Palm Centro, The TX companion?

[cms]

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/centro/#

Here it is everyone, The palm centro :D

They were not kidding when they said this phone would be targeted towards the teenage community, just look at the website :D


For $99 I am very interested in buying this phone once it carries over into the verizon sales floors. Its sleek and would make an almost perfect bluetooth phone combination with the Palm TX.


I AM SO BUYING THIS PHONE OMFG :p :D


The phone also uses an MiniSD card slot and supports up to 4gb!
Not only will Centro be a nice bluetooth TX-Centro companion, You may be able to set up an effective storage between the two thus, alowing your TX to access the documents pictures video, music, and internet that are on your centro.

Talk about companionship :D

[Palmisok]

dunno, the centro seems like a step towards smartphones and away from PDAs. IMO the TX (when paired with a BT phone) pretty much has the ability to do everything that phone can do and probably more. If I'm right though the newer Palm phones already exceed what the TX can do, but it's also a phone (never liked the combination of the 2). I guess we'll just wait and see. Sorry, didn't want to be a party pooper, but I had to say it lol.

[cms]

Im not saying TX paired with a BT phone sucks

Im AM Saying TX paired with a BT CENTRO is OMFG crazy

Now not only can you connect to the internet with your TX through the BT of the Centro, but when in Wi-Fi range the Centro can use the TX's connection.

Both devices Bennefit from it. :D

My phone sucks right now and for $99 I am seriously going to get that phone even if its going to kill me :D

[Palmisok]

why would you use the Centro when the TX can get a wifi signal? The TX can already browse if in Wifi. That price is pretty damn nice though.

[cms]

Well, If you wanted to you could, You might be able to Voip (I belive thats what its called), where you basicaly turn the centro into a wifi phone.

The Centro will have the blazer 4.5 which has video streaming and is 10-fold faster than the blazer we have on our PalmTX's

[alt236]

I suggest you wait a bit before you get it just to make sure that it won't have any showstopping or performance limiting bugs (as Palm has been doing recently).

[Pully]

How does it utilize the TX's Wifi?

Not heard of that, as far as I am aware the TX can't act in this manner (otherwise I could usb/bt connect my TX to my PC and voila I have a wireless card on my PC to access a wireless router).

And even if you can connect it inthat manner you still would be throttled to BT speeds rather than Wifi.

[MleB]

Chunky, yet with a dinky screen and even smaller keys. Teen market? How about the pre-teen? Is this the Palm Firefly?

I'm not sure why Palm didn't, back in early 2006 shortly after its initial release, give their TX a wireless radio, a user-replaceable battery, bigger virtual keyboard and called it the Treo 670 - rather than all the really lame devices they've presented since. And they could have beaten Apple by more than a year in the realm of big screen smartphones...

[dmccunney]

How does it utilize the TX's Wifi?

Not heard of that, as far as I am aware the TX can't act in this manner (otherwise I could usb/bt connect my TX to my PC and voila I have a wireless card on my PC to access a wireless router).

And even if you can connect it inthat manner you still would be throttled to BT speeds rather than Wifi.I think he believes you can pair the TX and the Centro via BT, then use BT on the Centro to connect out using the TX Wifi connection.

As you mentioned, you would be throttled to BT speeds if you could do it, but I don't believe you can. As I recall, BT and Wifi are "one or the other" connections: the TX can't use both at once.
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Dennis

[cms]

I have used both at the same time

100% certain you can use bluetooth and wifi at the same time

You just can not connect to a network connection with bluetooth, and connect to a network connection with wifi [B]

You can pair a device via bluetooth and connect to a network via wifi.

You wont get these:

"Im sorry, your bluetooth connection to your headset has been disabled because you turned on your wifi"

"Your BT FTP file transfer has been canceled because blazer has turned on your wifi."

"Your BT FTP file transfer has been canceled because you uploaded a file to a wifi network drive using Resco Explorer"

It is obvious that you can use BT and Wifi at the same time :rolleyes:

[Pully]

Yes maybe able to use BT & Wifi together but you cant use BT to connect a device to the TX and that connected device use the TX's Wifi connection (as far as I know).

[cms]

I belive that the Centro wont be able to connect to the internet through the TX on-the-spot, you will need to wait for somone to program this.

[jstrubberg]

Seriously, this thing is junk.

For $99 you too can have a poorly constructed media phone with the Palm branding.

Sheesh. I expected much more.

[dmccunney]

Seriously, this thing is junk.

For $99 you too can have a poorly constructed media phone with the Palm branding.For $99 plus a two year service contract...

Sheesh. I expected much more.Why?
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Dennis

[cms]

I believe its all metalic even if the pictures of the onix centro look plastic, its the speckels in the metal that make it look like plastic (in pictures)

As for the small keyboard, I use the dia keyboard on the palm tx with my thumbs quite easly (I actualy dont know how though :D ).

As long as the keyboard on the centro is not smaller than the dia keyboard on the palm tx I should be able to type easly.



If the centro sells to the teenage community as much as I think it will, then we can expect Palm to expand and develop more on lower priced smartphones as well as gain loyalty for future consumers.



As a late teenager myself, I say that the Centro is a good "first attempt" at targeting the teenage community.

I have a Samsung Phone that cost $120 and it doesnt even compare to the features of the Centro, so all in all, the Centro still looks like an appealing buy.




The One thing Im waiting for now before I buy is:

How much DBcache? (if its anything like the palm TX, then shoot me! >.<)

[Palmisok]

Dunno, I'm kinda ready for Palm to either die or be slapped around if they decided to ignore the publics request for improved OS and tech. Seeing as how this is a sort of "economic" smartphone then they better have both reliable OS and tech working together even if it isn't the fastest or largest memory. Kind of funny that this was kept in the shadows and it's just a cheaper Treo and nothing more. I guess you could buy it as soon as it comes out since Palm isn't really too keen on helping or updated tech that's already on the market. Look at all the work that had to be done on the TX and Palm decided not to even release 1 efficient update for it. It was all (or mostly) taken care of by different developers and groups. Since the Centro is so cheap and affordable I'd wonder if they would find it cost effective to keep a team on top of all the problems or updates the phone will or could need.

[jstrubberg]

Put me in the minority column, then. I was really hoping for an expanded buisness class PDA phone, not another icanwatchmoviesonit smartphone.

[palmTE]

A Centro is equivalent in processor, memory and screen resolution to a Treo 755 in a pocketable size, trading off some productivity. I have one on order - for the price it's worth test driving as a smartphone and if it fails that role it could be kept as a plain phone with keyboard for email. Small, cheap and hopefully low aggravation.

Palm lacks the imagination to do much of anything beyond cranking out Treo variations. It's as if they have had no management since... um, Handspring. Maybe they're busy shopping for their next job.
With the Centro they may have accidentally stumbled on something that will keep them in business until they get their act together, get bought out or file for chapter 11.