Palm Centro Onyx Red Review - Introduction

Introduction

I remember when Treos were all the rage amongst executives and Email addicts before Email addictions were trendy.  A sales exec friend of mine got married a few years back and I’ll never forget the image of her pecking madly at her Treo an hour before the ceremony as bridesmaids tended to her non-Email needs.  The Treo line really ushered in the age of QWERTY smartphones that combined robust Email and organizer features with a form factor small enough to slip into a pocket.

Fast forward a few years and everyone’s obsessed with IMs and SMSs, and the line between “phone” and “smartphone” has been blurred considerably by a recent wave of consumer-friendly devices that pack Email clients, Web browsers, and personal information management apps into tiny little packages.  Phone geeks debate the true meaning of the term “smartphone” while consumers simply enjoy unprecedented choice and value when it comes to considering a handset that’s as much an extension of their computer as it is a telephone.

Palm’s new Centro is a device that harkens back to the Treo’s salad days while also making a play for consumers interested in smartphone features packaged in a sleek, attractive, and easy to use package.  More or less a Treo 755p in a smaller, more colorful package, Centro is available in both CDMA and GSM versions.  Sprint sent me their CDMA model - the 690 - for review.  Marketed heavily towards youth and women as a “social organizer” more than a business device, Centro offers nearly everything that’s good about Sprint at a remarkable $99 price point.  Centro’s tiny buttons and rather retro user interface may leave some would-be buyers in the cold, but it’s also a very easy to use device that does a good job of blurring that line between consumer phone and smartphone.

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