Palm Centro Onyx Red Review - At a Glance
At a Glance What’s Good: Full-featured, easy to use smartphone for entry-level price; Clear, bright, high-resolution touchscreen; Compact body with rounded edges; Zippy EV-DO data with access to Sprint TV service; A-GPS works with location-based services
What’s Not Good: QWERTY keys are small and cramped; Display is smallish (if still easy to read); Hardware and software design feels a bit dated; Noticeably thicker than comparable devices; No Music Store access (yet)
Bottom Line: Get Centro in your hands. If you like the way it feels and if the buttons aren’t too small for you, you might have found yourself the best value currently going in a full-featured smartphone built for consumers. Palm OS is not slick, but it works well and Sprint’s fast EV-DO data network and excellent music store add value to the device. But the cramped buttons and small screen will be deal-breakers for some.
Specs:
- Make/Model: Palm Centro (690)
- Network: CDMA
- Data: EV-DO
- Carrier: Sprint (Locked); GSM version available from AT&T
- Size: 107 x 54 x 18.5 mm
- Weight: 119 g
- Form Factor: Candybar
- Display: 2.25” Color LCD, 320 x 320 resolution, 65,000 Colors
- Memory: 64 MB built-in, microSD card slot
- Notable Features: Palm OS Smartphone Platform; POP3, IMAP, and MS Exchange Email support (including MS Direct push); IM support for multiple procotols; Web browser; Sprint TV and Power Vision compatibility including laptop tethering; ocketTunes Deluxe music player software including Internet Radio support; Sirius Satellite Radio support
Next: Introduction »Fetch me more...Quickly jump to more information about related topics, cell phones, carriers or phone manufacturers mentioned in this In-Depth Review by using the links below. About our in-depth cell phone reviewsWe take great pride to ensure that the our reviews are thorough and accurate. In no way are our editors directed or influenced by any manufacturers, advertisers, or partners; we believe that honest, opinionated reviews -positive or negative - are the only way to maintain credibility and serve our users. Reviews by companyApple, BenQ, BlackBerry, Eten, Google, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, o2, Palm, Pantech, PCD, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony EricssonI remember when Treos were all the rage amongst executives and Email addicts before Email addictions were trendy. A sales exec friend of mine got married a few years back and I’ll never forget the image of her pecking madly at her Treo an hour before the ceremony as bridesmaids tended to her non-Email needs. The Treo line really ushered in the age of QWERTY smartphones that combined robust Email and organizer features with a form... Palm Centro is little, fat, and cute all at once. It’s more the size of a regular phone than a business-class smartphone like Sprint’s HTC Mogul, and is available in a nicely dressed down black, a flashier red, and a soft pink, each of which is accented by a gray stripe running across the front panel of the phone. While Centro’s 18.5mm thick profile means it bulges in a front jeans pocket, it’s small enough to easily use in one hand... First off, Sprint’s Centro worked great as a phone. Signal strength was excellent virtually everywhere I went in the San Francisco Bay Area, and calls came through loud and clear on both ends. The speakerphone was decent for a cell (i.e. Usable in a pinch), and I appreciated the “Ignore with Text Message” feature for deflecting incoming calls I didn’t want to take. Calls may be dialed via the touchscreen or dedicated keys on... Treos made a big name for themselves as the original Email phone of choice. Their combination of a usable Email and PDA client married to a solid cell phone was revolutionary in its day, and Palm’s stable, usable, and expandable smartphone platform appealed to power users and consumer Email junkies alike. Unfortunately the once-mighty Treo got lost in the shuffle during the amazing period of mobile phone innovation that’s come upon... The image of a Pink Palm Centro that has been floating around the internet over the last couple of days appears to be authentic. The Pink version of the surprising popular Centro series should be a big hit with the ladies. No release date has been confirmed, but being Valentines Day is right around the corner an early to mid January launch would seem likely.
Other than the color one should expect the pricing and specifications to remain the... A fan of our website wrote in letting us know he had recently done a comparison of the Palm Treo 700, 755, and new Centro. His comparison list facts about each device and his take on which device offers consumers specific device advantages in his opinion.
In Paul's blog he believes the new Centro provides advantages in Internal performance, toys, and weight. To read more from Paul's side-by-side comparions of different Palm Treo...
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4.3
The screen is really all not that bad..on text messaging you can actually turn the fonts verry large. Easy for a person with bad sight to see. The screen also has great resolution and better than a 1.3 camera, even though they say it is.
The calling is excellent!
So is the outstanding battery life. If you were calling Annd left the phone on call all day, it would last about 3 hours 30 minutes just before it gets to about 10 percent, which would last about 30 to 45 minutes doing pretty much nothing. Calling is the only thing that runs down battery, but if you are at work, you could also charge it with the USB cored. Besides that the battery life will last you 2 days just pretty much texting, and 1 calling.
It also has excellent sound quality. And fairly small for pockets, but not too small, and hard to use.
Also, it ALWAYS keeps up with your texting NO MATtER HOW FAST..EVEN IF YOU DRoP iT ABOUT 15 TIMES, or more.
On the microsoft, when you type a lot, about 3 pages, still as fast, not as, but most of us don't text that that fast anyways..besides teenagers..but what do they need Microsoft half of the time anyways when they have laptops..or computers their on half of the day anyways..
Overall...this phone is AWESOME..for people with wide fingers, you still have the feeling benifit of the doubt, and people with average fingers, this keybred is perfect..as well as the touchscreen.