Palm Centro AT&T Review

Messaging:

The Centro is a robust messaging device, offering a full email program (two, actually) text, picture and video messaging as well as an included IM client. For email Palm includes the same Versamail client found on the Treo line, and AT&T includes a link to its Express Mail application.
Versamail has been a Palm staple for years, and allows the user to set up personal POP and IMAP accounts while also supporting Exchange email. Unfortunately we were not able to download and test Express Mail since the page we were directed to did not work.

As we have seen on the Treo, the SMS application on the Centro allows for threaded messaging. AT&T incorporates MMS into this as well, so if a message has a picture or video it still shows up in the chat with a clickable icon that will take the user to the attached media. This is a wonderful feature, and allows text messages to basically become instant message conversations. We are not sure why more phones don’t incorporate this feature given the popularity of text messaging.

Instant Messaging is included and offers access to AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. This program is free of charge, and is web-based so anyone with a data package (and who owns a smartphone without one?) can IM until their heart is content. Users can be signed into all three services simultaneously, and the program runs in the background which means users will have their IMs delivered to them even when the program isn’t being used. It is, in fact, the same program we liked from the Sprint Centro, just without the Sprint branding.


Connectivity and Data:

Unfortunately the GSM Centro lacks the 3G found in the CDMA variant, and is limited to EDGE speeds. On the other hand it is quad-band GSM and can be used overseas. The Bluetooth is also downgraded to 1.2, supporting the HFP, HSP, DUN, OPP A2DP and AVRC profiles; hot syncing is available as well.

As with any Palm device, Blazer is the native browser, and version 4.5.8 is found on the Centro. Blazer is capable of handling HTML pages and attempts to optimize them for the device, but it chokes up on larger pages. For example PhoneArena loaded decently enough, but a more complex page such as ESPN.com took forever to load and was fairly unusable. The lack of 3G, while noticeable, isn’t a big hindrance for mobile optimized pages, but can be sorely felt on more complicated pages or when downloading files. While mobile YouTube videos loaded quickly and played relatively smoothly, there was definitely a quality difference when compared to the CDMA Centro.

The Palm Desktop software is included in the package and handles PC Sync. Users can choose to sync their contacts and calendar either with the program itself, or if they are already running Outlook they have the option to sync data with it. The sync program also allows for users to install third party applications to the phone; users download them to their computer, and then next time the phone syncs they will be installed on the device.