Okay, now we know what you’re thinking. Sure, we (lovingly) raked Palm over the coals in our open letter to the company, and yeah, we haven’t been the sweetest of hearts to the boys from Sunnyvale (with reason, of course). However, If you’ve paid attention to our past good-intentioned prodding, then you’ll know that getting our hands on a new Palm device still gives some of us chills.
After seeing scores of “leaked” photos of the Centro, and hearing enough internet chatter about the device to make your brain vibrate like tightly-wound piano string, actually getting our hands on the phone was honestly a bit of a surprise, both bad and good. We’re going to break it down piece by piece and hopefully give you a rounded impression of the smartphone crown-chaser (or at least princess-in-waiting).
The design
First off, let’s get a few basics out of the way. Yes, the phone is considerably smaller than past Treo devices. Having used a 650, 680, and 750, we can honestly say there is a massive difference between holding this phone in your hands and holding any other Palm device. Is this a good thing? For the most part, yes, though there are drawbacks to its diminutive size, which we’ll get to in a moment. But for now, let’s talk aesthetics.
The Centro has a rounded, symmetrical design that works without being especially fussy or impressive. We would have liked to see Palm put the real estate to better use with a larger screen and less plastic, but this is certainly a step in the right direction for the company… though a few more steps would have gone a long way.
This Palm OS device will indeed go on sale Sunday, but the only version that will be available will have a black casing. The one in red won’t go on the market until November.