- Dark blue smartphone with comprehensive organizer functions, digital audio player, and 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder
- Fast data connectivity via EV-DO; Broadband Access service for using phone as modem
- Text, e-mail, and instant messaging; Web browser; Bluetooth for communication headsets; MicroSD memory expansion
- Up to 3.5 hours of talk time, up to 300 hours (12.5 days) of standby time; measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches (HxWxD)
- Includes: handset, battery, charger, stylus, USB cable, quick-start guide, Getting Started CD
Amazon.com Product Description
Life starts after five o’clock. Not coincidentally, that’s also when the Palm Centro smartphone comes alive. Not only does the Palm Centro for Verizon 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 memory expansion (up to 4 GB), and a full QWERTY keyboard and you have a terrific smartphone for all your messaging and personal needs. It also offers the Palm OS 5.4.9 platform and support for Windows XP and Vista and Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.
The Palm Centro’s full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to type text messages, IMs, and e-mails. |
Verizon Service Options
With support for the EV-DO high-speed data standard, you’ll enjoy fast access to the Internet and Verizon’s multimedia services (additional charges applicable), with average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps and peak rates up to 2 Mbps. (Learn more about where EV-DO coverage is offered.) Getting on the Internet is easy using Verizon’s Mobile Web 2.0 package, which allows you to read and send e-mails, exchange instant messages and view your favorite web content on your phone. Verizon’s Get It Now wireless download service is also fully compatible with this phone. This pay-per-download service features application downloads, games and productivity tools. You can also personalize your handset with ringtone downloads using the Get It Now service.
With BroadbandAccess Connect (subscription required), you can use your smartphone as a modem for your notebook when you connect the two using a USB cable–or open a Bluetooth connection–enabling you to access the Internet or your company intranet. The tethered modem capability is ideal when you’re traveling and need to use your notebook to check email, access corporate networks, or download large files like presentations and reports. And with BroadbandAccess Connect, you won’t have to buy an extra PC Card or other devices.
Verizon’s Wireless Sync always-on email service (subscription required), you can stay connected and get the job done while away from the office–without a delay and in a secure environment. Email is delivered to your device in real time across the National Enhanced Services Rate & Coverage Area, and you get the ability to forward large attachments via email as well as access both your personal and corporate emails on one device. Wireless Sync offers strong security with AES encryption (Advanced Encryption Standard) technology so that unauthorized parties cannot access or alter application data transmitted over wireless networks.
Phone Features
The Palm Centro boasts a sleek, rounded housing that measures a mere 4.2 by 2.1 by 0.7 inches (HxWxD) and weighs 4.2 ounces. It’s notably smaller than many competing smartphones, yet doesn’t sacrifice functionality at any point along the way. It has a large 320 x 320-pixel touchscreen (up to 65K 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.
The Palm Centro offers a ton of ways to stay in touch with friends, whether you’re firing off a quick text, instant messaging, shooting an e-mail to the office, or using that old-school standby: a phone call. From a phone perspective, the 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.
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.
The Centro is the smallest smartphone yet from Palm. |
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.
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.
Whether you want to take pictures, play videos, or listen to music, the 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 an optional microSD card. And thanks to Pocket Tunes Deluxe, you can play the songs you downloaded from places like Rhapsody or Yahoo.
Other features include:
- Download, view, and edit Word and Excel compatible files with Documents to Go
- Rehearse PowerPoint presentations and consult important PDF files on the go
- Palm Operating System 5.4.9
- Bluetooth version 1.2 with the following profiles: HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), DUN (dial-up networking)
- Hearing Aid Compatibility = M4/T4
Vital Statistics
The Palm Centro weighs 4.2 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches. Its removable 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3.5 hours of talk time, and up to 300 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA frequencies as well as the 1xEV-DO r0 data network.
I had a Palm Treo before this. It too had hot synch problems so I rarely used that feature. I expected buying the Centro with mostly the same features but 2 years more current, it would have improved. Sadly synchronizing has not improved. I often have to reboot my Windows system to get it to synchronize. An even bigger issue for me is the software has significant unpredicatble delays. I will be navigating through my favorite buttons when the system hesitates. This happens in just about all applications I use. I have not found a reason for these signifiant delays. This phone also looses signal more often then my Treo ever did. One night after arriving late to a hotel after a hard days work, the phone kept chirping in and out of service. I was too tired and the phone was too far to motivate myself to get up and turn it off. I hoped the problem would not last and thought I was tired enough to fall asleep any way. To no surprise the next morning I had little battery life left. The Google Map feature is not a GPS. If you have no idea where you are then it is of no help. Turn by turn on this samll screen probably should only be used by a passanger and not a driver. When a friend looking for a new phone asked if I would recommend the Centro, without hesitation I said, “no.”
Rating: 1 / 5
I’ve always liked Palm devices, so when it was time to upgrade my phone I was pleased to find that Verizon was offering them two for the price of one, and my daughter really liked its text messaging features. It works very well as a phone, PDA, and mp3 player, and OK as a camera and videocamera. My only complaints are that the keys are too small for me, so I type using the touchscreen; I too had trouble inserting the memory card; and I was disappointed that the headphone jack does not use a standard connector. Since the Palm headset was out of stock I ended up buying a headset made by Motorola. The music shuts off when a call comes in as it should, but the connection is poor so I basically get sound only in the right speaker (if I pull the jack out a little I get stereo, but the volume is greatly decreased and the jack won’t stay in that position, so it keeps switching between mono and stereo). Also, I couldn’t get the Palm for Facebook application to work. But overall this is a very nice phone that syncs well with Micorosoft Outlook.
Rating: 4 / 5
I’ve had palm devices for a number of years and have loved them. So when I got the Palm Centro, I was really excited; it was like my other Treos but sexy! Well, not so much…
For one thing, the keyboard is really small, but that’s fine. After a little while, you actually get used to it. While it works just like my previous treos, I have some beef with it:
1. It works just like the previous treos. There is nothing unique about this model except it is smaller. The software is pretty much the same as models from 5 years ago. Considering how long this OS has been used and what is available, I would expect more.
2. The unit is cheap as all getup. It feels cheap, it looks cheap, and it acts cheap. If you get this, buy the insurance. Trust me.
3. I lied. The software has changed; it’s worse. I’ve never had to return a phone or get one fixed in all my years using a cell phone, and yet I’m on my fourth centro. If you want to use it as an MP3 player, it will not allow you to use the speaker when you make cell phone for a period of time after. Now, when I say period of time, I mean anywhere from a few seconds to a few weeks. That’s right, a few weeks (hence why it had to be returned). Sometimes this is fixed with a hard restart, other times it’s fixed by a return. Customer service acknowledged this issue and said hopefully that will be fixed.
I don’t mean to complain, because at the end of the day, it’s still a decent phone. Just given what’s available on the market, I just hope Palm can save itself with the Pre.
Rating: 3 / 5
I like the features of this phone but I was disappointed that I could only get a day or day and a half of use before the battery needed to be recharged. Considering that I don’t talk very much (usually 0 to 5 minutes a day), I don’t use the mp3 player, and I turned off blue tooth that is very bad. My old T2 Palm would last 10 or more days and that had a larger screen. My son also has one and his battery is just as bad.
Considering that the documentation says that the standby phone time for the phone should be better than any phone I’ve had, I was very disappointed since some of my phones would go up to 3 days before recharging (I have gone at most 2 days on the Centro.)
The Centro pauses for 4 or 5 seconds sometimes when in contacts. Don’t know what causes it. Of course it remembers all the clicks made during that time so it sometimes takes a long time to recover. I have to remember to stop doing anything on it until it gets caught up. It’s not a show stopper. Just somewhat annoying.
By the way, I use the phone on the PagePlusCellular network. At first it didn’t look like it would work on that network but we eventually got it to work by doing a manual program of the phone (*228 wait for the prompt and then press 1). At first it didn’t look like the manual program would work either (it wanted to stay on the Verizon network), but after a few minutes it worked properly. My son uses his phone on the Verizon network.
Rating: 2 / 5
I have no complaints about this phone. I use it for phone calls, texting, reference books (anesthesia student here), and the scheduling feature. I think a lot of people expect this phone to work like a computer and it WILL NOT do that for you. Here are a couple of things I have found helpful.
#1 is the battery life. Having the Bluetooth receiver on, infrared receiver on, surfing the net and having the screen brightness turned up is going to chew up your battery. Simply adjust these, turn them off, and use a laptop/desktop for casual websurfing will provide you with enough battery power.
#2 It IS Vista 64 compatible. However, you can only sync using Bluetooth. I had to by a bluetooth dongle for about $20 for my laptop. Full details are available at Palm’s website. It may take a bit of looking but it is there.
#3 It is slow to surf the web. Keep in mind this is a smartphone not a laptop/desktop connected to high speed internet. You can’t expect the same performance from the Centro. The Centro has a much smaller screen–just in case you didn’t notice
, slower processor (312 MHz Intel PXA270 XScale) , and little memory (128 MB) so don’t expect it to perform like a regular computer because it can’t. It’s not a computer, it’s a PDA.
#4 The picture quality is pretty good. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera so too much shouldn’t be expected. Granted it is not like my $800 digital camera but it is still pretty good. It has video but don’t expect HD quality (video or sound) from it either.
#5 The keyboard is small but it’s a small phone. I do have what can be considered larger than normal fingers but with a bit of practice the keyboard is not a problem. As well I compared this to other devices with keyboards on the front and there is not much of a difference. Remember, it’s not a computer.
Call quality is good and coverage is excellent as usual (I’m in Western Pennsylvania).
Nice thing about the Palm platform is that it is well supported by thousands of applications. You can find an app for nearly anything you could want and a lot of them are free. The included programs are great for music, pics, and even video.
If you’re looking for a high performance, web surfing, picture taking phone this is definitely not the one. If you need to keep in touch, organized, consolidate your life, and NOT spent $30 a month for a data plan you’ll never use then this is the phone for you.
My advice is to take the time to read in detail the owners manual. Use Palm’s website and forums and just take the time to learn how to use this phone.
Rating: 5 / 5