Palm Centro Black

Call Quality

Call quality: One area in which the Centro doesn’t compromise is call quality. Although there was a bit of background hiss on our end, voices came through more than clearly enough, and callers reported no issues on their end. The speakerphone quality was surprisingly good. Callers said they couldn’t even tell we were using the speaker until we moved a few feet away from the cell phone. Even then, they had no trouble hearing us. The speaker volume isn’t especially powerful, but there was very little distortion at the upper volumes.

Audio quality: The Centro doesn’t come with a set of stereo earbuds, so you’ll have to invest in your own. The phone supports headphones with a 2.5mm plug, but it doesn’t support wireless Bluetooth stereo headphones in this version. Music quality through the external speaker on the back of the unit was predictably weak, as is the case with many cell phones.

Ease of Use

Menu/Phonebook: With each new device Palm releases, it becomes more and more obvious that the Palm OS needs an update. There’s the fact, for example, that you can’t immediately dial a number or look up a contact directly from the Home screen as you can from BlackBerry or Windows Mobile devices. Instead, you have to press the Phone button for the dialing screen. Also, the Home screen is nothing more than a list of icons to all your applications and settings. With other smartphones, the main screen displays alerts for new messages, upcoming tasks or appointments, and provides one-touch access to your most-used applications. That said, it shouldn’t take too long for most users to figure out how to get through the Centro’s menus.

The phonebook is limited only by available memory (the Centro comes with 64MB of onboard memory and you can add up to 4GB with a microSD expansion card). Each contact can hold multiple phone numbers, e-mail and Web addresses, and IM handles for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ. You can assign pictures to contacts for caller ID, and you can associate one of 37 polyphonic ringtones with each contact.

Messaging: For those new to smartphones, the Centro provides an easy entry point. The Centro includes VersaMail and Sprint Mobile Email, both of which support POP and IMAP e-mail accounts, including AOL, Yahoo Plus, and Earthlink. We set up a Gmail account through Sprint Mobile by simply entering a username and password. You can enable scheduled connections every one, two, or four hours for both weekdays and weekends. You can also have e-mail “pushed” to your device to receive messages in real time, although this option will significantly cut into battery life. As noted, the Centro also includes out-of-the-box support for AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger instant messaging accounts. We liked the fact that you can easily move through all three accounts by using the left and right navigation keys.

Camera: The Centro features a 1.3-megapixel camera with a video recorder and 2x zoom. We wish there were a dedicated camera button; as it is, you have to select the camera icon from the Home screen. And your options for tweaking phone settings are limited—there’s no flash nor any way to adjust white balance, brightness, or contrast. You can take pictures in black and white or sepia, however. Pictures came out clear and sharp, although color saturation was severely lacking.

Music: Unlike higher-end Palm smartphones, the Centro includes the Deluxe version of the PocketTunes music player, so you get support for DRM-protected WMA files, letting you play songs purchased from online music stores (however, you can’t play iTunes DRM music on this Palm, since it supports only unprotected AAC files). The Sprint Music Manager software handles music synchronization. The program can import Windows Media Player playlists, and you can log in to the Sprint Digital lounge directly from the player, where you can get ringtones, games, screensavers, and manage your Sprint account. Strangely, the Centro doesn’t work with the Sprint Music Store. But our main quibble with the Music Manager is the cumbersome process involved in recognizing the Centro. Simply connecting the device to your PC isn’t enough. You have to launch the pTunes player on the Centro to establish a connection with the Music Manager.

Bluetooth: Just as the Palm OS is behind the curve, so is the Centro’s Bluetooth support. The device supports Bluetooth 1.2, which means you can use wireless headsets and hands-free kits, but not wireless stereo headsets. Nonetheless, we successfully paired a Plantronics 610 Discovery headset with the Palm Centro, and we beamed contacts back and forth between a Samsung A640 cell phone without a hitch.

Design

Look and feel: That the Centro doesn’t feel like a typical smartphone is both a blessing and a curse. It’s significantly smaller than Palm’s Treo line of smartphones, though a bit bulkier than a typical candybar-style cell phone. It comes in three colors—black onyx, ruby red, and pink. Still, it’s fairly light, comfortable to hold during phone calls, and slips easily into a front pocket. But that small footprint comes at a price: a miniscule keyboard and small, flat control buttons.

On the upside, the Centro retains Palm’s ringer-off switch at the top of the unit, and below the volume buttons on the left spine, you can assign a program shortcut to the left side key. The Centro’s touch screen is also a definite plus, especially since you can use the virtual dial pad on the screen to dial phone numbers instead of the cramped keyboard.

Keypad: One of the biggest compromises you have to make with the Centro is with its tiny keypad. It helps to have small hands and longish thumbnails to hit the correct button. Still, it’ll take a lot of practice and patience before you’ll master the art of quick thumb typing with this keypad. The keys themselves are fairly tactile, but also slippery, which is why we found it easier to use our thumbnails when typing.

Battery Life

Unless you use the Centro for business purposes, we recommend setting scheduled e-mail connections, as the push feature severely cuts into battery life. With push enabled, we had to recharge every day even when limiting phone calls. With the device scheduled to check e-mail every hour on weekdays and every four hours on weekends, we had to charge the battery every three days. If you make a lot of phone calls under this setting, however, you’ll likely need to recharge every other day.