Palm Centro review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 15 Aug 2008

Price when reviewed: £170

Buy it now for: £176
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.dabs.com

Reviewed By: Jon Bray

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

If you're looking for a phone that does everything, the Centro probably isn't the one for you. It's a little weak on the features front, with no HSDPA or even 3G for web browsing, no wireless networking and no GPS.

When you start to use this smartphone, however, you'll soon be impressed. It's a little chunky at 19mm thick, but it's narrower than even the Nokia E71, which makes it surprisingly pocket-friendly for a phone with a full QWERTY keypad. You might think this would render the keypad unusable, but in practice it's perfectly good. You'll be able to type short emails and texts and even edit documents, thanks to the keys' rounded profile and tactile, rubbery finish.

The Centro is the only phone here that runs the Palm operating system. Navigating around the phone's various applications, settings and tools is quick and intuitive, and you're never left waiting for things to happen. It also has a touch screen, like HP's 914c. This is most useful when browsing the web, but we found using the directional keypad quicker for most tasks.

Email support is good, too. Alongside POP3 and IMAP, you can also set the phone up with Microsoft Exchange to sync your emails, calendar, contacts and tasks. Document support is also good. You can view and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and view Office 2007 files, too.

There are some disappointments. The Blazer 4.5 browser doesn't render web pages as well as the Nokia phones' browser or even Pocket IE, and battery life is mediocre at nine hours and 43 minutes. The Centro isn't the most powerful phone in the group, but it's one of the easiest to use and is great for calls and messaging. It's a good budget alternative to the other phones on test this month.

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