Gizmodo
The Palm Centro was a joke until the price dropped this morning. $99 for a full featured touchscreened Palm device is a great value. It loses the heft found in previous Palm Treos, and it's even a little bit...shiny. The only thing to be concerned with is that tiny keyboard. Despite it being targeted toward the same demographic as the Hiptop (Sidekick), it is much harder to use—think iPhone before you get used to it. I'm sure you would adjust; I mean, the kids, the kids, they would adjust. But man, with good looks, a low price, powerful features, and the shedding of the Treo brand name, they may have a hit. Gadget dudes, this is the phone to buy your kid who's not quite smooth enough to have a Hiptop, or your smart kid who knows enough about gadgets to want the extra features.
Palm, cellphones, centro, feature, gallery, hands-on, smartphones, top
Palm Centro Hands On And Gallery (Verdict: They're Gonna Sell a Lot Of 'Em)
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A $99 price tag makes a lot of devices pretty.
No picture of the top of the phone the SD card slot? What gives...... 2 of the buttom
What the hell is "hiptop?"
Features man.... we need the full feature list....
@je-c: Sidekick on T-Mobile?
Looks like the BB Pearl just got slapped with some competition!! And the price, that is just killer.
I thought this didn't have touchscreen. it does?
Is it only offered by Sprint?
Looks like the headphone jack is flush with the outside of the phone, WTF? Why isn't it recessed so that only specialized headphones can fit in it??
heh.
Seriously though, that UI makes me want to puke.
Where's my good buddy from a previous post. See that?!
I will pose your favorite question once again, "What's a Treo?"
touchscreen? VZW? $100? I might be interested in this!
Does it do graffiti? Can you actually type on those micro-switches they call buttons?
Is thing as wide as the Treo 500v? I'd like to see a side-by-side of this with the Treo 680 or something.
@kahri: I spot the stylus in photo 2180, tucked in similar to the Z22.
the data sheet is up on palm.com, with more pics and specs.
"320x320 pixel Transflective color touchscreen,
supports 16-bit color (up to 65K colors)"
OOF. I know these were off the hip snaps with no time for tripods, good lighting and time for retakes, but these photos are giving me a headache. The thumbnails look fine, but that always seems to be the case.
I was pretty iffy when the spy shots came out for these and was subsequently very worried for Palm's future. I've used Palms since my first 512 but their slippage off the cutting edge has relegated my last Palm device to be a Tungsten T3 with a completely unusable battery life.
Nothing in the meantime has suitably caught my attention, except maybe the Treo, but I've never been a fan of big chunky smartphones. I can see Centros being a success, though I'm quite sure I won't buy one -- but it gives Palm something of a glimmer to its future possibilities and what they'll create on the higher end of the spectrum.
Looks like it has everything that the Treo has, and a better camera. But only available through Sprint. Damnit.
eeehm, and wasn't this supposed to run only, you know, windows mobile at first? I mean, now that it seems to be running Palm OS and given the price point, it is a _real_ alternative to the iPhone until they open the software platform up completely and include GPS.
I have invested about 500 EUR software in my Palm and would hate to see that go to waste without alternatives on my new phone. And there isn't even real GPS yet on the iPhone, no Excel, Word nor dictionaries. As much as I would love to run Apache on my phone (supposing that mySQL and Perl will eventually also work), that doesn't quite cut it. And, btw: writing on a touchscreen is still my prefered input method. Ink, anybody? Has Apple overlooked that?
its been 99 for a while, i read it on palminfocenter i think
I want one. But i have neither Sprint nor $100.
Same f-ing interface as my Palm Vx 9 years ago. They really R & D'd the hell out of this one, eh?
good deal but im with verizon. my mom got the treo and the thing is huge but i hope this has the whole sd and music thing.
I am a current Sprint customer.
I will be getting one of these the day it comes out.
So does every phone with a touchscreen have to be compaired to the Iphone?!?!
for this price and the features... this is a winner...
my question is the $99 with two your contract?
@Sternfan91: Well you're kind of in luck, because Sprint uses the same CDMA/EVDO technology that Verizon does. So when this seemingly exclusive announcement window closes -- could be as short as a month -- Verizon will be carrying these inexpensive Palm smartphones too.
inexpensive if your signing up for two years...
From the palm site...
"Order your Centro today with Sprint service for only $99.*
*After instant discount, mail-in rebate, and qualifying two-year Sprint service agreement. "
Review New Palm Centro (Sprint) Lacks Vital Safety Feature - Voice Activated Dialing.
Terribly disapointed to learn my new "Smart Phone" Centro does not have Voice Activated Dialing. User interface for dialing while driving is very difficult and can be dangerous due to screen and key size. This is probably an oversight by the Palm. I suspect they will eventualy incorporate this feature (like Sayno mobile phones) for free witout the need of Sprint "Voice Command" monthly paid service in their next software update before a tragedy occurs.
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