Palm Centro Phone, Red (Sprint, Phone Only, No Service)

by Palm

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches ; 4.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000X1D99U
• Item model number: Centro
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,817 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Life starts after five o'clock. Not coincidentally, that's also when the Palm Centro smartphone comes alive. Not only does the Palm Centro handle all your favorite voice functions, but it also offers text, IM, e-mail, and web access, all in a body that's a lot smaller than you'd think. Add in such features as a 1.3-megapixel camera, 64 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth 1.2 support, a microSD expansion slot, and a full QWERTY keyboard and you have a terrific smartphone for all your messaging and personal needs. In short, there's no better way to stay in touch.

The Palm Centro's full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to type text messages, IMs, and e-mails.

Design
The Palm Centro boasts a sleek red housing that measures a mere 2.11 by 4.22 by 0.73 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 4.2 ounces. It's notably smaller than many competing smartphones, yet doesn't sacrifice functionality at any point along the way. Users will also love the 320 x 320 touchscreen (up to 65,000 colors), which offers a crisp resolution for photos and videos. And thanks to the full QWERTY keyboard, you can say L8R to those tricky keys on your old cell phone.

Phone and Messaging Functions
The Palm Centro smartphones offers a ton of ways to stay in touch with friends, whether you're calling Brian, firing off a quick text to Jen, instant messaging Chris, or shooting an e-mail to Kat. From a phone perspective, the Palm Centro lets you dial people right from your address book, set up three-way calls from the touch of a button, or use the speakerphone to talk hands-free. The keyboard, meanwhile, makes it a breeze to type complete messages whether you're sending text, pictures, or even audio or video clips. Plus, the Centro keeps all your messages in a chat-style view, so it's easy to keep track of the conversation.

The 320 x 320 color touchscreen is crisp and vivid, making it ideal for viewing photos or watching videos.

Want to keep up with all the latest gossip when you're away from the computer? Turn to the Centro's instant messaging functions, which support all your buddy lists on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and others. Similarly, the Centro lets you access your personal e-mail accounts, such as Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo. As a result, you can reply to invites and answer e-mails when you're out and about.

Web Functions
Whether you're keeping up with friends on MySpace or looking up directions to the new bistro across town, the Centro's touchscreen and keyboard make it fun to navigate around the web. The Centro includes a fast built-in web browser that lets you check out photos on Flickr or watch videos on YouTube, with broadband-like speeds on the EV-DO network that are guaranteed to impress. No more waiting around for your favorite sites to load. The Centro is also compatible with Google Maps, making it simple to get directions or see which freeways are clear and which ones are parking lots. Google Maps shows you red, yellow, or green traffic routes in real time.

Organizer Functions
The Palm Centro includes a complete organizer for keeping track of all your daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities. The contacts list gathers all your friends' phone numbers, addresses, and more, while the calendar keeps you from missing upcoming meetings, events, and parties. You can even enter a friend's birthday in the contacts list and will automatically show up in your calendar. As with the best organizers, the Centro also offers a to-do list that lets you check off items when they're complete. As a result, it's easy to keep track of what you did and still need to do. And should you come across a tidbit that doesn't have a logical home, simply turn to the memo function, which lets you store random information such as hot spots in Vegas or the names of movies you'd like to rent. Say goodbye to carrying around crumpled scraps of paper in your pocket or purse. Finally, it's possible to save a copy of all those names, numbers, appointments, photos, and videos on your computer thanks to the sync function.

Multimedia
Whether you want to take pictures, play videos, or listen to music, the Palm Centro has got you covered. The 1.3-megapixel digital camera (with a 2x digital zoom) lets you shoot pictures and send them to friends, store digital albums, or shoot videos. The built-in MP3 player, meanwhile, lets you take your tunes everywhere you go. With 64 MB of storage, there's plenty of room for your playlists, plus you can add up to 4 GB more with a microSD card. And thanks to Pocket Tunes Deluxe, you can play the songs you downloaded from places like Rhapsody or Yahoo. As a bonus, the Centro supports a ton of fun stuff from Sprint, including the ability to watch such TV channels as CNN Mobile, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, the Disney Channel, and E! Entertainment. There's never a dull moment with the Palm Centro around.

Other phone details include a removable lithium-ion battery that offers 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time; a Palm OS 5.4.9 platform; and support for Windows XP and Vista and Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.

Product Description

Condition: Factory Refurbished Product InformationPalm is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions focusing on managing and accessing information. This unique user experience requires a unique set of guiding principles - be simple, wearable and connected. An unwavering commitment to these principles makes Palm products ideal for customers and developers alike. Smallest Palm OS smartphone to date; Targeting a younger demographic, new to the smartphone space; Runs on EVDO network; New design features a full keyboard and touch screen. Product IdentifiersBrandPalmMPNPTR690HKRCarrierSprintFamily LinePalm CentroModelCentroUPC805931032577 Key FeaturesTypeSmartphoneColorRed, Ruby redNetwork TechnologyCDMA2000 1XBandCDMA2000 1X 1900/800Camera1.3 MPOperating SystemPalm OS 5.4.9 MemoryFlash Memory64 MBSupported Flash Memory CardsMicroSD BatteryBattery TypeLithium IonBattery Capacity1150 mAhBattery Talk Time210 minBattery Standby Time300 hr DisplayDisplay TechnologyLCD displayDiagonal Screen Size2.4 in.Display Resolution320 x 320 pixelsColor Depth16-bit (65000 colors) DimensionsHeight4.213 in.Depth0.748 in.Width2.126 in.Weight4.162 oz *Special Return Policies apply to cell phone purchases.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Little Red Companion, February 21, 2008

By 

Kelan (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palm Centro Phone, Red (Sprint, Phone Only, No Service) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Coming from a T-Mobile Sidekick III to a red palm centro, I had fairly reasonable expectations from a higher-end phone and a higher-end service (sprint). Providing a little background into my service change, my friend who works at sprint hooked me up with the Sprint SERO plan, which you can google and will find multiple ways to take advantage of the plan. I pay thirty dollars a month, and I get 500 minutes, unlimited data and unlimited texting... you simply can't beat it.

Anyway, back to the phone. I ended up getting the red version; my best friend has the pink one, so I figured I should switch it up a little, and black was so normal. I was stunned when I opened the packaging and saw how small it was. This phone is truly the tiniest smartphone I have ever seen that has a QWERTY keyboard, hands down. Being a young man with rather large hands, I was afraid that the keyboard would be too small for me to tap out even the simplest text message without making multiple errors; however, after a few days of getting used to the phone, I now make no mistakes when writing even a large email.

This phone is also one of the sturdiest phones I have ever owned. Compared to my previous sidekicks,razrs, and the like of flimsy phones, I have had this phone for over two weeks, used it constantly, dropped it multiple times, and it has not one scratch on it. The casing, a shiny metallic-like plastic, is surprisingly sturdy, and none of the paint has come of at all.

Diving into the software interface of this phone, Palm's age-old operating system is on it, but I had no problems with it. Sprint included pTunes, which is a great mp3 player with an internet radio receiver, Sprint TV, which is a system of some free and some one-time cost shows and videos that you can download to your phone at lightening speed, google maps, documents to go, and text messaging that is displayed in conversations much like the iPhone.

Syncing this phone to the computer is an absolute breeze, and finding third-party apps for it is an easy task. Opera mini, an iPhone-like web browser, can be installed onto it if you find the Java Microenvironment. Another plus in having this Microenvironment is the fact that...drumroll please... it allows you to STREAM YOUTUBE VIDEOS! After downloading the Java Microenvironment, just go to m.youtube.com and off you go! This browser AND the Java Microenvironment made the phone 100% better, and it's only one of the many third party apps that I use every day.

One of the huge features of this sprint smartphone is that it has picturemail. Windows mobile phones do NOT have picture mail, making this and the Palm Treo the only smartphones that sprint offers which have this capability; a MAJOR selling point for many, including myself.

In terms of service, I get service absolutely EVERYWHERE, including in my school which has cell blockers. I often get service where people who have verizon don't get service, and when I've roamed it's been on the verizon network, so I have never had a time where service hasn't been available.

There are two things about this phone that I dislike, but not enough to dislike it any bit. One of these is the battery life. With the screen's brightness turned to the lowest it can go without shutting the baklight completely off, the most it could last without a charge is 2 days, and this is without use of the mp3 player and data. I find myself charging it every night, which isn't a big deal, but for some people I'm sure this would be a hassle. The other negative feature about this phone is the fact that the batter cover has to be removed in order for you to be able to remove your microSD card. For those who swap memory cards, this could get old very quickly, but I've gotten used to it.

All in all, this is basically a smaller version of the popular, and much more expensive, palm treo. I would recommend this phone and the sprint SERO plan to everyone, hands down.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Same-Old, Same-Old. Treo 600, I mean Centro...., December 21, 2007

By 

..R.. "..R.." (Nashville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palm Centro Phone, Red (Sprint, Phone Only, No Service) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I like the Treo Centro. It runs on the very dependable Sprint CDMA/EV-DO network. But it is the same phone as the Treo 600 that came out back in 2003. Palm decided that since the 600 was such a big success, that they had no need to make any kind of effort in designing a new phone. This holds true with the Centro. This phone has the (((SAME))) hardware as the Treo 600, 650, 700, 750, ect. Just a bit more memory and a so-called updated OS. The OS might have an update number of 5.4.9, but there is zero difference in the OS. I can not tell a difference at all. This is sad seeing as they made a Lunix based OS called Cobalt years ago and it has never seen the light of day.
The Centro still has the same bugs as every Treo since the 600. Start-up time is very slow. Which is really bad when you are in need of making an important phone call, and the phone resets for no reason. Making you wait up to 60+ seconds for it to come back online. The limited RAM of 64MB's, is so much lower then most PDA's currently on the market. You can use ZLaucher to transfer programs to a memory card, but this can not be done with all software. And since the web browser uses RAM, not memory cards, you still only have 8MB's to work with in Blazer. All software must be loaded into RAM before being it can run, So prepare for the phone to reset at least once a day to get the those limited RAM resources back.
Still no WiFi, which was the complaint in 2003 and Palm has not added it yet. The Centro still has the same 312 MHz Intel XScale processor. Signal strength is still pretty strong, but voice quality is still not great when compared to every other phone I have used before.

Sprint is marketing this as an affordable PDA at $99 with a contract. But when you know that the hardware is going on 5 years old, price really doesn't make current PDA owners care a whole lot. I bought the Centro because I hated my Motorola RAZR 2 and I needed to get something better. But after using the Centro for over a month now, I see no difference what-so-ever in this PDA and the Treo 600 and 650 that I owned a few years ago. Smaller packaging, but the same phone. The Centro is a good example of what a PDA maker SHOULD NOT DO. While Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, ect have all updated their lineups with powerful PDA's, Palm has sat idly by doing nothing with their forum star power. Palm used to control a huge chuck of the PDA software market, but now Microsoft has caught up and passed PalmOS by. No new companies have used PalmOS. Let me rephrase that, NO ONE is using the PalmOS anymore; except for Palm.
So if you don't have a PDA and want an affordable one, then the Centro might be for you. If you want power, then Sprint has much better PDA's then the aged and milked-to-death Treo's.
More then likely the Centro will be the last PDA-Phone ever made by Palm. They have lost crazy amounts of market share and have been laying off employees. So who knows, maybe the Centro will be a collectors item. A PDA that has never evolved, never been fixed, never been changed in any, meaningful way.Treo

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A smartphone that actually fits in your pocket, July 14, 2008

By 

Gaz Rendar (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palm Centro Phone, Red (Sprint, Phone Only, No Service) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

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-keybutton 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, especially at the price. Now can somebody help me get this battery cover back on?