pda247 smartphone test...and my new Centro

Funnily enough, Shaun reckons that the Nokia N95 8GB is the best of the best in his entertaining review over the past few days, despite it probably having the poorest battery life, worst text entry system and being the only one without a touchscreen. In addition, out of the 4 devices in the test it is the one that I would least like to use on a daily basis and if you were going  to be uncharitable you could point it is more than twice the cost of the Centro, in fact getting on for 3 times the price and yet is plainly not anywhere near being three times as good.

Anyway, my Centro arrived today and so far I have to say I am very very pleased with it. When I have been looking at it on other sites my immediate reaction was that, from the pics posted, it does not look that much smaller than the likes of the 680 and that was something that disappointed me. However, in the flesh it is much smaller and it makes the 680 look rather big and ungainly in comparison. The picture on the left shows it next to my 500v and 680 and again fails to portray the sheer dinkiness of it...it is small.

Set up was a breeze using my work PC. I removed the existing hotysnc ID backup folder from Program Files/palmone/hotysnc ID and when I fired up the cd and it went through the Palm Desktop install process it gave me the option just to sync across contacts, calendar, tasks, and memos and I declined its offer to load on all the old apps. I did that later manually, two or three at a time and then backed up each time when I was sure those apps were working okay.

Obviously it is very early doors with the Centro but it seems very well made...it is far more solid feeling than the 500v for example and is creak free. It also appears to have the best signal strength of any previous smartphone which is refreshing as too many previous devices have struggles to get a signal in my office whereas this one had 3 bars showing all day. It's too early to call battery life as it spent most of this afternoon charging and syncing via the PC usb port.

The black version has a faint but noticeable silver sort of fleck through the paint which is actually quite nice. I have found the keyboard, which I was worried about, to be just fine. Not as good, as you would expect, as the equivalent on the 680 or 750 but I have been typing away without too many mistakes nor have I been missing keys or pressing the wrong one. The keys have an almost sticky feel to them which aids accuracy and gives them a nice "feel".

Before buying this I was thinking...why would anybody who has a 680 feel the need to "upgrade" (if it is an upgrade) to a Centro ? I was sceptical of the merits of such an action and without wishing to come out too early and without wishing to tempt fate too much, I gotta say this device feels like a winner. The price, when you hold and feel it, seems like a genuine bargain at £80 odd quid less than 680 yet with a better form factor (much better in fact), better camera and an equally rock solid feel. I'm genuinely surprised how nice it is...so far. I loaded on about 12 applications including some heavyweights like SnapperMail yet there is still 52mb of out of the 64mb memory free. What a joy not to have to worry about enough RAM to run apps in....KerPow..take that windows mobile.

One or two initial small niggles are the cheapo stylus which I'm sure one of the add on vendors will sort by offering a much better quality one and the nav strip in the middle bit of the Centro. I'd personally prefer the same sort of buttons as are on the 680 as I am having a bit of trouble accurately pressing the "home" button sometimes, it seems a bit unresponsive but may loosen up with use. But come on...this device is under £180.

Comments

[Shaun McGill]

A decent Mercedez costs three times as much as my Vauxhall and is 3 times better:)

[Statto]

Hi Murray. Reading this with much interest and a little envy! I note your comment about signal strength particularly beacuase this is one of my bugbears with my 680 on T-Mobile - it doesn't find & hold a signal as well as the Vox with the same SIM - so that would be a plus if it's better in the Centro. Also obviously interested to hear about battery life. Mr McGill seems to think it's still a problem but Sammy over at PA seems to think it's fine. Who's right? I have to say I'm VERY tempted. I'll keep an eye open for any more feedback. All the best. Simon

[Daniel D. Montecillo]

Nice quick review of the Centro. I'm a Treo 680 user and I like I am bit skeptical in getting the Centro because of the smaller keyboard and Screen. How does the downgrade in size affects the productivity like writing emails and editing documents? i am aware that Palm has allocated huge amount of resources especially some input from Jon Rubinstein to polish the rough edges of the Centro.

I think there are lot of things that the centro can do that other phones with the similar price range can't accomplish. The PIM functions is still the best even without the bells and whistles of modern interface. I believe that the centro can be a real winner. Can you please share some your personal experience comparing the centro and the Treo 680 because this 2 products even though Palm is not intended to compete with each other but in terms in price and features it will directly affects the sales of the Treo 680.