.2 support, a microSD expansion slot, and a full QWERTY keyboard and you have a terrific smartphone for all your messaging and personal needs. In short, there's no better way to stay in touch.
The Palm Centro's full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to type text messages, IMs, and e-mails.
Design The Palm Centro boasts a sleek red housing that measures a mere 2.11 by 4.22 by 0.73 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 4.2 ounces. It's notably smaller than many competing smartphones, yet doesn't sacrifice functionality at any point along the way. Users will also love the 320 x 320 touchscreen (up to 65,000 colors), which offers a crisp resolution for photos and videos. And thanks to the full QWERTY keyboard, you can say L8R to those tricky keys on your old cell phone.
Phone and Messaging Functions The Palm Centro smartphones offers a ton of ways to stay in touch with friends, whether you're calling Brian, firing off a quick text to Jen, instant messaging Chris, or shooting an e-mail to Kat. From a phone perspective, the Palm Centro lets you dial people right from your address book, set up three-way calls from the touch of a button, or use the speakerphone to talk hands-free. The keyboard, meanwhile, makes it a breeze to type complete messages whether you're sending text, pictures, or even audio or video clips. Plus, the Centro keeps all your messages in a chat-style view, so it's easy to keep track of the conversation.
The 320 x 320 color touchscreen is crisp and vivid, making it ideal for viewing photos or watching videos.
Want to keep up with all the latest gossip when you're away from the computer? Turn to the Centro's instant messaging functions, which support all your buddy lists on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and others. Similarly, the Centro lets you access your personal e-mail accounts, such as Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo. As a result, you can reply to invites and answer e-mails when you're out and about.
Web Functions Whether you're keeping up with friends on MySpace or looking up directions to the new bistro across town, the Centro's touchscreen and keyboard make it fun to navigate around the web. The Centro includes a fast built-in web browser that lets you check out photos on Flickr or watch videos on YouTube, with broadband-like speeds on the EV-DO network that are guaranteed to impress. No more waiting around for your favorite sites to load. The Centro is also compatible with Google Maps, making it simple to get directions or see which freeways are clear and which ones are parking lots. Google Maps shows you red, yellow, or green traffic routes in real time.
Organizer Functions The Palm Centro includes a complete organizer for keeping track of all your daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities. The contacts list gathers all your friends' phone numbers, addresses, and more, while the calendar keeps you from missing upcoming meetings, events, and parties. You can even enter a friend's birthday in the contacts list and will automatically show up in your calendar. As with the best organizers, the Centro also offers a to-do list that lets you check off items when they're complete. As a result, it's easy to keep track of what you did and still need to do. And should you come across a tidbit that doesn't have a logical home, simply turn to the memo function, which lets you store random information such as hot spots in Vegas or the names of movies you'd like to rent. Say goodbye to carrying around crumpled scraps of paper in your pocket or purse. Finally, it's possible to save a copy of all those names, numbers, appointments, photos, and videos on your computer thanks to the sync function.
Multimedia Whether you want to take pictures, play videos, or listen to music, the Palm Centro has got you covered. The 1.3-megapixel digital camera (with a 2x digital zoom) lets you shoot pictures and send them to friends, store digital albums, or shoot videos. The built-in MP3 player, meanwhile, lets you take your tunes everywhere you go. With 64 MB of storage, there's plenty of room for your playlists, plus you can add up to 4 GB more with a microSD card. And thanks to Pocket Tunes Deluxe, you can play the songs you downloaded from places like Rhapsody or Yahoo. As a bonus, the Centro supports a ton of fun stuff from Sprint, including the ability to watch such TV channels as CNN Mobile, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, the Disney Channel, and E! Entertainment. There's never a dull moment with the Palm Centro around.
Other phone details include a removable lithium-ion battery that offers 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time; a Palm OS 5.4.9 platform; and support for Windows XP and Vista and Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
love my new phone!:
I love this phone. I use to have the blackberry pearl with att but i never had a palm before. It is so easly to use, i love the service with sprint cause att sucks.
Sprint Service is the WORST:
A word about Sprint: They used to be the best, and they are now the worst. The absolute worst. If you call them today, July 15'th 2008, you will get through the prompts until you are given a wait-time and then the systems tells you to call back later and hangs up on you. I'm not surprised at all. They got rid of 80 % of their customer service workforce. Things have appeared on my bill for a year that shouldn't be there. I have made 5 attempts to fix this and finally gave up. A lady from Sprint... more info
A smartphone that actually fits in your pocket:
The Palm Centro is one of the very few smartphones that can fit in your pocket and still deliver quality power features. However, it has a few minor drawbacks. SCREEN
I've owned a Palm IIIxe, Palm Tungsten C, iPAQ rx4240 and have test driven an iPhone, Blackjack II and Moto Q, and a couple Blackberry models. The Palm Centro is probably the smallest screen of them all save the Blackberry Pearl. However, the Centro offers 320 x 320 resolution which is higher than most Windows Mobile smartphones and... more info
My Little Red Companion:
Coming from a T-Mobile Sidekick III to a red palm centro, I had fairly reasonable expectations from a higher-end phone and a higher-end service (sprint). Providing a little background into my service change, my friend who works at sprint hooked me up with the Sprint SERO plan, which you can google and will find multiple ways to take advantage of the plan. I pay thirty dollars a month, and I get 500 minutes, unlimited data and unlimited texting... you simply can't beat it. Anyway, back to the phone. I... more info
