Palm Centro Review
April 10, 2008 - By Justin Hartman
As a previous owner of the Palm Treo 600 I was particularly excited to test out the new Palm Centro which hit our stores recently and I wasn’t disappointed. What makes the Centro different from the Treo range is that it’s now smaller, cheaper and a lot more stable than it predecessors.
At R3,480 the Palm Centro is now the cheapest full-keyboard smartphone ever to be made. In what appears to be a great strategy by Palm they’ve upgraded their Treo ranges, moved away from the business market and re-packaged this funkier phone - now aimed at a youthful, mass audience.
Quick Facts
- Small, sleek and lightweight
- Colour touchscreen and full keyboard
- Text messaging with a chat-style view
- Stores names, numbers, appointments, notes, to-do’s
- Wireless email for accounts like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and many others
- Visit sites like MySpace, Yahoo!, Flickr and YouTube
- Google Maps to find nearby spots and get directions
- 1.3MP digital camera with video capture
- Pocket Tunes MP3 player
- Easy to use Palm OS by ACCESS software Connector
Connectivity
As with the iPhone the Palm Centro only supports EDGE connectivity and because there’s no Wi-Fi built into the Centro I found that connecting to email, the web and other online services an issue. The fact that these phones don’t support 3G networks is a major flaw for South African consumers as EDGE is just too slow.
Multimedia
I was very impressed with the camera functions of the Centro. The older Treo only supported VGA picture taking while the Centro now has a 1.3 megapixel camera that takes pictures and video. While the quality of the picture is not fantastic it’s a whole lot better than a lot of the current phones on the market.
Battery Life
The battery life on the Centro was pretty decent. According to Palm you should be able to get 4 hours of talk-time and up to 300 hours standby and by my own testing this figure was pretty accurate.
Storage & Additional Software
The Centro has a built in 64MB flash drive for storing contacts, emails and documents but they’ve also included a microSD slot on the side of the phone that supports up to 4GB external storage.
The bundled software on the phone is very impressive and includes some really useful applications like Documents to Go Professional Edition 10, for creating, editing and viewing native Word and Excel compatible files and viewing native PowerPoint and PDF documents, as well as VersaMail 4.0 (Email), Google Maps for Mobile, PocketTunes, Voice Dial and Blazer 4.5 for Internet browsing.
Some other standard software include Calculator, Calendar, Camcorder, Camera, Contacts, HotSync, Memos, Messaging, Tasks, Voice Memo and World Clock.
Operating System
For a long time Palm dominated the PDA market with their in-house developed Palm OS and Palm Desktop software. The Centro ships with Palm OS 5.4.9 on the phone and the latest version of Palm Desktop which, they claim, works on both Windows and Mac OS X.
Having installed Palm Desktop on both a PC and my MacBook Pro I realised there are a few issues in trying to sync the Centro with applications that exist outside of Palm Desktop.
On Windows you can install the Microsoft Outlook conduit which allows you to sync Calendar, Contacts, Memos and Tasks from Outlook but alas you can’t sync email. That said, the Centro includes Versamail which does provide this support to sync your email to the phone.
On a Mac it’s a very different and frustrating story. There are no conduits to sync Apple Mail, iCal or Address Book and the only way to sync this data with the Centro is by purchasing a piece of OS X software called The Missing Sync for $39.95. The Missing Sync allows you to setup your Centro with Apple’s iSync software and it works brilliantly. If you’re on an Apple then you need this software.
What’s in the box
- Palm Centro smartphone with touchscreen
- Rechargeable, removable battery
- AC charger
- USB sync cable
- User documentation
- Palm Desktop software CD (works with Windows and Mac OS X)
- Headset
Conclusion
Palm has spent a great deal of time on the implementation and positioning of the Centro and I’m very pleased that they’re moving away from the business end and focusing more on what consumers want out of a mobile device.
The Centro does lack certain key things, such as 3G and possibly an overhauled Palm OS interface, but for R3,480 I really think it’s amazing value for money.
Price and Availability
Price: R3,480
Availability: The Centro is available at all major stores as well as from a select few online merchants. Please note that South Africa is only getting the black model Centro.
Rate this review:
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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Filed Under Featured Reviews, Mobile, Palm, Smartphones
No WIFI and no 3G this phone! Whats the point of this thing?
I agree with Garsen, the fact that there are no 3g and no wifi is definitely a big nono… and the odd screen size (320×320) bothers me a bit,
Yeah Garson and Henri I completely agree with you. That said, you need to keep in mind the phone you’re getting for the price. While this phone does fall short in those areas I think the fact that it’s aimed at a slightly lower-end, youth market it should be fine for most users in that range.
How do they get to R3,400 for this phone in SA ?
In USA it sells for $99 - at R8 for $1 exchange rate, I feel massively ripped off !!
I’m upgrading from a Treo 680 to a Centro as soon as I can - but then again I am a Palm fanatic, so that might explain a lot!
Why this doesn’t have 3G or WiFi - Palm’s software wing really dropped the ball on their next gen OS in 2006 I think, so Palm decided to rather write their own OS… Coz at present Palm OS 5.4.9 CANNOT do either 3G or WiFi, simple as that unfortunately…
The odd screen size is from their PDA line - used to be 160*160 pixels in the late 90’s, then 320*320, then 320*480, but that never made it to the Treo/Centro line… Maybe now that the iPhone is having the same resolution, it should motivate Palm to upgrade!
The reason most Palm fans would want this - the Palm OS, although getting old, just WORKS! As easy as that. Coupled with a very uncomplicated UI and desktop grade e-mail client built-in, as well as a very good MP3 player and Document Editing/Viewing app, this could be a LOT of people’s 1st smartphone! And then next year, when Palm takes the wraps off their own OS (most probably called Palm OS 7), will be Palm’s return to the big time… And hopefully some new PDA’s as well!
@Dion - the cash price in SA is R3400, it’s free on a Weekender. In the US it’s $99, plus something like $45 a month, so it works out to $1179… And ours is R3442 everything included, so it actually makes sense to buy the phone either on contract or wait for it to surface on the 2nd habd market for around R2500…