Palm Centro: WOW

[pherzog99]

I'll start off by saying that I'm a Sprint employee, so I've been through and sold a lot of phones over the past four years. The Palm Centro is by far the most amazing handset that I have ever sold as a Sprint rep. Without boring you with too much detail, I like to base my experiences with phones in a very simple manner. I compare it to the last one I had. In this case, a year ago I had the 700p, and sold it just before throwing it out the window after it locked up on me for THE LAST TIME!!! After patiently waiting for the HTC Mogul to come out, I finally made the leap to a Windows Mobile device, assuming that the issues I was having were due to the Palm OS. Boy was I wrong. You talk about a phone with a bad attitude, this thing didn't do anything I told it to do, and when it did, it did it slow. To put it in perspective, I actually did throw this phone, hard, across the street, and it landed softly in the mud standing straight up. I've never had a phone end calls on its own, stop making any and all sound for no reason, or have a battery that's too small and shut off all the time when you touch it wrong. (Can you tell how much I love the Mogul?????) While waiting on insurance to replace my phone, the Centro arrived in my store. I immediately took one out of the box and began to play with it. It's by far the smallest Smartphone that we've ever carried. Thin, short, light and overall small. I then rang it up to find out how much the damage was going to be, and to my surprise, after all the rebates it ends up $150 cheaper than the 755p. Amazing. To my knowledge, there is not a single feature besides screen size and battery life that is different between the Centro and the 755p. If I didn't work for Sprint, I would've had the phone right then and there, but unfortunately, I was forced to wait a week under company policy. A week later, my phone arrived, and I can't put it down. My only complaint: battery life, which I knew going in. I've got a car charger, and will soon have a spare battery to carry with me. When I hit a button, it does what I told it to do. When I make a phone call, I end it on my terms, not my phone's. When I touch my phone, it stays on, like it should. Since receiving the phone in stock a week and a half ago, I myself have sold 12 of the devices and our store has sold over 30. We can't keep them in stock. It is by far, the easiest sell that I have ever had as a Sprint rep. Way to go Palm!!!

[RichC]

As a Treo 700p user, I agree with you. The Centro is a 'best buy' in my book. Putting my money where my mouth is, I bought two. (one to replace my wife's old i600 and one as my daughter's first Palm based phone -- she's in Med school and wanted to be a bit more organized and have info 'literally' at her fingertips) I posted a couple comments (and photos) here.

[dbcraig]

Just got my Centro last night. I am so impressed! What a cool little phone, and it is small!
I do, however, miss the ablilty to use by Bluetooth headset to verbally make a call. Is there any software that will allow me to speak a name to call?
What about "speed dialing?" Did I miss the page to do that too?
Thanks!

[forgot]

Unfortunatly there is no BT voice dialing software out there right now, but you can speed dial. Set a contact as a favorite in your phone application. You can then set a key to launch that favorite.

[comiken205]

Okay, I am so jealous. Where is the red Centro!? Come on Nov 4th!

[dbcraig]

Thanks, I have been exploring all the features, and found the speed dialing/feature area, and that is great!
I love the way I can look up a contact, and click "map" and google maps gives me a quick map. It has already helped on my second day of my phone!
I used the Microsoft Live Search on my Samsung. I haven't found the option to get this on the Centro. Does anyone know if I can get it, and how?

[French]

Originally Posted by dbcraig

Thanks, I have been exploring all the features, and found the speed dialing/feature area, and that is great!
I love the way I can look up a contact, and click "map" and google maps gives me a quick map. It has already helped on my second day of my phone!
I used the Microsoft Live Search on my Samsung. I haven't found the option to get this on the Centro. Does anyone know if I can get it, and how?

WOW! I didn't even see this option. How cool.

[dmc1068]

I think I will have to wait for the 800. I want something that woeks better than my 700 but the 755 doesn't seem to and the Centro seems too small!

[RichC]

Works on all Palm based Treos IIRC ... and it includes the Centro. (not sure about Windows based?)

[eclair]

Pherzog, congratulations on your new centro. It looks like you are already a valuable contributing member. Welcome to Treonauts pherzog99 great to have you here. Have fun. Thanks for joining.