Accessories

Difficult to Navigate
I had this phone for about 2 days before I asked Sprint to send me their new Moto QC9. It ended up being about a week that I had to use the Centro and I hated every minute of it! There is no 'Back' button that cancels, ends, or goes back to your previous screen. The touch screen would also like to 'freeze' or pause for a few seconds very frequently. No big deal right? But when you would end a call, you would press the end button on the touch screen, the screen would pause, switch to a new screen, then register your touch, and next thing you know you were calling someone else, when all you were trying to do was end the call. The only other option you have to end a call is to use the red key on the phone, this however puts your phone to sleep, you would then have to release the key lock to continue using the phone.
This phone operates best when you are using two hands with the little pen for the touch screen. My problem is that I usually only have one hand to use the phone. The phone is also so small and slick that you cannot simply tilt your head and trap the phone on your neck if you need to use your other hand for a second.
Overall, it was a headache to navigate simple options in everyday applications.

Didn't expect to love it but I do
So it's not an iPhone and I didn't expect to love it but I do. I had a low-minute voice plan with Verizon but didn't want to spring for the costs of their data plan. Have just switched to Sprint. All my Palm data transferred smoothly from my Tungsten E and as I get to know the Centro better, I'm more and more pleased with it.

I read the reviews for months before making this decision and it's noticeable on CNET, LetsTalk and Phonescoop that users tend to rate the phone much higher than the reviewers have. The Centro is intuitive, offers a huge range of possibilities and great bang for the buck.

A disappointment
Palm should have retained more of the features of its plain PDA OS, rather than trying to copy stupid interface features from Microsoft.

Overall, NOT a great job, really. The reviews are quite unhelpful about the PDA applications. And battery standby life is about half of the 300 hrs specified in the description.

I used to like the Palm OS, but... The OS now used by Palm in the Centro (and 680)is a screwed up version of what they have in their PDA's.

For example, in Contacts, there is no longer a compact, single line, listing form. Instead, you must view all phone numbers for each entry on separate lines in the main listing. No choice. This means you can't see very many listings per page. Also, if you are not careful about entries, and put a word description with a phone number, you may just get a blank line. It used to be that word descriptors were just fine, as well as helpful. Blackberry has the more flexible and compact entry format that Palm used to have. Also the amount of information you can now enter for each number is more limited. Two steps backwards for Palm. Also, if you press a letter, such as "J" to see all the last name listings that start with "J", in alphabetical order, you are out of luck. It finds every bloody listing entry with a "J", whether it is first name or last, that you have to scroll through. This means fewer helpful listings per page. It means you can no longer enter a letter to skip that far down into the alphabetical listing, and if you enter something as specific as "john" to get to Johnson, you will go instead to first names listed as "john", assuming there are any in your contacts before Johnson. Also don't try to be cute and enter several letters such as "jaa" to go to the start of the "j" listings. The PDA will complain and not even let you scroll further down. The plain PDA OS does it sensibly and returns an alphabetical listing of last names starting with "J" if you entered a "J". And you could scroll from there all the way to Z if you so desired.

One bug in the Treo 680 that has been fixed in the Centro relates to the display of contact information. Suppose you click on a contact entry for which you entered a fair amount of information. That is, more than can be displayed on one screen (Given the inefficient way information is now displayed, that is not hard). On the 680 you will not find any cursor or arrows to let you move up or down the page to see additional information. But there actually is one that is invisible in the bottom right of the screen. On the Centro, it is visible. But did Palm fix this bug in the 680? No. Owners of that model are stuck. This is expected given the general contempt Palm shows toward its customers.

You will also find stupid changes in the Calendar. For example, you could on a Palm PDA hit an entry for 9am on a particular day and it would let you start an appointment with 9 am as the default entry for start time. That is, while you were viewing other appointments you could select an open time for a new appointment. Now it doesn't enter that default (on the next screen). In my view, Palm has messed things up enough you might as well use some other OS. Like what Blackberry offers, although overall their PDA/PIM seems less efficient.

Oh, and customer support says this new PDA platform is exactly what Palm intended for the PDA smartphone, even though they know it is different from their PDA's. So which do they think is better? If they think so highly of the implementation on the Smartphone, why don't they change their PDA's? Palm won't say, but I think we can guess. Palm's right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, and anyone with good judgement has long since left the Palm development group.

Not the best
Pros: Inexpensive phone with touch screen and full keyboard. It has some cool functions and a nice camera.

Cons: Poor reception. Keyboard too small to use easily. Gets very hot while in use. People I talk to complain of echoes, scratchyness, too loud. Not user friendly. Does not hook up to bluetooth easily.

Great overall phone/pda -- only 2 problems
I won't repeat what others have said other than to say that this phone is great excpet for 2 things in my opinion:

1) the keys are small, but the bigger problem is that they are curved too high, so when you push them, you feel like you need to push the very center of the key. You get used to it, but it is still a pain.

2) This is the bigger complaint: It DOES boast of mp3 playing, but it does NOT allow you to use normal earphones/plugs. You still have to use a bluetooth or phone headset with it. I find this pretty annoying, since earhphones are so much cheaper, and better quality for music. Be warned! I was surprised by this, so I hope you will not be.

All in all, these are not huge complaints. I still rated it a 5 star because I only have minor gripes about a couple things. I can live with that just fine.