Palm OS may have lost out in the smartphone market to Apple's iOS, RIM's Blackberry OS, Android and Symbian, but Palm lives on in the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi Plus, both running on the Palm WebOS. The Palm Centro, which has been around since 2008, was the final offering on the standard Palm OS, and plenty of these still can be found either new or refurbished. At its unveiling, the Palm Centro offered smartphone features with a mobile phone price tag. These days, although it's a little dated, it's a good starter smartphone that can be picked up for less than $50.
Design
Initially only available on Sprint, the Palm Centro is currently available on Sprint and Verizon. The original color options of black or red were expanded to include obsidian, glacier, midnight, cobalt, onyx, electric blue, rose and olive. If none of those suits you, skins are available in a wide range of colors and patterns for around $10. Most of these are bright and cheerful, likely to appeal to a young teenage or preteen market. Although the Centro is small and lightweight compared to its predecessor, the Palm Treo, it was described by reviewers as "made of cheaper stuff" and "toylike."
Specifications
At 4.2 by 2.1 by .73 inches and weighing only 4.4 ounces, the Centro is a good size for a smartphone -- big enough to make viewing and entering data comfortable without being too bulky. The combination of a 320 x 320 transreflective touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard offers ease of touchscreen navigation with typing to enter data, although the buttons on the keyboard are tiny, and some users might struggle with them.
With only 64MB of memory, you'll need the SD card slot, which can accommodate a card up to 4GB. Although the Centro isn't 3G, it does work on the EDGE network, and it has Bluetooth, infrared and USB connections. The built-in camera, at 1.3 megapixels, is nothing to get excited about, but it should handle simple shots and short video clips with no problems, and it can produce photos of up to 1280 x 1024 pixels.
All in all, the Centro is a solid starter smartphone, if a little dated.
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