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Monday June 23, 2008
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I must admit: I don't entirely get the Palm Centro. The little smartphone is a best-seller, with more than a million sold, and official models now on Sprint, Verizon and AT&T. Palm explained it to me as a smart phone for people who have never considered buying a smart phone before. But all the same, I have trouble getting past the eeny-weeny fly's-eyes keys, the tiny little touch screen and the 2004-era features.
I'm clearly in the minority here, though. Riding on the Centro's success, Palm today announced the unlocked GSM Centro, which means that T-Mobile users can now pick up Centros if they so desire. The unlocked model sells for $299, involves no contracts, and comes with Google Maps for Mobile with My Location, which fakes GPS positioning using cell-tower triangulation. It's not good enough for driving directions, but it's good enough to find the nearest burrito.
The unlocked Centro comes in white and will be available tomorrow, June 24.
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June 25, 2008 11:33 AM
The Centro is nice to use, is a good size, but has apparent problems in delivering stereo out of headphones. Verizon and Sprint users have made this complaint; Palm says it has a particular headphone that works, and that there is an adaptor so you can get stereo in your older headphones. But the absence of 'off the shelf' stereo is a drag, as is the inability to shut off programs (such as Ptunes) to save power. As delivered, it will not replace my Ipaq for listening to music because the Centro only puts out sound through one of two headphones.
July 3, 2008 12:31 AM
is there another phone you would recommend instead? I don't want a data plan, and BB's are married to a data plan. Most other phones use Windows mobile, which I won't touch (though I would by a HTC/WM phone if I knew it would run Android when it came out). I am not trying to be controversial, this is a genuine question from someone in the market for a smartphone on the cheap.
Thanks,
~S