Having never owned a Palm based phone I was curious to get my hands on the phones that the folks over at Palm sent over. The first unit I tested was the Palm Centro.
My litmus test was how well I could use the phone straight out of the box and in all honesty I was handicapped when I first started using it as I did not know that it was preferable to use a stylus.
After using other phones over the past couple of years that have had touch screens or did not require a stylus I felt this was like a step back in time.
The Web Browser was the first thing I loaded and after loading a web page or two I was highly disappointed as the browser stripped all of the graphics and only showed text. After using the G1 and iPhone one has a hard time going back to this old way of surfing the net.
The interface for navigating standard features like contact list, calendar, voicemail was all pretty standard. But what surprises me about this phone is that they could have went with a bigger screen. Lots of plastic.
During my reception test over a 40 minute drive the phone dropped connection in the same exact locations that other phones I have tested and currently have drop connection.
The keyboard on the unit was a bit to small for my likening but my 12 year old daughter did fine with the keyboard. The camera function was much better than my iPhone and being able to record video was a plus. The unit I received was on the Sprint network
A built in Facebook application surprised me as well as Google Maps which both worked well. The chat function seemed to please my daughter thus it passed the teenager test.
My take away on this phone is that I personally would not want one. But polling my daughter who used it for several hours she liked the size as it was small and she preferred using the stylus on the phone.
Checking the Sprint website they have the phone at $79.99 with a two year contract which makes for an attractive price for a smart phone. See the full functions of the phone at Palm.com