AT&T Palm Centro smartphone, ready and now available

 

The rumor mill has been turning about the eventual availability of a GSM version of the Palm Centro smartphone since the Centro device was first announced back in September...today's it's a reality on AT&T's EDGE Network for $99.99 (after mail-in rebate and two-year service agreement).

The AT&T Centro smartphone rolls voice, messaging (text and instant), email and internet surfing* into a small lightweight device. And we have new colors for you -- immediately in "Glacier" white with green keypad accents -- and it will be available soon (in about a month) in a second color, "Obsidian" black (yep, it's different than "Onyx" which is available on Sprint). There are also some new features the AT&T Centro will be sporting right out of the box including:

• XM Radio Mobile - Allows you to stream commercial free music from just about any genre (hip-hop, pop, jazz, country and more); all for $8.99 per month.
• MusicID (a personal favorite!) - Helps you identify unknown songs by simply holding your Centro smartphone up to a speaker - it's a really cool way to figure out song information for tunes you aren't familiar with (title, artist and cover art, if available, etc.); all for $3.99 per month.
• AT&T Mall - You can buy ringtones, wallpapers, and other multimedia content and download over the air to the device.
• Push to Talk (PTT) - Not really new to the AT&T Centro since it was recently made available on the Treo 680 Update 2.11 for AT&T, but new and cool enough to be worth mentioning again! PTT works like a walkie-talkie to talk to an individual or a group of up to 29. The app also includes "status" icons so you can tell which of your family and friends are available before you call. Users can purchase unlimited PTT minutes with Nationwide Plans for $9.99 per month per line and with FamilyTalk for $19.99 per month per group (two to five lines). Customers also can use PTT on a pay-per-use basis for $0.15 per minute.

In addition to these applications, which we'll be discussing in more detail during the weeks to come, the AT&T Centro of course still has the features you are familiar with from the Sprint Centro including instant messaging, Pocket Tunes Deluxe, a color touch screen, and full keyboard.

For details on the AT&T Centro, including availability, check out www.palm.com/centro and www.att.com.

And for those of you outside of the U.S. who are interested in the GSM Centro, our friends across the "pond" announced earlier that it will be available in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Phil M. - Product Line Manager, Consumer Smartphones

Links to reviews coming soon...

(a picture of "Obsidian" black)

     

*Within wireless coverage area only. Requires data services at additional cost.

Comments

[Chris]

Are they the same dimensions as the Palm Centro model from Sprint or is it equivalent to the European Centro model?

[Trey]

Just one thing- why isn't your division just called 'Find more ways to suck money out of consumers for AT&T'? As an increasingly aggreived owner of a Treo 680, I find myself suprised, again, that after all the time since the iPhone launch, you are still playing by old school rules. Charging for services if we want them is- well, fine, but where is the actual usefulness of the phone itself?

Same crap web browser? Check. Same touchy synch? Check.
Same limited SDK? Check.
And so on and on and on...

Fail. Fail. Fail. It's pretty, and that nice, but really & for true, I just want a phone that puts working for me out of the box as precedence over schilling for my service carrier. I actually spent 5 bucks for Invisible, to get rid of the crap ware off my 680 after the last update. And once that was gone, what was left? Soduku.

Fail.

I really used to like Palm- I even reccommended Treos to friends and family. That's not something I can do now. Now, I eye the iPhone with regret about how close and yet how far it is off the mark (but an SDK is coming, right?), and I hope without really hoping that something useful will come from the vaportrail that is Android. But gentelmen, if you can't name one new and/or improved feature for this unit for the consumer that doesn't involve a chargeback, then really, what's the use of it?

[Stu Metzler]

Does anyone know if/when there will be a T-Mobile/unlocked Centro available? I've VERY interested in either.

Stu

[MAX Palm]

Happy for you living in US...for us europeans there is only a dream! Palm Centro is not here yet, only a pre-order and nothing more. When Palm is giving us any consideration? We are living people as you are...!

[Ed]

When you say "Obsidian" black, hopefully it doesn't have the same green keyboard that the white one does. Can you tell us what color the keyboard will be.

[Gareth]

Any news on when the GSM Centro will be available in the UK? It was launched on the 14th Feb but no-one has stocks.

[Chad Garrett]

Tool bad AT&T is nickel and dimming you with these other services. Sprint gives you everything.

[Brian Johnson]

Users of GSM phone networks aren't all "across the pond".

T-Mobile is GSM here in the States and I'd like to be able to use a Centro.

Thanks.

[Steve]

As a long-time palm PDA user I would like a version of this (kind of thing) which doesn't have the (unnecessary and space consuming) physical keypad at the expense of a good sized screen.
I could imagine something like a TX merged with this Centro thing to give voice/phone func. would be hard to resist.
Er... a modern (multitasking) OS would be nice of course.

maybe our best hope is for the Google Android or the LiMo Foundation things to allow "my kind" of device to emerge...
Us Palm PDA users appear to have been deserted by Palm.

Steve (UK).

[Jeremy]

Both of these photos look like phones from 1998. Way to innovate, Palm.

[Samoilija]

I agree with Brian Johnson. I don't want the keyboard, but I am afraid that the future Palm's won't even come with a stylus anymore. That seems to be the trend, unfortunately.

Whereas I would like to see a PDA-phone with a large screen and improved Graffiti (Newton-style handwriting recognition)--that combined with a multi-tasking, easy-to-use (that's where Palm OS still excels) OS would be a winner!

Treo 680 and Centro are nice, but just what everyone else is doing. I don't believe in touchscreen (have tried iPhone's keyboard and am not impressed), but the stylus is the way to go. Hasn't the mankind been writing with a pen for some milennia already; that should prove it is an effective interface.

[RobAnd]

When will we have a real Smartphone/PDA with a decent big screen? I am tired of these keyboard treos with such small screens.
I have also opened my TX and added an internal mic to fix a big palm mistake! Now my TX is almost perfect. The only thing still missing is a cell radio on it.

When will you give us a TX Phone Palm?

[GM]

I totally agree with Steve. We need a
BIG SCREEN SMARTPHONE PALM.
WE NEED A PURE TOUCHSCREEN SMARTPHONE.
The TX formfactor will be the best choice for such device. Just like the IPhone!!!

[Paul Loeffler (Palm, Inc)]

Hi Chris,

Here is a link that shows side-by-side the specs (including the phone dimensions) between the AT&T Centro and the Sprint Centro: http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/centro/specs.html

Paul Loeffler, Palm, Inc.

[John Herron]

Been waiting a long time for the AT&T Centro, but alas - no 3G network support, only EDGE.

I like the Centro and the Palm OS Treos, the Palm OS interface, touch screens and I'm fine with the QWERTY keypads. But the AT&T 680 is looking a little old and the Centro, while cool, doesn't add much to 2006 technology without 3G and WiFi.

I don't understand the logic behind releasing a new phone that uses an older generation of data networks. Even 3G isn't as fast as what our European and Asian friends have - come on Palm and AT&T, at least give us the best the U.S. has to offer!!!

Looks like my plan to switch to a Centro isn't going to happen.

[Rui]

Palm used to be a inovator, the first easy to use pda writing, the first color pda, the first to have a slide out and compact pda, one of the first to have a smartphone, one of the first to have wifi, and now nothing for 5 years. I'm not even talking about Palm OS that could allready have multitasking, but hardware. Nokia this is where is inovation, 5 mp camera, fm radio, tv output, wake up Palm, please.

[Mark Bergman]

Glad to see the AT&T Centro. I'm just counting the days until the Obsidian Black is released as the white looks like something targeted for teenage girls. I hope to see more development from Palm. I just tested a BlackBerry Curve. Loved the size and format, but I'm not ready to give up the Palm functionality. I only hope that Palm can keep reducing size and adding features (3G and WiFi) before too many more users give up on them. The Palm developer community is the most innovative.

[Tam]

Definitely we need a big screen smartphone with the TX formfactor. And Palm cannot abandon its PDA line. When are you going to update your PDA line. One million PDAs units per year without the pressure of the carrier cannot be simply waisted. Wake up Palm, There many, many palm users waiting to upgrade their PDA and there many others waiting for a 320x480 screen Treo!!!!

[ALZ]

Mr. Paul Loeffler,

Please gives us some clues about a possible Big Screen Treo. At least one model!
For sure the TX formfactor, as many have said before, could be a real winner for a Palm Smartphone. Look at the Iphone sales numbers. And the Iphone is very similar to the TX.

[Jin]

I am from Malaysia and I've been a long time Palm user. I know that Palm is going to launch the Centro in my country soon, and I am one who is eagerly awaiting for the launch and possibly get myself two units, one for myself and one for my kid. However, what concerns me most is the price that Palm is going to set for Malaysia. The price of Centro set for UK is 199 pound, which is about RM 1256. I think at this price I will definitely get myself two units and I strongly believe it will sell quite well here. From my past experience, Palm seem to price their products a bit higher in Asia countries, if this happens to the Centro, I must say that I will not be getting the Centro and so do score of people (just check local sites that are dedicated to Palm). I am hoping Palm to set a price of not exceeding RM1200 for the Asian market which I think is quite criticle for Palm to revive the ever droping market share of Palm devices in these countries.

[RG]

I am happy to see that many users are waiting for a Big Screen Smartphone just like me. But I am very sad that palm is not taking attention to what its loyal customers are crying out loud. Come on Palm, launch a big screen Treo. I also agree that TX formfactor is an excelent choice:)

[PRM]

I think palm must upgrade its PDA line because is there that the majority of real loyal customers are! I have concluded this because I read some comments from important Palm OS developers stating that more around 70% of purchased software were from PDA users and TX owners represent more than 50%. The developers have said that this indicates that smartphone buyers dont use to buy third party software and because of this they jump from one plataform to another much frequently. In the other hand PDA users purchased many many titles and end up being very dependent of the plataform. For sure this make much sense for me as I also have a lot of third party Palm OS titles and I cannot simply jump to another OS.
Please Palm, update your PDA line and keep your loyal customers around!
Gives an updates TX with:
- more memory
- mic for voices records and skype
- Built in GPS
- Lots of good softwares
- USB Drive mode and File manager like the T5
- multitasking in the new PALM OS II
- Keep the power of the infrared port as strong as it is on TX to enable use it as an universal remote control(Treos have a very underpower infrared)
- keep wifi and bluetooth
- 3MPixel camera
- vibrating alarm and LED
- 600MHz CPU
- Lots of real RAM memory
-.....

[AL]

Everything has a price attached to it. I had just seen the video with Stephane Maes speaking about how Palm is attempting to make the Smartphones more affordable, so that everyone can have a chance to own one, but does anyone know what verizon charges for thier data plan? When Palm can get browsing the internet like the iphone can, I'll be the first to pay the high cost of that data plan, but until that time, I refuse to look at the internet on my Treo 700WX 240x240 screen.

[Charlton]

Wow!! That's good!!

[Sachin Palewar]

I have been very excited about the Centro since it was announced and its good to know that a GSM version is now available, but I will be really happy if an unlocked GSM version becomes available.

I even posted about Centro on my blog at -
http://palewar.blogspot.com/2007/09/this-christmas-get-free-palm-smartphone.html