Palm Centro Cell Phone Review - Imaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on October 25, 2007 Comment on this |
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Resolution (1.41)
| Cell Phone | Palm Centro | Sony Ericsson W580i | BlackBerry Curve 8320 |
| Score | 1.41 | 6.35 | 5.25 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 581 / 596 | 1195 / 960 | 1087 / 933 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | Palm Treo 700p | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 3.57 | 2.87 | 4.18 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 895.9 / 831.6 | 830.2 / 789.3 | 970 / 879 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (8.08)
To test the quality of colors produced by the Centro's camera we took photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart, which displays shows 24 different colors. These photos are then run through the Imatest software, which compares the captured colors to the original chart colors. Imatest produces the two charts below. On the left is the color chart, which shows the original colors in the small vertical rectangles, the Centro's captured colors in the outer boxes, and the captured colors adjusted for luminance in the middle boxes.
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On the right you get a more graphical representation of color capture. This chart shows the difference between ideal colors, marked by a box, and the captured colors, marked by a circle. The longer the line between the two points, the more inaccurate the color capture. As you can see, the Centro did pretty well, with only limited color drift, and put up the best color score among our comparison phones. The Treo 700p put up the second best score, which seems to indicate that Palm knows what it's doing when it comes to color capture on cameras.
| Cell Phone | Palm Centro | Sony Ericsson W580i | BlackBerry Curve 8320 |
| Score | 8.08 | 5.61 | 4.92 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | Palm Treo 700p | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 1.82 | 7.59 | 5.22 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (0.91)
To test how much noise is produced by the Palm Centro's camera we took a series of photos of the GretagMacbeth color chart at different lighting levels. We then ran these photos through Imatest, which produced a noise score for each lighting level. Our final score is based on both the average noise score across lighting levels and the consistency of noise score between lighting levels. The Centro didn't perform particularly well in our test, putting up relatively high noise scores at all lighting levels. As you can see below, only the W580i did worse in this test.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| Palm Centro | 0.91 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 0.36 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 1.41 |
| HTC Mogul | 1.45 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 1.05 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.20 |
Live Preview (5.0)
The Centro's live preview doesn't take up the whole screen, as you see on many phones nowadays, but it does use most of the screen. Given the higher resolution screen this should be sufficient for most. We found there were some issues with the live preview. When you pan there is a little blurring and the preview is darker than the photo you end up with. Colors are also a little different than in the final photo. These issues are minor, however, and overall the Palm Centro's live preview does a decent job.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (5.26)
Unlocked standby to first shot measures how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until you have captured a photo. This test is a good indication of how quickly you can whip out your phone and take a photo when you need to. We repeat this test until we get a consistent result. The Palm Centro took 3.8 seconds to take a photo. This isn't a particularly great score, with all of our comparison phones except the Treo 700p putting up a better score than the Centro. This isn't a phone you can use for quick candid shots.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Palm Centro | 3.80 | 5.26 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 2.70 | 7.41 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 2.90 | 6.90 |
| HTC Mogul | 3.30 | 6.06 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 3.96 | 5.05 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.43 | 8.23 |
Shot to Shot Time (0.84)
This test measures how quickly you can take a series of photos. We try to use a phone's Burst mode when possible, but the Centro lacks this feature, so we had to do the test manually. We did turn off the feature that reviews the photo after you take it, however. The Centro took five photos in 17.9 seconds, which works out to 0.28 frames per second (fps). This is again a pretty bad score, slower than any comparison phone except the Treo 700p. Given the Centro's camera only takes 1.3-megapixel photos and doesn't have autofocus, this score is particularly poor. What this means for users is that the Centro will do a very bad job capturing sports shots or other moving objects.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| Palm Centro | 0.28 | 0.84 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 2.70 | 8.10 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 0.35 | 1.05 |
| HTC Mogul | 1.90 | 5.70 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 0.20 | 0.60 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 1.20 |
Shutter to Shot Time (2.27)
Shutter to shot time is a measure of how long it takes the camera to actually capture a photo once you've pressed the shutter button. We repeat this test until we get a consistent result. The Palm Centro took 0.88 seconds to capture a photo in this test, which is once again near the bottom of our comparison phones. As with the shot to shot time score, this result indicates you will have problems trying to capture moving subjects with the Centro.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Palm Centro | 0.88 | 2.27 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 0.12 | 16.67 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 0.43 | 4.65 |
| HTC Mogul | 0.21 | 9.52 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 0.30 | 6.67 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 5.00 |
Interface (8.0)
The Centro's camera interface will be familiar to anyone who has used a Palm OS device in the past few years. The top two-thirds of the screen is taken up by the viewfinder, while the lower third holds controls. The center select key on the d-pad acts as the shutter button, and up and down serve as the zoom control. Moving left or right highlights the other options, which include a folder list for where you photos will be stored, an icon to switch between video and stills, and a shortcut to your album. There is also an indicator showing how many photos you can take given current memory restrictions. Hitting the menu button on the keyboard brings up a simple preferences pane that allows you to perform options like turning off the shutter sound or auto-preview. Overall, the interface is extremely simple and easy to use, but lacks the "camera-like" feel of some more modern interfaces, like the HTC Mogul. Still, simple and easy-to-use is a strong argument, and we found ourselves liking the camera interface.
Photo Album Software Internal (7.0)
Manual Control (0.0)
The Palm Centro does not have any manual controls when taking photos.
Zoom (1.0)
The Centro has a 2x digital zoom available that, like all digital zooms, just crops and enlarges what you're seeing.
Focus (0.0)
Like most cameras on phones, the Palm Centro has a fixed-focus camera. This means it won't try to put the scene into focus for you, so what you see is what you get. We don't award any points for fixed-focus lenses.
Flash (0.0)
The Palm Centro doesn't have a flash.
Metering (0.0)
Although we are starting to see phones with true metering controls, like the HTC Mogul, the Centro lacks any such options. Metering allows you to control from which point or points in the scene light is judged. The Centro also lacks any brightness controls, which are much more common on cell phones.
White Balance (0.0)
There are no white balance controls on the Palm Centro. This is surprising, as most cell phones now include at least a selection of presets, such as Tungsten or Incandescent.
Image Handling (3.0)
The Palm Centro has some fairly basic image handling options. You can add an audio caption to any image, rotate it, or draw on it. The draw feature allows you to use the stylus to add freehand drawings, albeit without many options, and you can also add a text box to the drawing. There's no support for more advanced image handling options like adjusting color, brightness, or removing red-eye.
Video
Overall Video Score (6.0)
The Centro captures video at 352 x 288, which is at the high end of what we see from cell phones nowadays. The only phones that do better are some of Nokia's N-Series devices like the N95, which capture at 640 x 480. The quality of the video taken by the Centro is pretty good for a cell phone. We noticed video looked a little blurry, especially when you do a lot of panning, but if held still things can be easily made out. The quality of the video should be sufficient for YouTube or showing on a computer monitor. It won't look very good on a TV or even full screen on a large monitor. Given that the Centro is marketed as a low-end smart phone, we're pretty happy with the quality of the video it took; it's significantly better than some high-end phones we've seen, such as the HTC Mogul.
Video Resolution (6.82)
To test the resolution of the video taken by the Palm Centro we took video of the same industry standard resolution chart we use for still photos. We then took frames from this video and ran them through Imatest to get a score called line widths per pixel height (lw/ph), which measures how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they begin blurring together. The Palm Centro scored 249 lw/ph horizontal and 274 lw/ph vertical. This is a pretty good score, and is significantly better than our comparison phones.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| Palm Centro | 249 / 274 | 6.82 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 122 / 108 | 1.32 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | n/a - no video capture | 0.00 |
| HTC Mogul | 220.9 / 137.8 | 3.04 |
| Palm Treo 700p | 181.5 / 190.9 | 3.46 |
| Apple iPhone | n/a - no video capture | 0.00 |
Video Compression (2.0)
The Palm Centro captures video in 3GP format, and there are no other formats available. This is a fairly standard format for cell phones, but given the decent quality of video captured we wish Palm had gone with a higher-quality format, like H264.
Interface (7.5)
The video capture interface of the Palm Centro is similar to the stills capture — the top two-thirds act as a viewfinder, while at the bottom you find the controls. Instead of a zoom control with up and down on the d-pad, these buttons control pause and stop. Shortcuts to the folder you're saving to, album, and switching capture modes are all still there. We found the interface just as easy to use, but a little old fashioned compared to some of the newer phones we've seen.
Manual Control (0.0)
There are no manual controls for video capture on the Palm Centro.
Zoom (0.0)
There's no zoom available for video capture on the Centro.
Editing (0.0)
There are no video editing functions on the Palm Centro.
Modes (0.0)
The Centro gives you the option to capture video at either 352 x 288 or 176 x 144 resolutions, however there is no option that automatically formats the video for MMS or e-mail. For example, even if you're capturing at 176 x 144 there's still a 30-second limit for MMS that isn't handled automatically. There's also no support for functions like metering or Scene modes.
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