Palm Centro (CDMA)

For $100, I feel that you cannot go wrong with this phone. Being able to web browse (at a decent speed), email, take pictures, etc. is easy and generally fast. While a couple of basic functions are missing (or at least I have not been able to figure out) like having to enter my password for voicemail (rather than programming it once) or an easy alarm clock function, these are relatively minor complaints given the amount of stuff that I am able to now do with my cell phone.

The full keyboard works well (despite my large thumbs) and makes sending emails, texting, or plugging locations into google maps easy. It's also user-friendly in the sense of using caplocks, symbols, and such. The screen is a decent size and there is good clarity with it whether indoors or outdoors. Its design lends itself to immediate use out of the box.

I often feel like I have only scratched the surface with this phone. However, given the low cost for it, I feel that I have gotten more than fair value for it.

I actually had the pleasure of testing this phone before it came out. This was my first and only experience with the Palm OS. While it's a little outdated, the OS is very intuitive and I never had a problem with freezing. The phone is feature rich and the still camera and video camera provided good quality. Only problem I really has was the cramped keyboard. Other than that, this phone is definitely worth the money.

 Value: 4.5

Call/Sound: 3

Battery Life: 3

Ease of Use: 4

Features: 4

Durability: 4.5

Overall: 4

The Centro was my last smartphone before the iPhone 3G. It was given to me as an emergency replacement for the 750p which had died while I was on call (am a physician). Sprint would replace their defective phones after some argument -usually it required 2-3 hours on the phone with a rep as you "troubleshoot" the phone, after which they would send a replacement. In order, these were my Sprint phones: UTStarcom (Windows) 4700, Treo 700wx (Windows), Treo 750p (Palm), Centro. 

It was the best of the bunch for the following reasons. 

Value: It is available through Sprint for a very low price qualifying it as a good "starter" cell phone. This garnishes it a 4.5 stars. The only hitch is you are tied to Sprint for two years which used to be great, but over a past 2.5 years became as appealing as carrying a dead rat in your pocket. The sound quality on all of these phones was barely tolerable, and the service only acceptable after you played "call center roulette" and then argued your way to a "supervisor." I once had a 4 hour conversation troubleshooting the UTStarcom device before it was replaced with the 700wx. Sprint is turning its ship around and I was able to get my login/password/acct number very easily on my way to the Apple Store.

Call/Sound: 3 -The sound is certainly better than the WinMo phones I had, but not great. Sprint's PCS digital network reduces static but in exchange you get dropped bits. This happened the least with Centro. Acceptable -gets a C+.

Ease of Use: Palm's OS is ancient. It is fairly easy to use, but requires some patience to the newbie. It is simpler and the 3rd party apps are better designed than their WinMo equivalents that have a fetish for creating a desktop experience on 2x2 inch screen. That I give it a B or a 4 is a testament to Palm's original strength keeping it afloat.

Features: 4 -It has Outlook Exchange access push email access, and it works okay. Every once in a while, it will hiccup. It is MUCH better than the Goodlink solution we used to have for the Palm phones -the phone would go into a Goodlink coma as it would use the phone link to perform an update and critical phone calls would be missed. All the usual smartphone features -photo, voice recorder, video player (kinoma), and music player are adequate in the way that a 2002 Chevy Impala will get you to work and back -but you know you want that BMW (iPhone). No GPS, not all that clear how to use it as a cell modem for a laptop (some of the win-mo phones were able to, but only after heroically geeky effort that surely would stymie the average user). Calculator works okay. Getting third party applications on it is about as fun as raking leaves, getting a teeth cleaning, a haircut for your dog -a chore and possibly a bore. Handango has a horrible buggy storefront App that directs you to a limited selection of a handful of programs that they feature -no way to search or check out anything not "featured" as far as I could tell, and going to the handango website forever directs you to the awful storefront app or to a download link for it. For this reason, Handango became dead to me. The internet experience is miserable made worse after seeing people smiling at their Safari/iPhone experience. It works okay for sites retooled for phones, but again, the gold standard is Safari, and the little browser for Palm does not cut it. 

Durability 4.5: The Centro is made of a dense scratch resistent plastic. Also, the battery cover is not only solid but VERY HARD to remove, and this becomes an issue for soft resets. The little hatch for the teeeeeeny micromini flash memory card is annoyingly difficult to get to. 

Overall: It gets a solid 4. I am impressed that Palm is deliberately making things that look great again after making progressively uglier and blockier design by committee Treo's. This is of course because the new CEO is an Apple alum. Not everyone can buy a BMW, and so we have used Buicks and Chevrolets -well this Treo is somewhere in between. It's an American hatchback that has factory applied tuner shop makeup applied to give it enough pizzazz to sell, but the engine is still a rattly 4 cylinder giving up 150hp. It's an okay phone, very pocketable, and affordable with the 2 year indentured servitude plans available from Sprint and Verizon. 

I know that overall I LOVE MY PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!