Palm Infocenter

Ryan Kairer from Palm Infocenter wrote:

For longtime Palm fans, you can’t hide the fact that the Centro is yet another rehash of the Treo 600 design that Palm acquired in the Handspring purchase back in 2003. Be that as it may, this time around Palm has made some reductions in size and weight that add up to an overall leaner, more pocket friendly mobile device. The Palm OS is certainly long overdue for a new graphical look and complete overhaul, yet it still remains competitive due to its ease of use and wide range of third party software solutions.

To the new user, the Centro is a feature packed, powerful phone that offers much more functionality than the standard run of the mill 12-key cell phone. Because of the Centro’s positioning and lower price target you have to overlook the omission of certain features. After all, even with its ripe age, tired look and intermittent faults the Palm OS still remains one of the most intuitive smartphone experiences. By no means is the Centro perfect device but the smaller size and updated software bundle combined with the low price provide a decent value for a capable smartphone.

CBS News

Larry Magid from CBS News said:

Although smaller and cheaper than the Palm Treo, the Centro uses the same Palm operating system, which means it can also be used with thousands of downloadable Palm applications. From that perspective, it has a leg up on the far more expensive iPhone. Because it’s a Palm, the Centro fits into an ecosystem that’s been around for several years.

Engadget

Joshua Topolsky from Engadget said:

The screen is a miniature 2-inches, though it looks fantastic at its 320 x 320 resolution and fairly high pixel density. It’s impressive for its size, and certainly easy on your eyeballs. We’d again like to congratulate Palm on overcoming the 2-pixel white border surrounding the screen which has plagued the company’s devices for as long as we can remember. Kudos.

Another flaw which Palm’s designers don’t seem to get is the sunken screen. Look, do you even use your devices? It’s a nerve-rattling pain to try and tap the sides of the touchscreen when you’ve got it buried seemingly four-inches-deep in the phone. The screen needs to be flush with the surface, or near-to — this is a maddening and obvious problem which the Centro does nothing to correct. In fact, it seems to be amplified here.

Treonauts

Andrew from Treonauts wrote:

Overall the Palm Centro will prove to be a terrific smartphone for existing Treonauts wishing to greatly reduce the size and weight of the device that they carry in their pockets every day without having to make any significant compromises. Newly minted Centronauts for their part will find a device not much larger than their current standard 12-key phone - one that now offers them all the amazing benefits of owning a Treo smartphone.

Gizmodo

There are lots of juicy unboxing pics here. I think Gizmodo liked the Centro because part of the title says, (Verdict: They’re Gonna Sell a Lot Of ‘Em)

Wilson Rothman from Gizmodo said:

My first thought was that it felt like a toy. The directional pad is a little loose, and the microSD card slot is a little bit too flimsy. But those feelings went away quickly when I started it up, and the only thing I could think was: man, what took Palm so long?

Everything Treo

Christopher Meinck from Everything Treo wrote up a preview of the Centro. He stated:

I’ve only spent 20 minutes or so with the Centro, but the last five years with a Treo. There is no mistaking the bloodlines between these two products. The user experience is no different when it comes to software as the bundle is virtually identical to the Treo 755p. The device is smaller, yet lacks the sex appeal of the similarly priced Moto Q (Sprint Moto Q retails for $149 after rebates) and even the larger Treo 755p ($199 after rebate). Although it’s thicker than the competition, the Centro boasts true one-handed operation. While thin might be in, it’s not the be all end all. The Centro does not feel clunky and Palm has delivered a truly pocket friendly device. The Palm OS is in desperate need of an update, but still offers ease-of-use not found in most smartphones, outside of the higher priced iPhone. Legendary ease of use, pocket friendly, fast network and aggressive pricing strategy aside, the Palm Centro’s success lies in Sprint’s committment to generating awareness of this new breed of smartphone and acceptance of this new design by the new demographic Palm is targeting.

SlashGear

James Allan Brady at SlashGear wrote:

First off, I have a Helio Fin with a 3MP cam, and a Moto Q with a 1.3MP cam with flash, the Palm Centro, in my opinion, took a better picture than either of the other two. That amazed me.

Email was a breeze to set up using the custom Sprint Email application, there was another pre-installed email application, but I didn’t even bother testing it because the Sprint one was so easy, and it was free. For instant messaging there was another built in app that handled Microsoft (I think it was Live, I still call it MSN in my head), Yahoo, and AIM, once again, pre-installed, free, and great, it was easy to set up, and is easy to use, in fact it was almost exactly like using any of those apps on your desktop.

The mute switch on the top, and the two volume buttons on the side are nice, I especially like the mute switch, I have never had a phone with a switch for that, its always been in the menu somewhere. I have classes a couple days a week, so being able to shut my phone up with just a switch, I think I could get used to that.

azcentral

Katherine Boehret of the Wall Street Journal wrote over at azcentral:

Overall, I liked the Centro. It has plenty of pluses, including a touch screen, easy email set-up for personal accounts like Gmail and Hotmail, built-in instant messaging for three programs, a camera for still shots or video and expandable memory. It’s available now and runs on Sprint’s fast 3G network, costing at least $15 monthly for data on top of your voice plan. Like the Treo, it has a tiny stylus for detailed screen selecting and an on/off ringer switch.

The Associated Press

Peter Svensson of The Associated Press said:

The Centro is Palm’s way of fighting back, by making a Treo that’s smaller, cuter and cheaper. It’s just $99 with a two-year Sprint contract (after a mail-in rebate), making it probably the cheapest smart phone yet. It would have been more interesting if Palm fought back by revamping its outdated software, but if small and cheap are on sale, I’ll take it.

The only real hardware problem is the memory-card slot. It’s partly obscured by the battery cover, making it very tough to insert and remove the card by the procedure recommended in the manual. Once I figured out that it’s best to remove the battery cover to access the slot, things went better, but this added step shouldn’t be necessary.

Overall, I can imagine worse uses for $99 than buying a Centro, particularly for someone who hasn’t had a smart phone before. The ability to do e-mail, browse the Web and synchronize calendars and contacts with Microsoft Outlook will certainly be appreciated. A model with black finish went on sale Sunday. For one in lipstick red, you have to wait until Nov. 4.

PDAStreet

Troy Dreier of PDAStreet said:

Palm is slow to innovate, but when it does it usually turns out appealing designs. At first glance the Centro might not seem like an improvement over the Treo, but it is, and using it is a satisfying experience. It is Palm’s latest Palm OS smartphone.

Getting around the Palm OS was easy as always. However, Palm is going to have to do away with the stylus input and make the operating system finger friendly in the near future if it is going to keep up with today’s most popular trend for input on a smartphone.

With its handy new shape and bargain price ($99, with commitment and discounts from Sprint), the Centro is just the thing that Palm needs to stay competitive in the fast-changing mobile phone market. It’s a pleasure to use and it can do a wide variety of tasks.

If you’re thinking about purchasing an iPhone, be sure you know what the Centro can do first. It performs most of the functions people want at a price that won’t break your bank account.

The Gadgeteer

Julie Strietelmeier of The Gadgeteer said:

I remember when I originally saw images of the Centro, that I was not impressed with the design. It appeared very toy-like / cheap. After having actually held and used this phone, I now don’t feel that way at all. Now, I would probably not opt for the Ruby version of the Centro, but I do like the overall design and size of this phone.

This is the point in the review where I’m trying to think of what more I can say about this product. The thing is that there is no innovation in the Centro. The software is the same as it’s been for a long while now. Really, the main features of this phone are a smaller form factor than previous Palm phones, and the excellent price. You can pick up a Centro from Sprint for $99 if you opt for a 2yr contract. That’s crazy cheap for a great little phone like this one. If you compare the specs of the $199 Palm Treo 755p to the Centro, you’ll find that it has the same processor, same screen resolution and same camera resolution. The 755p does have more memory though. It has 128MB (60MB persistent user storage).

If the Centro was available in a GSM version, I’d gladly trade my 680 for it. I like the size a lot and find it to be just as snappy as the 680 and equal in all other aspects of operation. The Centro is basically the same phone as the 680, only for Sprint. If you’re a fan of Palm OS devices and a Sprint customer looking to purchase your first smartphone, I think the Palm Centro is a great buy.

Mobile Tech Review

Lisa Gade at Mobile Tech Review stated:

No, the Centro isn’t meant to compete with the Treo 755p, it targets first-time smartphone buyers who want something more powerful than a feature phone and a QWERTY keyboard. For $99 we say the Centro offers magnificent bang for the buck: you can add a wide selection of applications (there are thousands of freeware, shareware and commercial Palm OS applications on the market), browse the web with an HTML rather than WAP browser, send and receive email and compose them easily using the keyboard. The Centro’s touch screen trumps low-priced Microsoft Windows Mobile smartphones— touch screens are usually found only on the more pricey Windows Mobile Pocket PC phones and Palm OS Treo models.

The Centro isn’t a revolutionary, cutting edge device. But in its own way, it’s starting a quiet revolution: this is the first touch screen PDA or smartphone to sell for only $99 at introduction. And it covers all the basics well: good phone quality, quality streaming media and MP3 playback support (once you get a hold of a stereo headset), the usual Palm ease of use, strong PIM apps to keep you organized and a QWERTY keyboard that’s sure to please former feature phone users who are tired of T9. And we’re happy to see Documents To Go 10 included with support for reading, editing and creating Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Power users will want to look at the Palm OS and Windows Mobile Treos or other competing power user smartphones, but for those who don’t need everything but the kitchen sink, the Centro is worth a look.

And of course don’t forget to read Dieter’s excellent Centro review here at Centro Spot! ;-)