by Eileen Brodie

Created on: September 05, 2008

Light. Pocketable. Colorful. Affordable. The Palm Centro smartphone has become a popular new phone from this manufacturer, at a time when some of the luster of the Palm brand has faded.

It doesn't break new ground in it's operating system, as it still uses the Palm OS version 5.49, otherwise called "Garnet". This doesn't matter, as the Centro as built has a real niche in the market, especially for first-time smartphone buyers, the younger crowd, or Palm diehards who want a smaller device. It is attractively priced, just below $100 with some carrier plans, and even unlocked it is less costly than other models. Buyers can purchase the GSM version of the Centro unlocked for $300, and put a sim card in from providers such as T-Mobile. This is almost half the price of most other unlocked Palm smartphones.

The large storehouse of applications available for Palm devices is one of the company's strong suits. Included with the Centro is the full (not demo) version 4.04 of Pocket Tunes. This player will organize and play your music files very capably, even used in the background while you perform other tasks. Voice Dial version 2.0 by Voice Signal is now included, with the added ability to open many applications as well. Buyers won't be disappointed with the Centro even if they use it 'as-is' from the box. Others will enjoy downloading a variety of additional applications. This reviewer was impressed with the Centro's ability to tackle the use of a GPS application, linked to a GPS reciever via Bluetooth. Although it's small screen won't make it a star for this use, the experience was gratifying, as the Centro seemed to have no problem connecting and no 'crashes' were experienced. The processor in the Centro seems to be up to any task.

In the Centro, users have a bright colorful screen, an amazingly tactile qwerty keyboard, and a 1280 x 1024 resolution camera. While first impressions were skeptical about the size of the keyboard, users have reported that using their thumbnails on the hard jelly-like keys produces surprisingly effective results.

The voice quality is good, either as a phone or as a speakerphone, and the small speaker on the back is better than expected for short jaunts of listening to music at your desk. Headphones will still be the mode of choice for most. Here Palm continues to use the small 2.5mm jack which can be overcome with an aftermarket adaptor for those who want to use a favorite pair of wired earbuds. The phone does come with a wired hands-free earphone. I used the Centro with Bluetooth, connecting to a set of Sony Ericsson Bluetooth stereo earbuds. (For stereo listening, this requires the purchase of 'Audio Gateway' software.) I was also easily able to connect to a conventional Bluetooth single earpiece, no additional software necessary.

Other features such as e-mail (depending on your carrier plan) and messaging seem well implemented on the Centro. One nice feature is the way text messages are archived as if they are 'chats'; you can view prior messages sent and received with a particular contact all in order, as if in a chat window. Nice for keeping track of successive conversations over time.

This reviewer has owned a long line Palm devices, from the old black and white Palm III, to the Palm Treo 600, as well as the non-phone Palm Tx, a favorite for multi-media with it's large screen and Wi-Fi. The Centro has arrived and won me over, just for what it is: a great phone with no bulk, yet all the goodness of Palm applications inside.

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