Palm Centro: A New Beginning?

[crossthread]

just upgraded from a treo 650 to a centro. i really do like it for its size and weight. i am not a texter so the keyboard is just fine for me. i find the buttons more responsive than my 650. but the solid feel of the 650 is missing from this phone. but to make a lighter and smaller phone you have to use lighter materials. and the battery time is very poor, unlike the 650. but considering all things, i am 100% satisfied with my centro.

[comiken205]

Glad to see that you are satisfied. My daughter loves her Centro. It is a little small for me but I like the form factor of it. I hope that you enjoy your Centro for months/years to come!!!

[jfa02]

Indeed and thanks for your review of the likes and (not so many) gripes!

[psucheerdee]

I just purchased the unlocked Centro from the Palm Store. I currently have Cellular One.. now AT&T and have been using a blackberry Curve for the past year. Everyone told me that the switch to the centro was a step backwards... but I have to disagree!
Some things I love about it so far:
1. Size! It just feels good.
2. Touchscreen... as I didn't have this with my BB.
3. Call quality. I've always had good call quality with my BB and was afraid to lose that. But, I've been very surprised.
4. Menu set up. The menus are a little flashier than I'm used to. & much more customizable. I'm loving that.
5. The Calendar. I love the set up of it.
6. Speakers. It's super loud!

I haven't been able to access the internet on it yet. I need to get my settings from my carrier... which is going to be a task considering my carrier no longer exists. I'm really excited to get that set up and try out the browser and e-mail capabilities.

[naturalsis]

Originally Posted by crossthread

just upgraded from a treo 650 to a centro. i really do like it for its size and weight. i am not a texter so the keyboard is just fine for me. i find the buttons more responsive than my 650. but the solid feel of the 650 is missing from this phone. but to make a lighter and smaller phone you have to use lighter materials. and the battery time is very poor, unlike the 650. but considering all things, i am 100% satisfied with my centro.

If you haven't already found a solution to the battery issue...
I use Power Hero to tweak power settings and have had great results. I do a lot of web stuff, talking, games & texting as well as100+ emails pushed to my Centro through Sprint Mobile Email daily (can't get Versa settings correct). After all of that, I still have an average of around 20% battery remaining by the time I get home. I am totally satisfied with my Pink Palm Centro. TOTALLY!!! My Power Hero settings:
Network off - 2 min
Keyboard light off - 7am to 9pm
Bluetooth off - 15 min
REM sleep - 2 min (Sleep about 3 seconds later)
Screen light - 12%.

[mjh]

Ok. I've had my Sprint Centro (red, FWIW) for a couple of months. Here's my review of it:

Overall: vast improvement over my AT&T Treo 650.

Likes:

• MUCH faster data plan (and cheaper, too). Makes video streaming possible, and audio streaming much more feasible.
• I like these integrated apps that were not on AT&T 650: googlemaps, pTunes, Kinoma, VoiceMemo
• Works perfectly with all apps that I previously ran on my 650
• Bluetooth connection is a *TON* faster on Centro than on 650
• Very much like the fact that Blazer now has web page caching.
• I like the separation of the green send button from the phone app button... although it requires that the menu button be moved (see dislikes below). In any case, what this does is allow me, while on a phone call, to pull up my call log. On the AT&T 650 that was impossible.
• Much smaller form factor

Dislikes:

• With the AT&T 650, if I got two calls on at once (either through call-waiting or 3-way calling) I could hang up each call independent of the other. Under the sprint centro, I only have the option of hanging up all calls. I don't know if this is a provider issue or a change in the Phone app on the device.
  
  This is the most annoying difference to me. I will frequently call my wife, and go to her voicemail. While I'm leaving her a voicemail, she'll call me back and I'll see call waiting. I can answer her call, but I can't go back and hangup the voicemail call. So what will happen is that she'll get this enormously long voicemail from me saying basically nothing. Additionally, I like using 3-way to include other people in on a conversation, but I can't force one of the parties to hang up. I have to hang up everyone.
  
  I hate this difference but not enough to go back.
• The keyboard is rearranged. On the right hand side, where there used to be a shift key, is now the menu key. I frequently hit this key thinking that I'm typing a capitalized letter, but only to discover that I've engaged some unexpected menu function. This comes a close 2nd in annoying factor.
• Sprint has installed "mypalm" software in the ROM. Every Sunday morning connects to the internet to see what updates are available. Such that when I wake up, my phone is in the "mypalm software" screen. I have disabled the "auto-update" feature, but to no avail. I still wake up every single Sunday with the software having been run. It's a *DARN* good thing that I have a data plan, because this would annoy the crap out of me if I were paying for it per KB. It annoys me as it is, but not that much.
• Super flimsy stylus. I keep meaning to buy a 3rd party stylus that's made of sterner stuff than the OEM stylus.
• Itsy bitsy teeny weeny battery. With the data plan and bluetooth, I have to charge every single night. About 30% of the time, I have to charge more than once per day.

[comiken205]

The only comment I have: I deleted mypalm from my 755P. My daughter's centro never came with it. I thought that was an application you had to install yourself. Have you tried to delete it from the phone?

[His_Kid1]

I've been reading this thread with great interest. My Centro is on it's way from Sprint, and will be here sometime this week. This will be my first PDA/Smartphone, and was not really a planned purchase. My dd13 sent my Samsung flip phone for a 60-minute swirly of death in the washing machine, and even after intense rehab, all was lost.

After much research, I decided that maybe the minivan mom from the suburbs just might actually really need one of these things, and bit the bullet and ordered. I'm a bit nervous and very excited, but happy to hear that for the most part, you like yours. I have tested the keyboard, and it fit my small hands just fine, and I was able to use my nails (short) on the keys perfectly.

I'm a tad overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information out there on freeware and Palm-compatible software, and various ways to set it up, etc. etc. Does anyone have any recommendations for a link for a total beginner? I'm not asking you to set it up for me, or do a ton of work on my behalf, but I just had a couple of quick questions.

I'm assuming that most of the stuff written for the Treos works on the Centros? Is that true across the board, or is there some rule of thumb that I need to keep in mind?

I also assume that anytime you download something from an unknown party, you invite the potential for viruses. Is this an issue? How do I avoid this? What are some really reliable sites for freeware or low cost software?

Thanks!

[His_Kid1]

Originally Posted by mjh

[*]Super flimsy stylus. I keep meaning to buy a 3rd party stylus that's made of sterner stuff than the OEM stylus.[/list]

I ordered a 3rd party stylus from Amazon. I will let you know if I like it any better.

[chief1972]

i have had my centro for 3 weeks now, i love it alot better than my 650, i have verizon for my service, data plan is faster than 650, which i like alot, i love that it came with pockettunes, which allows streaming audio, which i use alot, i dont like the battery drainage, as i usually have to charge every 6 hours, which is hard when i am workin since i work 16 hour days on the weekend, the stylus i think sux, but i will get a better one i hope real soon, but i rarely use it so...well i hope everyone enjoys theirs
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