Good Things -- Small Package

Last month the New York Times posted a good review (by David Pogue) of the newest Palm Smartphone -- the Centro.

(Mostly) Good Things in a Small Package
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That must be what Palm was thinking when it unveiled the Centro, its new keyboard-equipped cellphone. It’s almost identical to the company’s popular Treo smartphone, but a little smaller and cheaper.

Your first reaction might well be to shake your head in dismay. Is that the best Palm can come up with? How could this great innovator of the ’90s have gotten so lost in the woods? People used to go nuts on every rumor of a new Palm device. Web sites ran reviews of every carrying case and stylus. Corporate geeks used Graffiti, the PalmPilot’s handwriting-recognition alphabet, even on whiteboards and notepads.

Not anymore. Lately, Palm’s innovation engines seem to be running on their last wisps of steam. There was a momentary flicker of hope last January when Palm’s founder, Jeff Hawkins, introduced the Foleo — a superthin, category-busting, laptoplike “cellphone companion” — but Palm canceled the Foleo last month.

So for two years, Palm’s “new” products have been little more than minor variations on the Treo — and the Centro appears to be yet another one.

Palm hoped that by trimming the Treo’s size and price, it would create a totally different product, a new crossover phone for people who have never before owned phones with alphabet keys. (By Palm’s reckoning, that’s 95 percent of cellphone buyers.)

But here’s the funny thing: the strategy works.

The Centro’s rounded plastic case, available in red or black, is 2.1 by 4.2 by 0.7 inches thick. That’s about a fifth of an inch smaller than the Treo 700 in every dimension. Doesn’t sound like much, but on gadgets that live in your grip, microns can feel like miles. And at 4.2 ounces, the Centro is also 34 percent lighter than the Treo.

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