Palm Centro Review
The first thing people familiar with Palm smartphones will notice about the Palm Centro, besides the fact it's not just another new Treo, is that it's slimmer and lighter weight than any other Palm smartphone, Treo or otherwise, ever.
Its compact design is definitely the foremost feature of the Palm Centro, though fortunately not its only one. A welcome addition to the design of the Palm Centro is actually an absence, that being the annoying, pointy antenna that points out of the Palm Treo. The crisp, clear 320 x 320 pixel resolution display screen is a great appeal to the eye. The Palm Centro comes in both a black onyx casing and a ruby red casing.
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With the Centro, Palm clearly hopes to woo cell phone customers towards smartphones in a gentle and nonthreatening manner. In this vein, the Palm Centro is markedly uncomplicated, a glaring difference from the sportier phones of the younger generation. What this means is that, while the Palm Centro has some pared down features and capabilities when compared against Motorola RAZR or a Nokia N95 or an LG Voyager, it's also much easier to use. In so doing, Palm was also able to offer the Centro at a pared down price as compared against these flashier, fancier, and admittedly more feature-filled competitors.
Having said that, the display screen on the Palm Centro is a touch screen, so at least Palm isn't skimping where it counts. With a touch screen users enjoy the latest in modern convenience, a fully intuitive interface that you can interact with directly, making for the easiest of transitions from using a cell phone to using a smartphone.
The Centro comes with the same productivity tools (To-Do List, Memo Pad, Calculator, Voice-Recorder, World Clock, Calendar, etc.) as the Palm Treo, but it also comes pre-loaded with Documents To Go, a program that allows you to open and read, as well as create and edit, Microsoft Word documents and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (as well as view PowerPoint presentations).
In addition to the QWERTY keyboard on the lower portion of the Centro are Talk and End buttons as well as shortcut keys for many of the device's most popular functions. The primary navigation key on the unit is a five-way toggle switch. Other controls on the unit include volume control, a Mute button, a headphone jack, a multiconnector port and an infrared port, and a customizable button to launch whatever function you like. There's also a microSD card slot which would be more convenient if its cover were a little less difficult to open.
The keyboard, while thankfully a QWERTY style, is nonetheless too cramped. Not only are the buttons all scrunched together, but they're flat, lacking the sort of tactile feedback that makes for a more confident user experience. Besides the obvious impact on ease of use, flat buttons always seem to make a phone look and feel cheap. Surprisingly, the Palm Centro still comes with a stylus, though considering the quality of the keyboard this may not be a bad idea.
Also on the downside, the speaker on the Palm Centro is kind of weak. What's most notably lacking, however, is Wi-Fi.
Business users may find the Palm Centro inadequate. But consumers making their first leap from cell phones to smart phones will find the Palm Centro a welcoming guide, providing a gentle, supportive, and encouraging transition into the latest evolution of the modern age.
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