Centro- What can it do?

[HeavyDuty666]

Hi!
Does anyone actually know what the centro can do that the treo cant?
The centro looks smaller, and quite stylish, but with these leaked pictures, there seems to be no mention of specifications.
Can anyone shine some light into this?
Also, what is the expected price for contract and Pay and Go?
Thanks!
Heavy

[r0k]

Hi!
Does anyone actually know what the centro can do that the treo cant?
The centro looks smaller, and quite stylish, but with these leaked pictures, there seems to be no mention of specifications.
Can anyone shine some light into this?
Also, what is the expected price for contract and Pay and Go?
Thanks!
Heavy

Heavy,

The earliest pictures were rather ugly. Now the device looks more appealing, but no specs are available yet. Palm normally doesn't comment on upcoming products, but the backlash to the ugly leaked photos kind of forced their hand. I'm sure Centro specs will be available soon. Most speculate it will be rather stripped down and wouldn't necessarily be an upgrade from an existing Treo. If it really can sell at $99 with contract, I don't expect the specs to be too impressive. I would expect it to be very similar to the Treo 650 but with micro sd instead of sd. It's even possible there will be NO sd card support.

When I first saw the leaked photos and heard the low price, I speculated there might not be a touchscreen. This is not true. It will have a touchscreen. Will it offer anything beyond Garnet? I don't think so. If it uses Garnet, I hope it's the last Garnet device we ever see from Palm. Not because I don't like Garnet, but because Palm needs their new OS to move beyond vaporware after the demise of Cobalt and four long years of anticipation.

To address your main point, what can the Centro do that the Treo cant? Well, if it's smaller, it can be more appealing to those who want smaller phones. Would I upgrade to Centro from my Treo 650? Perhaps. If it offered more real RAM and better stability I would definitely take a look even if the memory wasn't any bigger than Treo's z22-like 32 meg. Since I really want to use data, I would be more likely to choose 755p once it's available on either Sprint or Verizon without a camera. I would highly doubt the Centro would feature faster data speed as a low cost device. Only time will tell, but I think the answers are coming soon.

Centro specs will probably come out after the release of Foleo as Palm doesn't want to distract from the launch of a device they believe will help put them in the spotlight again. A lot of debate has swirled around the Foleo and I'm hoping it comes out soon, sells well enough to keep the money flowing so that Palm can finally give me the new OS I've been craving, whether it's on a Centro form factor or Treo form factor is less important than my desire for higher data speed and a new OS.

[Adama D. Brown]

Hi!
Does anyone actually know what the centro can do that the treo cant?

Technically, I doubt the Centro does anything that the Treo can't. It's just an alternative form-factor and design.

The centro looks smaller, and quite stylish, but with these leaked pictures, there seems to be no mention of specifications.
Can anyone shine some light into this?
Also, what is the expected price for contract and Pay and Go?

With contract, $99. No projected price or availability information about buying it on prepaid, but I'd suspect around $250.

[AlanG]

The last rumor I saw, indicated that the Centro (aka Treo 690) will sell for $400 without a contract.

Alan G

[Adama D. Brown]

Okay, ouch.

[AlanG]

Ya, kinda puts a damper on picking one up as a "toy" to go a long with my Treo 700p and Palm TX. (At $400, I'll likely pass.) I'm still going to look at getting a Windows Mobile version if one is released here in the States. I just don't have enough experience with Windows Mobile. Sure, I've used iPAQs before, but they weren't wireless.

Alan G

[HeavyDuty666]

It sounds like a good device, but i guess the specs will tell the real story, along with the price tag! Will it be any match for the iPhone?

[Adama D. Brown]

Given that it's expected price with contract is $99, I wouldn't expect anything in the line of gigabytes of onboard storage.

[HeavyDuty666]

What do you mean by onboard storage? Like 1gb non volitile memory, or SD memory compatibility?

[Adama D. Brown]

I mean internal flash memory, apart from a storage card.