The "Centro" is Palm's first smartphone, initially available through Sprint - but you can get one through Verizon now too. It has a touchscreen - which is very popular now, but you can use it's included stylus as well. This version beats the previous "Treo" brand hands down. They're calling the Centro the "Bargain PDA" because of it's lower price compared to other smartphones.

Features to note:

- comes in black or ruby red
- 320x320 screen
- microSD flash card slot
- EVDO 3G high speed connection
- use phone as modem
- 1.3 megapixel camera
- 352x288 video clip recording
- stereo bluetooth
- Google Maps
- Pocket Tunes Deluxe
- Office 2007 Support
- Web Access
- Email

The distinctive difference between the Palm Centro and Treos is it's small size, and the snappiness of the OS. Everything is pretty responsive, unlike some of the "lag time" you get while navigating other smart phones. They keyboard is so very small with mere millimeters between the keys, a grown man's thumb covers half the keyboard at once (mine does!). Despite these issues the "gem sized" keys are easy to navigate and press - I only made mistakes the first few times I typed. Once I got used to it, it was very easy.

One of the first things I did was access the web to see how fast it was. I first went to google, and then a couple web sites - and everything loaded pretty quickly. I'll probably have to make a list of sites best suited for mobile use and reading to bookmark.

The next thing I tried was email. I've owned a few smartphones before and was never a big fan of reading my email on the cell phone. It was always so slow and clunky. I was hesitant, but setup my personal email account using the Centro's "Versamail". I figured if I didn't like it - I would just delete it. I entered my user and login info, in addition to my incoming and outgoing server address and in about 15 seconds it was downloading the mail to my inbox. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to read messages, delete them, and go from my inbox to trash, to sent items, and back again. I can honestly say with the bigger screen size, and responsiveness of the Centro that I look forward to reading my email on this device.

I proceeded from there to the camera where I took a few test pics - which were pretty decent quality. I wouldn't advise using this phone in low lighting situations, but as far as phone cams go - the quality wasn't bad. You have the usual options after you take a pic to send via picture mail (on Sprint) or to "beam" to someone via bluetooth. I was surprised however, that once I viewed saved pics, when I accessed the menu in top left of the screen options to "send" or "beam" were there too - but by choosing "send" you can send it to anyone in email! I could never do this before without setting up all kinds of crazy hacks in my phone.

I wanted to install the Opera Mini browser on the Centro, but many forum threads I read indicated that there were all kinds of problems with the JVM (java virtual machine) required installation - so for now I'm just sticking with the included Palm "Blazer" web browser. All in all - I think I'm going to really like this phone. I found two Centro resources that I utilized today, the Smartphone Experts Centro Forum, and the Must Have Freeware Treo and Cento Applications Guide.

I'll leave you with some links to used and new palm centro's and accessories for sale on eBay now!