The Palm Centro has burst onto the UK market with barely a whimper, and is not setting the global smartphone market alight with stories of massive sales and a whole new generation of smartphone users loving their first smartphone. This is to be expected in a world of multi-connected smartphones that include GPS chips and all sorts of other gimmicks that make so many of us trade up so often.
The Centro is not a Treo but it is still a smartphone, and it is one that is aimed at the growing number of people who are curious about the smarter phones they see in the mobile shops. It is aimed at people who want to manage their contacts, calendar and other information in a phone that will not look out of place in a trendy coffee shop or in a meeting room, and Palm has succeeded in that aspect. The Centro is a lovely piece of kit to hold and it is just as good to look at.
The silver edging seems to work within the overall form factor, despite the fact that it is a touch dominating, and even the glossy finish adds a certain something to the look. The Centro feels too small to be a smartphone and resembles a normal feature phone more than the Treo line, and this is a very good thing.
The Treo keyboard was a classic and one that is difficult to emulate in a small space, and so Palm has had to completely redesign the keyboard materials and size to make it fit on the smaller Centro real estate. The keys now feel like rubber and are much closer to each other with less travel than previously which should make for a slow data input experience. Strangely, it does not and I have had few issues with this keyboard design. After a few minutes I managed to respond to emails and add calendar appointments with few mistakes, and the Centro keyboard has a lot of ‘Treo’ about it.
The navigation and call buttons above the keyboard are very flat, but also quite big and I personally like this set up. Everything here works well and within minutes I knew where everything was and was able to keep up to my usual Treo speed. The actual navigation button is quite small and those with big thumbs will not be overly keen on it, but I’m alright Jack
The stylus is poor and is made of bendy black plastic. I understand the need to make a thinner stylus, but it could be a lot more rigid than the included one. Hopefully a third party will design a metal one.
The screen is smaller than previously which will be a disappointment to some, but there are other issues that are a little more annoying than the size- the edges around the screen are quite high and this hinders finger navigation most of the time, and in some applications it is noticeable that the text hits the ‘very’ edge of the screen which makes for uncomfortable viewing. It also stops you from copying a whole line of text with the stylus which is a poor show.
On the left side are volume up/down buttons and a voice record button. I did my usual and installed TreoKeyHack to make the volume buttons scroll up and down and have found it more than comfortable enough for eBook reading. On the right is a microSD slot which strangely requires the battery cover to be taken off to insert a card- not a huge deal because you do not need to remove the battery. Finally, the classic slider mute key still adorns the top of the unit which is one of the best parts of any Treo- so simple, yet so necessary.
So, that’s a quick look at the hardware and tomorrow I will look at my first uses to see how well it compares to the Treo 680. I have to say that my first impressions are extremely positive and that, from a design point of view, the Centro is a classy little smartphone that outshines most of its rivals.
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