Palm Centro Review

Subject: Palm Centro Review Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:35 pm

Palm Centro Review

You'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd seen the Palm Centro before, because it looks almost identical to the Palm Treo 500. But despite appearances, the Centro is a very different handset.

Unlike the Treo 500, the Palm Centro is a PalmOS 5.4.9 device with a large square 320x320 pixel display, and it's a touchscreen too. Weighing the same as the Treo 500, the 120 gram (4.2 oz) Palm Centro also has a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSD expandable memory, a multimedia player and push email support.

The bad news for any Palm fans outside the United States is that this is a CDMA2000 / EvDO device that doesn't work in Europe or in most of the rest of the world. There's no news on a non-US version, but the fact that the Palm Centro exists at all shows that Palm is still committed to PalmOS devices.

At launch, the Palm Centro will be exclusive to the US Sprint network and will offer a variety of 3G services such as video and audio downloads. Other North American networks will probably carry the Centro later.

The Palm Centro will be available in Ruby and Onyx colour scheme, and measures 4.22 x 2.11 x 0.73 inches (107 x 54 x 18.5mm) and has 3.5 hours talktime with up to 12 days standby time.

Palm Centro at a glance

Available:
Q4 2007

Network:
CDMA

Data:
CDMA2000 / EvDO

Screen:
320x320 pixels, 65k colours

Camera:
1.3 megapixels

Size:
PDA-style device
107 x 54 x 19mm / 120 grams

Bluetooth:
Yes

Memory card:
microSD

Infra-red:
No

Polyphonic:
Yes

Java:
Yes

Battery life:
3.5 hours talk / 12 days standby