Palm desperately needs some good news. 

It was love at first sight.

Not because it is compact and nicely shaped   – or because it 3G wireless connection is fast - or because it handles Microsoft Exchange mail, calendar and phonebook with aplomb.

I love it because it’s that and more.  It’s an all-around great device.

The Centro is really a smaller Treo.  Palm says it’s 20 percent smaller.  I didn’t spend time measuring.  Let’s just say it’s slightly smaller.   What they’ve done they’ve made it easier to hold.

The screen is smaller than the Treo’s – but readable.  The keyboard is smaller, too.  When you first see it you might think it’s too small to type on, but even with my big fingers, I found the Centro’s keyboard made it easy for my typing to be quite accurate.  I like it better than the iPhone to type on.

There’s a 1.3 megapixel camera on the back, which seems skimpy for a modern-day smartphone.  It does produce fine looking photos and videos, though.

Palm’s operating system seems well suited to Sprint’s 3G data network.  I found Web browsing to be surprisingly speedy – especially when accessing the built-in Google Maps feature.

The Centro comes with Sprint TV, MobiTV, pTunes, On Demand and four different IM titles.

I like how well Centro’s e-mail program handles my Microsoft mail and appointments.   The first time I synched it took less than a minute to download all the information into the phone.

(MSNBC.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.)

VersaMail and Palm’s own Calendar and Phone Book software continue to sync perfectly with my Outlook account data.  I have this Centro wireless synching with my mail server every 5 minutes for 15 hours each day.  Battery life, with heavy data and medium voice use, is more than 24 hours per charge.

I found the Centro easy to use either with or without the stylus.  I rarely, if ever, felt the need to rely on the external pointing device.
  
The Centro is very attractive.  I love Palm’s red metal finish on the test model.   It’s nice to see that Palm can still produce this level of excellence.

Sprint has an exclusive deal with Palm until the end of the year.  They are selling the Centro for only $99, after all the rebates, and with a two-year contract.  I believe that makes the Centro one of the biggest bargain smartphones of the year.

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