Palm Centro Review
Posted on October 9th, 2007 in Sprint, Palm, Palm Centro | 45 Comments »
Late last month, Palm launched their new multimedia smartphone, the Centro, which joins their perennially popular Treo line. Despite arguably more powerful, more flexible rivals, Palm’s handsets continue to curry favour among business-users who prize efficiency of use over the whiz-bang complexity of, say, HTC’s range. Now they’re hoping to bring that same degree of integration to the home user, with a smartphone bridging the gap between camera-toting, video-catching fashion phones and sober business handhelds that are happier previewing presentations than photos of the kids.
Inside the soap-smooth casing - which at 4.3 x 2.1 x 0.75 inches is smaller than anything from the Treo range - things are nonetheless exciting, with mobile surfing friendly features like EV-DO as well as more control options than you can shake a stick (or stylus at). The QWERTY keyboard is the most obvious, but there’s also a 2.2-inch 320 x 320 touchscreen and a surprisingly tactile D-pad. All that choice adds up to very straightforward use, and while Palm’s OS (version 5.4.9 to be exact) may miss out on the latest in eye-candy there’s something to be said for the four-years of tweaking and fettling its received when simplicity is the key.
