When the courier came and dropped off the box on my doorstep a short while ago, my brother asked me what I was going to review now. I told him that it was an unlocked Palm Centro. He immediately responded by asking, “Palm still makes cell phones?”
I’d imagine that my brother is not alone in this mentality, because Palm hasn’t been quite as visible in the business phone market since a little company called Research in Motion jumped into the arena with the BlackBerry. We also see a wide range of devices that run on Symbian and Windows Mobile. Yes, there are still some people that swear by their Palm Treos, but they are largely outnumbered by these other competitors.
The Palm Centro, believe it or not, is not going after this same market. Instead, this super affordable smartphone is supposed to cater to people who want something a little more powerful than a conventional mobile phone, but they don’t want to be overwhelmed by a high-end BlackBerry. Palm has done quite well with this budget-minded offering that we are going to look at today.
Features at a Glance
The GSM version of the Palm Centro was released in March 2008 and while it won’t be able to blow the iPhone and BlackBerry Bold out of the water, it certainly comes with more productivity features than a RAZR. Some of the more notable features include:
- Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900)
- TFT touchscreen with 320×320 pixel resolution
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Five-way navigation buttons
- microSD memory card expansion slot
- Bluetooth 1.2 with A2DP
- Palm OS 5.4.9
- Blazer 4.5 web browser (WAP 2.0/HTML)
- 1.3 megapixel camera with video
- Document viewer
- pTunes MP3 player
- Personal information management software suite
There are certainly some shortcomings to this feature set, like the low resolution camera and the relatively slow Bluetooth 1.2 connection, but you have to remember than the Centro was never meant to be a powerhouse. It’s supposed to be just “good enough.” And no, it doesn’t come pre-installed with any games to pass the time.
What’s in the Box?
Aside from the Palm Centro smartphone itself, the package contents also include a wired mono headset, USB synchronization cable, wall charger, software CD, user manual, and other documentation. It’s just about everything that you need to get started with the Centro, though it wouldn’t be a bad idea to invest in a protective case of some kind. You will also need to buy a microSD card if you plan on using the media player or taking more than a few pictures with the 1.3 megapixel camera.
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PalmOS: Welcome to Last Decade
The Apple iPhone boasts an incredibly slick operating system. The HTC Touch Diamond gets the cool TouchFLO thing overlaying a Windows Mobile core. The Samsung Instinct has a proprietary user interface that is fresh and innovative. Unfortunately, the operating system found on the Palm Centro is none of these things. Instead, it reminds me of the Palm m500 PDA that I had many years ago.
The icon arrangement has remained largely unchanged, displaying the applications as a series of icons on a grid. You can swap between the different sets by hitting the home button. It’s a functional OS, but Palm seriously needs to consider something new. I know that there are models of the Treo that do Windows Mobile. That could be a step in the right direction, but I imagine that they went with the dated OS because it’s a leaner installation for the Centro.
In addition to the main menu, you can also access the rest of the functionality through the four buttons located in the silver strip in the center of the phone. The home button gets you to the main menu, as mentioned, whereas the Message button (envelope) takes you to, you guessed it, the messaging app. There is also a quick access button for the schedule and phone apps.
I would have preferred quick access to the Blazer web browser, but it could be that soccer moms and other types leaning toward the Centro wouldn’t be as inclined to invest in an expensive data plan. They’re more likely to use the scheduler to keep track of dentist’s appointments and the like.
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QWERTY Keyboard
It’s admirable that the Palm Centro has a full QWERTY keyboard. Presumably, this makes it easier for you to make entries into the appointment manager, type out your mobile emails, and surf the web. The trouble is because the Centro is so compact, the keyboard is also very compact.
The keys have a rubbery feel to them, but they are so small that you will probably get the best performance by typing with your fingernails. Even if you have average-sized hands, you may have to take quite a bit of time to get used to this cramped QWERTY. If you’ve got big hands, you’ll need to look elsewhere. I do appreciate that the numeric part of the keyboard is highlighted, though.
Making and Receiving Calls
Call quality is perfectly acceptable on the Palm Centro, as is reception. It’s not the absolute best phone on the market, but it’s far from the worst as well. Strangely, when you hit the “phone” button, it does not take you directly to the virtual dial pad shown above. Instead, it takes you to some phone homescreen. I don’t get it. On my Windows Mobile smartphone, I can hit the “talk” button and it launches directly into the phone app. That would have made more sense to me.
Google Maps, Scheduler, and Other Applications
The Palm Centro comes with a healthy suite of additional applications that take it beyond a conventional mobile phone. It’s not quite up to par with the most powerful smartphones, but it’s a huge leap up from a RAZR.
The Google Maps application downloads new maps on the fly, making use of your data connection. Because the Centro does not have real GPS, it estimates your location by way of cell tower triangulation. As a result, you get your current location within about a five block radius.
The scheduler has remained largely unchanged since the first Palm operating system. If you’ve ever used any Palm OS-powered device in the past, you’ll feel right at home here.
Other applications include the media player, camera, picture viewer, and Blazer web browser. Browsing most websites, like mobile Twitter and Gmail, are acceptable, but if you visit any websites not optimized for mobile handsets, you may run into some rather substantial rendering issues. As you can probably guess, there’s no Flash or Javascript support either so no YouTube for you on this handset.
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Conclusion
Considering that you can get the Palm Centro for under $100 with a contract in the US (In Canada, existing Rogers can get the Centro for $199.99 with a three-year contract renewal, and new customers can get the Centro for $299.99 with a three-year plan activation), this QWERTY smartphone with a touchscreen is a relative bargain. For the same price elsewhere, you’d get a pretty regular phone that might have some better multimedia integration and a better camera, but that’s about it. The Centro is better suited to handle your appointments and manage your deadlines. Taking it further, there are still third-party apps for you to consider as well (though very few people are still developing for the Palm OS).
I was reasonably impressed with the reception, having no trouble completing calls and surfing the web in just about every part of Vancouver. Even when I only displayed one or two bars, the calls were never dropped. Battery life was more than adequate as well. In my purely unscientific experience, I could get a solid four days or so with light surfing, calling, and Google Map usage.
The Centro will never be able to compete with the iPhones of the world. The operating system is seriously dated and the Blazer web browser is nowhere close to holding a candle to Safari, but at least it’s got a QWERTY keyboard and Google Maps. If you don’t like contracts, you can even pick up this phone for as low as $300, which is a relative bargain, I’d say.
Pros
- Great form factor, great size
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Intuitive PIM software
- Plenty of applications, including Google Maps and Blazer web browser
- Perfect price point
Cons
- Keyboard can be difficult to use
- Incredibly dated operating system
- Webpages not optimized for mobile display incorrectly
- Lacklustre spec sheet and overall performance
Overall Rating: 7.0/10.0
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