Color:Dark Blue Media:Wireless Phone Battery Type:Lithium Ion Display Size:4 Shipping Weight (lbs):0 Dimensions (in):0 x 0 x 0
Model:CENTRO690P UPC:805931035967 ASIN:B001B63V3U
Release Date:June 13, 2008 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Promotion:Data not availableTerms and Conditions Availability:Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks
perfect - once you figure it outAugust 27, 2008 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
ok so i just bought the palm centro about a month ago. it does every single thing i wanted it to do - but it took some time to figure it out.
all of the other reviews are right on - so if you have other questions about it - read them.
i just wanted to give you a few tips:
1) there is a button in the bottom right corner of the keypad that is the equivalent of 'right clicking' with a mouse. when in doubt, try it. it solved lots of my problems.
2) turning on "shuffle" on the music player was NOT easy - but once you find it, it does it automatically unless you turn it off. to get it to shuffle: when in the music player, push that 'right click' button (bottom right button on the keypad). go to 'tools', then select 'choose skin' choose the sleek blue one. once you do THAT, the button to shuffle your songs is the tangled two arrow button below the box that shows what song is playing.
3) the phone does NOT have an easy to use, simple alarm clock. some people freak out about this. i even read of one couple who returned the phone because of it. however, you CAN set alarms pretty easily - just use the calendar to set up recurring appointments - these have an alarm that you can set.
4) i've had the phone for about a month, and i just TODAY figured out how to send Word and Excel files FROM my phone TO another computer. i figured out how to send them from computer to phone long ago. but today i finally tinkered with it (which is what you have to do pretty often) and discovered how to send files from phone to computer. you have to install the "Versamail Personal Edition" email program, which you'll find under "My Centro" on the main screen. once that's installed, you can use it to bring your usual email provider (i use gmail) onto the phone, and then once you're using your email, you can attach files to emails and send them either to yourself or to other email accounts.
5) to customize ringtones: at first glance, it appears that you can only use the ringtones assigned by the phone. they're ok, but i like to use my own songs, or buy them and use them. if you haven't ever used ventones.com - it rocks. anyway, just send a text message to your phone with a song attached (ventones shows you how to do this). once you've opened that txt msg on your phone, right click (that bottom right hand button) and 'save as ringtone'. simple, once you know how. ;)
these are some mysteries i've finally solved. hope that helps.
jeff
A great replacement for the Treo 700p and the expensive data plan.August 13, 2008 10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I've had a couple of weeks of experience with the Centro, and I must say it has nearly turned around my bitterness towards Verizon and the train wreck that was the 700p (which apparently they finally fixed in an update a few weeks ago).
First of all Verizon apparently views this phone as a "low" end smartphone. As such they are offering it with a less expensive $29.99 unlimited data & email plan. This is a nice little touch and finally drops their data rates south of highway robbery. Oddly enough the internet in the Centro seems faster and more stable than the 700p, which was decent in itself when it wasn't crashing.
EDIT: Apparently the data plan isn't listed as one of Amazon's offerings, and I've found my local Verizon store messed up adding it initially. I'd call Verizon customer support and ask for the E-mail and Web for Smartphone Plan after activating your new phone.
The keyboard is much smaller, but I personally prefer the texture to the keys. The old Treo keys were rather smooth and sometimes slippery if you try to type with one hand. These new keys have a good amount of texture to aid in one handed typing. However, they don't have the same amount of "click" to them.
Battery life seems fine. I've gotten a bit better battery life after taking some advice from the forums of Treocentral and turned off the auto syncing of the time. Overall I charge the phone every other day with my usage patterns (some web, about 3 hours or so of pocket tunes internet radio, some calendar viewing, and a bit of Sudoku and Solitaire).
It feels a bit cheaper built than the 700p, but the software seems a lot more well put together. Verizon was apparently lazy and took almost no effort to tamper with this phone as they usually do with most of their phones. The only dedicated Verizon application I've noticed was Wireless Sync (which I've heard was a buggy, slow email client). Other than that I've got a full version of Docs to Go, Google Maps (which seems a bit slow when you zoom in all the way, but is otherwise strangely addicting), Pocket Tunes Deluxe (with internet radio), Sudoku (addicting), and many variants of Solitaire (from Astraware). The rest of the applications are pretty much the same as other Palms.
As a final note I've had the chance to see every single color of Centro (with the exception of the Grey/White unlocked GSM version), and I must say the "Cobalt Blue" color that Verizon picked out was a brilliant choice. It doesn't stick out as much as "Electric Blue," but it's the type of color you could bring more or less anywhere and still look good.
Fantastic Phone with great features & great price! Centro Rules!August 13, 2008 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I purchased this phone as an upgrade from a phone with just a keyboard. I needed a phone that had more organizational features but still allowed texting. This phone delivered above and beyond my needs. There are so many features with this phone. It has a very responsive touch screen and is very very user friendly. The stylus is a great feature with a touch screen This is my first Palm device and I am getting around in it very easily. It also is very compact, a lot smaller than it looks in pictures. If you are looking for a versatile phone that helps you keep your schedule organized with spending a great deal of $$$ this is the phone. The keyboard is small, but so is the phone. I don't have any problems with texting or entering information. Why spend more for the same or less? Definitely a great buy you wont regret getting this one.
Amazing combination of form and functionAugust 3, 2008 12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I've had my Centro for about a month now, and have been continually impressed with just about everything about it. IMHO, this might very well be the best combination of price, functionality, and portability.
Price:------------------------------------- While Palm seems to have pegged this as a phone for the value conscious, it does not seem that any corners were cut. The screen is a joy to behold, with crisp text and vibrant colors. The keys are solid to the touch, and though I have fairly large hands, typos are not very common. And, the finish on the phone screams quality. The touch screen also works very well, and I find that I rarely break out the stylus - which is so wonderfully recessed that it'll take a minute or so before you locate it for the first time.
Functionality:----------------------------- I've used both Palm and PocketPC organizers, and have to say that I really enjoy the simplicity of the Palm OS. While it may be a bit long in the tooth today - its hard to improve upon simplicity. Especially on a hand held device. All the familiar Palm applications are there, and work just as well. In addition, there's DataViz's Documents To Go application that lets you work with PDFs, Word, and Excel documents.
Portability:-------------------------------- It is amazing just how much has been packed into this form factor. A full keyboard, a decent screen, and good navigation - via a 5 way rocker switch. I'm not a big fan of keyboards that swivel or slide into existence, since it usually means a thicker body. The Centro gives me all that I need and will still fit comfortably in my front trouser pocket - so well in fact that I don't even notice it. In fact, one of my worries is that its just a bit too small for my hands, and that I might have it slip through my fingers.
* * * * * * * * * * * As a phone * * * * * * * * * * * * Call quality and speakerphone abilities are obviously important in a phone, and I was very glad that the Centro shone in both those departments. However, people can often tell that I'm on a cell phone, and at the maximum volume level there seems to be some clipping on the speakerphone.
I really like the touch keys that show up when in a call to turn on the speakerphone or to mute the microphone.
BTW - I used to have TMobile service (with a Moto Razr) but would constantly run into dead zones within office buildings. Using the Centro with Verizon, gives me 2 solid bars where I often had none.
I tend to prefer phones with hard keys. However, the numeric keypad here is way too small to use - especially one handed. Hence my primary concern was with how its alternative dialing mechanisms would work - i.e., touch pad dialing, voice dialing and speed dialing features.
Touch pad dialing:------------------------ Works reasonably well - with fairly large sized buttons showing up on the screen. What's really cool are the programmable soft buttons that you get at the bottom of the touch pad - called Favorite Buttons. Once you've configured these favorites, dialing frequently used numbers is as easy as navigating to them and pressing the Palm button.
Voice dialing:------------------------------ This is a separate application by VoiceSignal. My opinion on this is a bit mixed. It seems to work reasonably well - but can be very finicky. I've played with its customization settings to get it to work better, but I'm not sold on it yet.
The most vexing problem is that it works by doing a phonetic match between the contact's name and what you say into the microphone. While this works for most names, it is a challenge when a name is not pronounced as it is spelled. I much prefer the alternative - where you record the pronunciation for each contact, and the application does a voice print comparison.
For convenience, the Centro lets you invoke the voice dialing application by pressing and holding the lower most left button.
Speed key dialing:------------------------ This doesn't work quite as well mostly because I can never remember who is programmed on a given key :(
* * * * * * * * * * * Other thoughts * * * * * * * * * * * * Key Guard:------------------------------ The key guard is also simplicity itself. I have it set so that the device goes to sleep in 30 seconds if no key is pressed. Then to wake it up, I need to press the Power button and the recessed center Palm button. Its kind of annoying especially if you're used to clamshell designs - but its easy to get used to. I've heard complaints regarding other phones where the key guard is too easy to bypass, resulting in unexpected phone calls being made. So far no such problem. I've had it in my front trouser pocket - and its never called home.
Synchronization:------------------------ I used the supplied cable to sync this phone to both Microsoft Outlook and to the Palm Desktop, and both went without a hitch. The cable connection at the phone end is a bit scary - it doesn't connect well, and I often hit the sync button when trying to detach it.
The cable does double duty - as a trickle charger - so its easy to charge up your phone while at your computer.
Using Bluetooth to sync with my laptop took a bit longer to setup. However, it did go through, and now it's a joy to have it sync at the push of a button, without having to connect up the cable. Its not noticeably slower than using the cable, and its convenience is awesome.
Battery level:---------------------------- Battery level is sort of a concern. Looks like a car charger and an additional battery are must-have accessories for me. I find that under light to normal usage, I have to charge it at least twice a week. That's a bit thirstier than I expected, but I prefer this to the increased weight of a high capacity battery.
Battery cover:---------------------------- That brings me to the one problem with this phone that everyone complains about - that the designer must have been asleep during the class on battery cover design. It requires brute strength and pure luck in equal measures to slide it open. I've done it successfully over a dozen times now, but I still haven't quite figured out a technique. The positive here is that I do not open battery covers on phone with any regularity. The negative is that you need to get this open to do a soft reset (another design class missed, it seems), and to properly seat the microSD card (yet another).
Web/email/data:-------------------------------- The Blazer browser is plenty zippy, and I've had no trouble accessing gmail, Google Maps, or any of my regular sites. The pages render beautifully and the images are surprisingly sharp and clear.
* * * * * * * * * * * Conclusion * * * * * * * * * * * * I agonized over the Blackberry devices and the Samsung 760 - all wonderful devices.
However, as a key selection criterion for me was portability, it was simply impossible to ignore this phone. Combining this with a comprehensive feature-set definitely makes it one of the best on the market.
Everything I wanted in a phoneJune 26, 2008 16 out of 16 found this review helpful
I have been waiting for ages for the perfect phone. One that would combine a good phone with my Palm Tungsten. That phone finally arrived in the Palm Centro. Because I use the FranklinCovey PlanPlus software I needed a smartphone that ran on Palm OS. I'm not a big tech geek, so I don't know about Palm OS being outdated. What I do know is that this phone functions perfectly for me in the use of the PlanPlus software to run my calendar, contact list, task lists and other FranklinCovey items. I had already been using Documents to Go and liked that this was already included on the phone. I do use the email function for my personal Comcast and gmail. Regular Yahoo mail doesn't work, but that is because of Yahoo and not the phone. The only issue I ran into was trying to figure out why my memory card kept popping out. I finally read that you have to take off the back cover to seat it properly. And as another reviewer pointed out, it can be a bit of a challenge to get the back cover on and off. All in all this phone works exactly the way I wanted it to, and I'm very happy with my upgrade.
