Thread: Palm Centro Smart Mobile Phone

TO UNDERSTAND THE CENTRO. YOU HAVE TO UNDER¬stand who it's for. There's nothing here for existing Treo owners, and there's little to entice other smart phone users to switch. It's no accident that the Centro looks a little like the BlackBerry Pearl. It's another instance of a smartphone manufacturer attempting to woo the younger crowd. The Centro is bigger and heavier than the Pearl, but at 4.2 by 2.1 by 0.7 inches and 4.2 ounces, it's smaller in every dimension than the Treo 755p. Palm saves space by shrinking the 320-by-320pixel screen down to 2.2 inches (diagonal) and giving the device the world's most compact QWERTY keyboard.

Yes, the keys on this thing are really small. They're clear, grippy, rubbery nubs, which helps somewhat. But there's no avoiding the cramped feeling of this keyboard, especially when you're trying to dial a phone number. If you want a better QWERTY keyboard, you'll need a bigger, wider device, it's that simple.The Centro performs well as a cell phone. In our tests, reception was pretty good though not excellent.
The earpiece and speakerphone volume are both acceptable, but transmissions through the mouthpiece sounded compressed, and background noise made it difficult for callers to hear us clearly.



Transmissions through the speakerphone were surprisingly clear. You can also use a 2.5mm wired headset or a Bluetooth headset. On our tests, the Centro's battery life was okay but not great, delivering a talk time of just over 4 hours. One minor gripe: I wish there was a quick way to make calls from the home screen, as on BlackBerrys, where all you have to do is press the "phone" key to get to the dialing screen, where you can then use the touch screen or QWERTY keys to dial.