First Call: The Palm Centro

Palm hopes that the Centro will revive their flagging fortunes. But will this new $99 cell phone kill or cure the PDA and cell phone innovator? Here's our first impressions of the Centro review unit we just received...


It's very....red. Seriousy, this isn't some sort of a problem with our photos: the Centro wouldn't look out of place in the toy fire engine aisle of Toys R Us. (it's also available in black if you're a more restrained sort of person). And it also feels like it wouldn't feel amiss in the toy cell phone aisle of Toys R Us; it looks rather like a toy phone or a fake cell phone chew toy you'd give your dog. The Palm OS it runs doesn't help this: the large icons on the home screen look like a toy compared to the simple elegance of the iPhone, or the jam-packed home screen of Windows Mobile devices.

But it's not a toy: it's the real deal, running Palm OS 5.4.1 with 64MB of RAM, a 1.3 megapixel camera, EVDO data support and a micro SD card slot. That's not a huge selection of features, but it's pretty good for $99.

So let's take a closer look at the hardware, and compare it with a couple of other phones.


As you can see, it is significantly smaller than the AT&T Tilt (left) and the T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve (right). But it's also a bit fatter than some: at 0.73 inches thick, it is about as thick as the Tilt, and a lot thicker than the Curve.  On the photo on the right, the Curve is on the bottom, and the Tilt is in the middle.


The keyboard on the Centro is a lot smaller than the one on the Tilt (left) or the Curve (right). It really is miniscule, and our first impressions aren't good. The keys are small and are no more then bumps on the surface, so finding keys has to be done by sight. This makes both typing and entering numbers slow, especially as the number keypad section of the keyboard is so small. We'll be running our proper tests soon, but we don't expect that the Centro will set any speed records for typing or dialling.


On the bottom of the Centro, we see (from left to right) the headset socket (a 2.5-mm style socket), the synch port and the charging port. No headphones or headset are included with the Centro, but you do get a USB cable and a charger. You also get an adapter that allows you to use the different style of chargers that came with some Treos; a useful thing if you ahve an old Treo you are upgrading and want to have a charger at the office and at home. There is, however, no adapter for the headphone/headset socket, so you will have to buy one separately if you want to use your existing headphones.  On teh top of the Centro, the main feature is the ringer swtich, which allows you to mute the phone with a quick slide of the switch. We like this; it makes muting the phone much easier  than an on-screen menu.

On the left side of the phone is the volume control and the side button, a multipurpose button that has a variety of functions, depending on what's running. On the right side you see the lanayrd loop, the cover for the micro SD card slot and the cover of the Infra-Red port. This is useful for connecting to older laptops that may not have USB ports, and the Palm Desktop software allows you to synch the Centro over an IR connection.
 
Removing the cover on the back reveals the battery; a large 1150mAh one that should mean decent battery life. We;ll know more about that when we test it, though. The image on the right shows the micro SD card slot. To gain access to this, you need to remove the battery cover, which is a pain. But at least you don't have to remove the battery itself.

Our first impressions are positive, but with reservations. The Centro is small, cute and fits well into the pocket. But the keyboard is incredibly small, and isn't easy to type on. And we haven't so far found any major enahncements to the Palm OS, which is getting somewhat long in the tooth.

One serious omission is a headset/headphones. Sprint is pitching the Centro as a do-it-all device, but it isn't a play-it-all device without a pair of headphones. The speaker on the back has decent volume, but even a cheap pair of headphones would make this a much more attractive package.

Our review is coming soon, but that's our first call on the Palm Centro; promising, but with some reservations. Watch is space for our full review, coming soon.