Customer Rating: 
Summary: A smartphone that actually fits in your pocket.
Comment: The Palm Centro is one of the very few smartphones that can fit in your pocket and still deliver quality power features. However, it has a few minor drawbacks.
SCREEN
I've owned a Palm IIIxe, Palm Tungsten C, iPAQ rx4240 and have test driven an iPhone, Blackjack II and Moto Q, and a couple Blackberry models. The Palm Centro is probably the smallest screen of them all save the Blackberry Pearl. However, the Centro offers 320 x 320 resolution which is higher than most Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs out there. The result is a small, but crisp display with adjustable font sizes for most applications. I found the touchscreen to be about as sensitive as other Palm devices in the past, which is to say it's fine (see stylus comments below). The screen is slightly recessed into the phone which I find to be necessary so I don't hit the screen with my fat face while talking on it.
KEYBOARD AND BUTTONS
Have you seen this thing? The keyboard is small. And you know what? I'm glad it is. The Moto Q, Blackjack and Curve, etc might fit in the front pocket of your tight jeans, but it's not comfortable. The Centro passes my "jeans test" by sliding into my front pocket while letting me sit and stand with no problem. As a result, you get a smaller screen and a smaller keyboard. The Blackberry Pearl is the about the same size as the Centro, but it doubles up two letters per key button. Personally, I hate that. The Centro scores huge points for giving me dedicated keys for each letter on a small phone that fits in my pocket. It took me a day to adjust to typing with my fingernails, and I have large hands. But I can easily type with two thumbs or one--something that I can't do on my Palm Tungsten C or the Moto Q. Therefore, Centro is an outstanding one- or two-handed phone. The 5-way directional key also works better than i thought it would. After moderate use I find myself actually liking it a lot. The remaining buttons work just fine and can be assigned to whatever you want, including the side button below the volume keys. The dedicated ringer-off slider on the top is a very welcome bonus.
SOFTWARE
The Centro comes with a great suite of software preloaded onto the phone. The two email programs work very well with POP3 and IMAP email accounts, although I prefer the VersaMail over Sprint Mobile Mail. I've also been somewhat partial to the Palm Organizer over MS Outlook. It also comes with Documents To Go, which lets you open and edit Word and Excel files and lets you view PowerPoint and pdf files. There's a free download available to upgrade Docs To Go so you can open Office 2007 files and it gives you some basic Power Point editing abilities. The GoogleMaps and IM software are nice and work very well. The entertainment package of pTunes, Sudoku and Solitaire are nice and work ok, however I found that Sprint TV had some problems syncing up audio and video. The video seemed a step behind. But I loaded SlingPlayer for Palm OS on it and the Centro works great for watching pocket-sized TV in conjunction with a Slingbox.
The Palm OS gets knocks for being outdated, however, it works very well and is simple to use. Plus it's alot snappier than Windows Mobile. It doesn't really multitask, although some programs like IM let you sign onto an AOL, MSN, or Yahoo account and still receive messages after you've backed out of the program. The Centro syncs easily with Vista and XP, but I haven't tried it on a Mac. The other benefit is that there is a plethora for Palm software apps out there, both free and for purchase.
The web browser is just ok. I find that it loads pages much quicker than Internet Explorer on Win Mobile devices. Unfortunately it's not quite as good as Opera Mobile, and definitely not as good as the iPhone's Safari (to date nothing is...not even close).
PHONE/VOICE
I've been on US Cellular and Cingular/AT&T networks for years and never used Sprint. Sprint service is fine in my area, and the voice quality of the phone is nice. The earpiece volume can be raised to high levels when in noisy areas and people on the other end said my mic has no problems and sounds like any cell phone. The Centro syncs well with my Plantronics 640 bluetooth headset and people on the other end say I sound great with it. After 3 weeks, I haven't been able to complain about the phone or data signal. The addition of a WiFi radio would have been nice, but so far I haven't really missed it because of the high speed EV-DO network touted by Sprint.
CAMERA
It's a 1.3 megapixel camera, which is pretty weak by 2007/2008 standards. There is also no flash. The camera actually takes decent pics, though. I never even consider the camera on the phone when I buy it, but if it's really important to you, you probably want at least a 2 megapixel one with a flash...so maybe pass the Centro on by.
PROBLEMS AND SHORTCOMINGS
There are a couple things that annoy me about this phone and keep it from a full 5 star rating. First, the stupid Palm connector at the bottom. I've always hated the Palm connectors. Why the company can't switch to mini-USB like the rest of the world is a mystery to me. The jack isn't the easiest to pull out, it's big, and I have to buy all new car chargers for it. Also, there's no cradle. My previous Palm devices have a cradle and I miss it, although this is cheaply remedied with some poking around the internet. The stylus is also very thin, lightweight, and cheap. As a result it's doesn't provide enough tactile feel and weight to effectively use the touchscreen. I had to purchase a replacement metal stylus to bring the touchscreen use up to par. Again, a cheap fix, just a little annoying. Even with these shortcomings I would still be inclined to give the Centro 5-stars except for:
The battery cover. Ugh, the manifestation of evil itself! You have to take the battery cover off to remove the SD micro card. You also have to take the batter cover off to reset the unit. Now, I've only had one system crash in the first 3 weeks, but that was because I was trying to load some really old AOL software that wasn't designed for this Palm OS version--and I paid the price. The cover isn't the worst thing to get off, but putting it back on sure is. I've kind of gotten the hang of it, but man, total loss of a star because of it. There is no inset reset button on the back of this phone like other Palm devices of yesteryear. Having one of these small reset buttons in the back could have made me somewhat overlook the battery cover. Bummer. Palm, what were you thinking?
OVERALL
If you want a QWERTY smartphone but don't want to lug around a bulky unit your choices right now are either this or the Pearl. And the Pearl does the whole two-letters-on-one-keypad set-up. If these features are important to you, then the Centro is your choice. Don't worry, it's internal abilities don't disappoint. The Centro is great for text messaging, writing quick emails, doing some casual web browsing, and reading through Office files. However, if you want a better camera, or do HEAVY smartphone typing then I would look to a fatter smartphone that has a bigger screen and more spaced out thumbkeys. But in a world where size matters...the compact Centro delivers amazingly well. I've been very happy with my purchase. Now can somebody help me get this battery cover back on?
(P.S. If you found this review helpful please click yes below so other prospective shoppers will read it. I place a lot of weight on amazon reviews before I make a purchase too. Thanks!)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Difficult to Navigate
Comment: I had this phone for about 2 days before I asked Sprint to send me their new Moto QC9. It ended up being about a week that I had to use the Centro and I hated every minute of it! There is no 'Back' button that cancels, ends, or goes back to your previous screen. The touch screen would also like to 'freeze' or pause for a few seconds very frequently. No big deal right? But when you would end a call, you would press the end button on the touch screen, the screen would pause, switch to a new screen, then register your touch, and next thing you know you were calling someone else, when all you were trying to do was end the call. The only other option you have to end a call is to use the red key on the phone, this however puts your phone to sleep, you would then have to release the key lock to continue using the phone.
This phone operates best when you are using two hands with the little pen for the touch screen. My problem is that I usually only have one hand to use the phone. The phone is also so small and slick that you cannot simply tilt your head and trap the phone on your neck if you need to use your other hand for a second.
Overall, it was a headache to navigate simple options in everyday applications.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Didn't expect to love it but I do
Comment: So it's not an iPhone and I didn't expect to love it but I do. I had a low-minute voice plan with Verizon but didn't want to spring for the costs of their data plan. Have just switched to Sprint. All my Palm data transferred smoothly from my Tungsten E and as I get to know the Centro better, I'm more and more pleased with it.
I read the reviews for months before making this decision and it's noticeable on CNET, LetsTalk and Phonescoop that users tend to rate the phone much higher than the reviewers have. The Centro is intuitive, offers a huge range of possibilities and great bang for the buck.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Comment: Palm should have retained more of the features of its plain PDA OS, rather than trying to copy stupid interface features from Microsoft.
Overall, NOT a great job, really. The reviews are quite unhelpful about the PDA applications. And battery standby life is about half of the 300 hrs specified in the description.
I used to like the Palm OS, but... The OS now used by Palm in the Centro (and 680)is a screwed up version of what they have in their PDA's.
For example, in Contacts, there is no longer a compact, single line, listing form. Instead, you must view all phone numbers for each entry on separate lines in the main listing. No choice. This means you can't see very many listings per page. Also, if you are not careful about entries, and put a word description with a phone number, you may just get a blank line. It used to be that word descriptors were just fine, as well as helpful. Blackberry has the more flexible and compact entry format that Palm used to have. Also the amount of information you can now enter for each number is more limited. Two steps backwards for Palm. Also, if you press a letter, such as "J" to see all the last name listings that start with "J", in alphabetical order, you are out of luck. It finds every bloody listing entry with a "J", whether it is first name or last, that you have to scroll through. This means fewer helpful listings per page. It means you can no longer enter a letter to skip that far down into the alphabetical listing, and if you enter something as specific as "john" to get to Johnson, you will go instead to first names listed as "john", assuming there are any in your contacts before Johnson. Also don't try to be cute and enter several letters such as "jaa" to go to the start of the "j" listings. The PDA will complain and not even let you scroll further down. The plain PDA OS does it sensibly and returns an alphabetical listing of last names starting with "J" if you entered a "J". And you could scroll from there all the way to Z if you so desired.
One bug in the Treo 680 that has been fixed in the Centro relates to the display of contact information. Suppose you click on a contact entry for which you entered a fair amount of information. That is, more than can be displayed on one screen (Given the inefficient way information is now displayed, that is not hard). On the 680 you will not find any cursor or arrows to let you move up or down the page to see additional information. But there actually is one that is invisible in the bottom right of the screen. On the Centro, it is visible. But did Palm fix this bug in the 680? No. Owners of that model are stuck. This is expected given the general contempt Palm shows toward its customers.
You will also find stupid changes in the Calendar. For example, you could on a Palm PDA hit an entry for 9am on a particular day and it would let you start an appointment with 9 am as the default entry for start time. That is, while you were viewing other appointments you could select an open time for a new appointment. Now it doesn't enter that default (on the next screen). In my view, Palm has messed things up enough you might as well use some other OS. Like what Blackberry offers, although overall their PDA/PIM seems less efficient.
Oh, and customer support says this new PDA platform is exactly what Palm intended for the PDA smartphone, even though they know it is different from their PDA's. So which do they think is better? If they think so highly of the implementation on the Smartphone, why don't they change their PDA's? Palm won't say, but I think we can guess. Palm's right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, and anyone with good judgement has long since left the Palm development group.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Comment: Pros: Inexpensive phone with touch screen and full keyboard. It has some cool functions and a nice camera.
Cons: Poor reception. Keyboard too small to use easily. Gets very hot while in use. People I talk to complain of echoes, scratchyness, too loud. Not user friendly. Does not hook up to bluetooth easily.
Summary: A smartphone that actually fits in your pocket.
Comment: The Palm Centro is one of the very few smartphones that can fit in your pocket and still deliver quality power features. However, it has a few minor drawbacks.
SCREEN
I've owned a Palm IIIxe, Palm Tungsten C, iPAQ rx4240 and have test driven an iPhone, Blackjack II and Moto Q, and a couple Blackberry models. The Palm Centro is probably the smallest screen of them all save the Blackberry Pearl. However, the Centro offers 320 x 320 resolution which is higher than most Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs out there. The result is a small, but crisp display with adjustable font sizes for most applications. I found the touchscreen to be about as sensitive as other Palm devices in the past, which is to say it's fine (see stylus comments below). The screen is slightly recessed into the phone which I find to be necessary so I don't hit the screen with my fat face while talking on it.
KEYBOARD AND BUTTONS
Have you seen this thing? The keyboard is small. And you know what? I'm glad it is. The Moto Q, Blackjack and Curve, etc might fit in the front pocket of your tight jeans, but it's not comfortable. The Centro passes my "jeans test" by sliding into my front pocket while letting me sit and stand with no problem. As a result, you get a smaller screen and a smaller keyboard. The Blackberry Pearl is the about the same size as the Centro, but it doubles up two letters per key button. Personally, I hate that. The Centro scores huge points for giving me dedicated keys for each letter on a small phone that fits in my pocket. It took me a day to adjust to typing with my fingernails, and I have large hands. But I can easily type with two thumbs or one--something that I can't do on my Palm Tungsten C or the Moto Q. Therefore, Centro is an outstanding one- or two-handed phone. The 5-way directional key also works better than i thought it would. After moderate use I find myself actually liking it a lot. The remaining buttons work just fine and can be assigned to whatever you want, including the side button below the volume keys. The dedicated ringer-off slider on the top is a very welcome bonus.
SOFTWARE
The Centro comes with a great suite of software preloaded onto the phone. The two email programs work very well with POP3 and IMAP email accounts, although I prefer the VersaMail over Sprint Mobile Mail. I've also been somewhat partial to the Palm Organizer over MS Outlook. It also comes with Documents To Go, which lets you open and edit Word and Excel files and lets you view PowerPoint and pdf files. There's a free download available to upgrade Docs To Go so you can open Office 2007 files and it gives you some basic Power Point editing abilities. The GoogleMaps and IM software are nice and work very well. The entertainment package of pTunes, Sudoku and Solitaire are nice and work ok, however I found that Sprint TV had some problems syncing up audio and video. The video seemed a step behind. But I loaded SlingPlayer for Palm OS on it and the Centro works great for watching pocket-sized TV in conjunction with a Slingbox.
The Palm OS gets knocks for being outdated, however, it works very well and is simple to use. Plus it's alot snappier than Windows Mobile. It doesn't really multitask, although some programs like IM let you sign onto an AOL, MSN, or Yahoo account and still receive messages after you've backed out of the program. The Centro syncs easily with Vista and XP, but I haven't tried it on a Mac. The other benefit is that there is a plethora for Palm software apps out there, both free and for purchase.
The web browser is just ok. I find that it loads pages much quicker than Internet Explorer on Win Mobile devices. Unfortunately it's not quite as good as Opera Mobile, and definitely not as good as the iPhone's Safari (to date nothing is...not even close).
PHONE/VOICE
I've been on US Cellular and Cingular/AT&T networks for years and never used Sprint. Sprint service is fine in my area, and the voice quality of the phone is nice. The earpiece volume can be raised to high levels when in noisy areas and people on the other end said my mic has no problems and sounds like any cell phone. The Centro syncs well with my Plantronics 640 bluetooth headset and people on the other end say I sound great with it. After 3 weeks, I haven't been able to complain about the phone or data signal. The addition of a WiFi radio would have been nice, but so far I haven't really missed it because of the high speed EV-DO network touted by Sprint.
CAMERA
It's a 1.3 megapixel camera, which is pretty weak by 2007/2008 standards. There is also no flash. The camera actually takes decent pics, though. I never even consider the camera on the phone when I buy it, but if it's really important to you, you probably want at least a 2 megapixel one with a flash...so maybe pass the Centro on by.
PROBLEMS AND SHORTCOMINGS
There are a couple things that annoy me about this phone and keep it from a full 5 star rating. First, the stupid Palm connector at the bottom. I've always hated the Palm connectors. Why the company can't switch to mini-USB like the rest of the world is a mystery to me. The jack isn't the easiest to pull out, it's big, and I have to buy all new car chargers for it. Also, there's no cradle. My previous Palm devices have a cradle and I miss it, although this is cheaply remedied with some poking around the internet. The stylus is also very thin, lightweight, and cheap. As a result it's doesn't provide enough tactile feel and weight to effectively use the touchscreen. I had to purchase a replacement metal stylus to bring the touchscreen use up to par. Again, a cheap fix, just a little annoying. Even with these shortcomings I would still be inclined to give the Centro 5-stars except for:
The battery cover. Ugh, the manifestation of evil itself! You have to take the battery cover off to remove the SD micro card. You also have to take the batter cover off to reset the unit. Now, I've only had one system crash in the first 3 weeks, but that was because I was trying to load some really old AOL software that wasn't designed for this Palm OS version--and I paid the price. The cover isn't the worst thing to get off, but putting it back on sure is. I've kind of gotten the hang of it, but man, total loss of a star because of it. There is no inset reset button on the back of this phone like other Palm devices of yesteryear. Having one of these small reset buttons in the back could have made me somewhat overlook the battery cover. Bummer. Palm, what were you thinking?
OVERALL
If you want a QWERTY smartphone but don't want to lug around a bulky unit your choices right now are either this or the Pearl. And the Pearl does the whole two-letters-on-one-keypad set-up. If these features are important to you, then the Centro is your choice. Don't worry, it's internal abilities don't disappoint. The Centro is great for text messaging, writing quick emails, doing some casual web browsing, and reading through Office files. However, if you want a better camera, or do HEAVY smartphone typing then I would look to a fatter smartphone that has a bigger screen and more spaced out thumbkeys. But in a world where size matters...the compact Centro delivers amazingly well. I've been very happy with my purchase. Now can somebody help me get this battery cover back on?
(P.S. If you found this review helpful please click yes below so other prospective shoppers will read it. I place a lot of weight on amazon reviews before I make a purchase too. Thanks!)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Difficult to Navigate
Comment: I had this phone for about 2 days before I asked Sprint to send me their new Moto QC9. It ended up being about a week that I had to use the Centro and I hated every minute of it! There is no 'Back' button that cancels, ends, or goes back to your previous screen. The touch screen would also like to 'freeze' or pause for a few seconds very frequently. No big deal right? But when you would end a call, you would press the end button on the touch screen, the screen would pause, switch to a new screen, then register your touch, and next thing you know you were calling someone else, when all you were trying to do was end the call. The only other option you have to end a call is to use the red key on the phone, this however puts your phone to sleep, you would then have to release the key lock to continue using the phone.
This phone operates best when you are using two hands with the little pen for the touch screen. My problem is that I usually only have one hand to use the phone. The phone is also so small and slick that you cannot simply tilt your head and trap the phone on your neck if you need to use your other hand for a second.
Overall, it was a headache to navigate simple options in everyday applications.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Didn't expect to love it but I do
Comment: So it's not an iPhone and I didn't expect to love it but I do. I had a low-minute voice plan with Verizon but didn't want to spring for the costs of their data plan. Have just switched to Sprint. All my Palm data transferred smoothly from my Tungsten E and as I get to know the Centro better, I'm more and more pleased with it.
I read the reviews for months before making this decision and it's noticeable on CNET, LetsTalk and Phonescoop that users tend to rate the phone much higher than the reviewers have. The Centro is intuitive, offers a huge range of possibilities and great bang for the buck.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Comment: Palm should have retained more of the features of its plain PDA OS, rather than trying to copy stupid interface features from Microsoft.
Overall, NOT a great job, really. The reviews are quite unhelpful about the PDA applications. And battery standby life is about half of the 300 hrs specified in the description.
I used to like the Palm OS, but... The OS now used by Palm in the Centro (and 680)is a screwed up version of what they have in their PDA's.
For example, in Contacts, there is no longer a compact, single line, listing form. Instead, you must view all phone numbers for each entry on separate lines in the main listing. No choice. This means you can't see very many listings per page. Also, if you are not careful about entries, and put a word description with a phone number, you may just get a blank line. It used to be that word descriptors were just fine, as well as helpful. Blackberry has the more flexible and compact entry format that Palm used to have. Also the amount of information you can now enter for each number is more limited. Two steps backwards for Palm. Also, if you press a letter, such as "J" to see all the last name listings that start with "J", in alphabetical order, you are out of luck. It finds every bloody listing entry with a "J", whether it is first name or last, that you have to scroll through. This means fewer helpful listings per page. It means you can no longer enter a letter to skip that far down into the alphabetical listing, and if you enter something as specific as "john" to get to Johnson, you will go instead to first names listed as "john", assuming there are any in your contacts before Johnson. Also don't try to be cute and enter several letters such as "jaa" to go to the start of the "j" listings. The PDA will complain and not even let you scroll further down. The plain PDA OS does it sensibly and returns an alphabetical listing of last names starting with "J" if you entered a "J". And you could scroll from there all the way to Z if you so desired.
One bug in the Treo 680 that has been fixed in the Centro relates to the display of contact information. Suppose you click on a contact entry for which you entered a fair amount of information. That is, more than can be displayed on one screen (Given the inefficient way information is now displayed, that is not hard). On the 680 you will not find any cursor or arrows to let you move up or down the page to see additional information. But there actually is one that is invisible in the bottom right of the screen. On the Centro, it is visible. But did Palm fix this bug in the 680? No. Owners of that model are stuck. This is expected given the general contempt Palm shows toward its customers.
You will also find stupid changes in the Calendar. For example, you could on a Palm PDA hit an entry for 9am on a particular day and it would let you start an appointment with 9 am as the default entry for start time. That is, while you were viewing other appointments you could select an open time for a new appointment. Now it doesn't enter that default (on the next screen). In my view, Palm has messed things up enough you might as well use some other OS. Like what Blackberry offers, although overall their PDA/PIM seems less efficient.
Oh, and customer support says this new PDA platform is exactly what Palm intended for the PDA smartphone, even though they know it is different from their PDA's. So which do they think is better? If they think so highly of the implementation on the Smartphone, why don't they change their PDA's? Palm won't say, but I think we can guess. Palm's right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, and anyone with good judgement has long since left the Palm development group.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Comment: Pros: Inexpensive phone with touch screen and full keyboard. It has some cool functions and a nice camera.
Cons: Poor reception. Keyboard too small to use easily. Gets very hot while in use. People I talk to complain of echoes, scratchyness, too loud. Not user friendly. Does not hook up to bluetooth easily.