Palm Centro - AT&T review: Palm Centro - AT&T

It's no secret that Palm has been struggling of late to keep up with the smartphone competition. A lack of innovation and a stale operating system is partly to blame. However, the company made a bit of a comeback with its Palm Centro device, which debuted with Sprint last October. The Centro offered a more compact design while still cramming in all the features of a Palm ="">Treo, and at the fraction of the price. It was a good move and breathed some new life into Palm as the smartphone has garnered a fair share of fans.

Now, AT&T customers can enjoy the same benefits of the Centro that Sprint users have been able to for a few months--well, for the most part. The Palm Centro for AT&T features the same ease of use and affordable $99 price tag (with two-year contract and after discounts and rebates) of its CDMA cousin and even gets a fresh look with a white-and-green color scheme. That said, we're disappointed that it lacks 3G support, testing your patience with slower EDGE speeds. Still, for its intended audience of first-time smartphone buyers, you really can't beat the Palm Centro's simplicity and price tag.

Design
Aside from the color, the Palm Centro for AT&T is essentially identical to the Sprint Palm Centro in design. The AT&T model has a pearly white casing (though, Palm officially calls it glacier white), and features lime green number keys. It definitely gives the device a more youthful and playful look that bodes well for its target audience of young professionals and first-time smartphone buyers. That said, AT&T plans to release a black version in March for those who want a more corporate-looking device.

The Palm Centro is thankfully smaller and thinner than the company's Treo smartphones.

The Centro measures 4.2 inches tall by 2.1 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 4.2 ounces. It will slip into a pants pocket, but it's a smidge on the thicker side, so it might make for a tight fit. Still, it sure beats the bulky Treo, and it's really pretty compact, considering that it's equipped with a 2.25-inch, 320x320 touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. The tradeoff is that the keyboard is on the cramped side. Though individual buttons are tactile, they're tiny, so it's going to require some time for acclimation. On the other hand, the navigation array--Talk and End buttons, shortcuts to the Calendar, Inbox, Phone, and Home page, and toggle--is spacious and easy to use.

The Centro's full QWERTY keyboard is pretty cramped, so user's with larger thumbs may have problems.

Other design elements on the Palm Centro include a volume rocker and a push-to-talk button on the left side, and an infrared port and microSD expansion slot on the right spine. The latter is protected by an attached cover, but unfortunately, you can't open it unless you take off the battery cover. In addition, to insert the SIM card, you have to remove the stylus--minor annoyances. There's a silent ringer switch on top of the device, and a 2.5mm headset jack and multiconnector port are on the bottom. Finally, the camera lens, self-portrait mirror, and speaker are located on back of the Centro.

On back of the device, you'll find the camera lens and self-portrait mirror.

AT&T packages the Palm Centro with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a software CD, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check our cell phone accessories, ring tones, and help page.

Features
The Palm Centro for AT&T has some hits and misses as far as features. Starting with voice features, the Centro offers a speakerphone, three-way calling, voice dialing, speed dial, and the "ignore with text" feature, which allows you to reply to a call with a text message if you can't pick up. The Centro also continues to support text and multimedia messaging with threaded text chat view. The phone book is limited only by the available memory (the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts), and there's room in each entry for multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, instant-messaging handles, and birthdays. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a picture, any of 37 polyphonic ringtones, or a group ID. In addition, unlike the Sprint version, the smartphone supports AT&T's Push-to-Talk (PTT) service, allowing you to instantly see the availability of your contacts before calling them and make individual or group PTT calls. PTT plans start at $9.99 per month.

Now, connectivity is one area where the AT&T Centro disappoints, as it doesn't support 3G speeds, where the Sprint model is EV-DO capable. Alas, you will be left to surf the Web at EDGE speeds; granted, the Centro isn't meant for the demanding business user, but still, the 3G is sorely missed (see Performance for more). The smartphone also has integrated Bluetooth 1.2, for use with wireless headsets, hands-free kits, object exchange, and dial-up networking, but no A2DP love, so no stereo Bluetooth headset support.

The Centro runs Palm OS 5.4.9 and comes with 128MB ROM and 64MB RAM, while the microSD slot can accept up to 4GB cards. Of course, you get the standard personal information management tools, including a calendar, a to-do list, a memo pad, a calculator, a world clock, and a voice recorder. The Centro isn't just an electronic organizer, though, as the smartphone comes preloaded with Documents to Go 10, so you can open, create, and edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents, and view PowerPoint presentations and PDFs. Sadly, the AT&T version doesn't include as many preloaded apps as the Sprint model, namely Google Maps for Mobile and a Sudoku game. There is a download link to TeleNav GPS Navigator (note: if you want real-time location tracking, you'll need to add a Bluetooth GPS receiver since the Centro does not have built-in GPS), and you can always get the other programs; check CNET Download.com for some suggestions.

You have several choices to access your corporate and personal e-mail accounts. There's the VersaMail e-mail app, which has built-in support for Microsoft's Direct Push Technology for real-time synchronization with Microsoft Exchange. VersaMail supports a wide range of POP and IMAP e-mail accounts, including AOL, Apple.Mac, Gmail, and Yahoo Plus. Alternatively, you can sign up for AT&T's Xpress Mail service. Popular instant messaging, including AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live clients, are preinstalled on the device.

For entertainment, the Palm Centro comes with PocketTunes Deluxe Edition, allowing you to listen to MP3 and DRM-protected music files. There's support for the AT&T Music service, which includes streaming XM satellite radio, music videos, and MusicID for identifying song titles and artist. It's an extra luxury so check with AT&T for various pricing plans.

Despite the lack of a flash and being light on editing options, the Centro's camera took good pictures.

Finally, the Centro is equipped with a 1.3-megapixel camera with 2x zoom and video-recording capabilities. As far as camera phones go, the Centro (and Treos, for that matter) lacks any options for tweaking the white balance, resolution, and brightness, and there's no flash. Still, we were impressed with the picture quality as images had sharp definition and good color.

Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS/EDGE) Palm Centro in San Francisco using AT&T service, and call quality was good. Despite a couple of instances of slight static, for the most part we enjoyed clear audio and plenty of volume, whether we were talking to friends or interacting with our bank's automated voice response system. On the other end, our friends said they couldn't tell we were using a cell phone and were impressed with the clarity. Unfortunately, speakerphone quality wasn't as pristine. There was a bit of hollowness, but we were still able to carry on conversations. Finally, we had no problems pairing the Centro with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset.

General performance was good. We didn't experience any significant delays or system crashes during our review period. As mentioned earlier, one area where the AT&T Centro lagged behind the Sprint model was in Web browsing and data services. Downloading applications like MobiTV and XM Radio took a while, but what tried our patience more was trying to enjoy the streaming media. Web sites also took longer to fully load. As for multimedia performance, it was mediocre. Music playback was a bit weak and tinny through the phone's speakers, but sound improved with earbuds. Watching video isn't exactly pleasant. The picture was quite blurry and pixelated and audio can be warped at times, but you'll be fine watching it in short spurts.

The Palm Centro's 1,150mAH lithium-ion battery is rated for 3 hours of continuous talk time and up to 10 days of standby time. The Centro exceeded expectations in our battery drain tests, as it produced 5.5 hours of continuous talk time on a single charge. According to FCC radiation tests, the Palm Centro has a digital SAR rating of 0.74 watt per kilogram. battery drain tests,