Today at the Digital Life show in New York City, Palm CEO Ed Colligan introduced the new Palm Centro, a brand new touchscreen device that shares many of its design elements with the Treo 500 that was launched on Vodafone earlier this month. This new Palm OS (v5.4.9) device is being launched on Sprint's 3G EV-DO CDMA network and will be available for purchase for a mere US$99 after rebates, an extremely low price for a smartphone with a touchscreen. The Centro uses a 2.2" 320x320 pixel display that is capable of displaying up to 65k colors.Like recent Palm OS powered Treo devices, the new Centro comes equipped with standard features like a QWERTY keyboard, a hands-free speakerphone, and threaded messaging for not only SMS, but also AIM, Yahoo!, and Windows Live instant messaging. Bluetooth support is also included in the device, as is the ability to view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents. A microSD storage card slot that supports cards of up to 4GB in size can be used for saving photos shot with the Centro's 1.3 megapixel camera or for storing music files to be used with the Centro's media player application.
The Palm Centro weighs 119g (4.2oz) and measures 107mm x 53mm x 18mm (4.2" x 2.1" x .7") in size. Palm and Sprint expect the Centro to be available for purchase on October 14th. It will be offered in two color schemes: black and red.
Specifications for the Palm Centro :
operating System : Palm OS 5.4.9
Band : CDMA 800/1900MHz
Data : 1xRTT/EV-DO
Size :107mm x 53mm x 18mm(4.2" x 2.1" x 0.7")
Weight : 119g (4.2oz)
Battery Life :Up to 12.5 standby
Up to 3.5 hours talk time
Up to 3.5 hours talk time
Main Display : 2.2" 65k color TFT LCD touchscreen, 320x320 pixel resolution
Camera : 1.3 megapixel
Video : Video capture/playback
Messaging : MMS/SMS/IM
Email : POP/IMAP/SMTP
Bluetooth : Yes, v1.2
Memory : 64MB RAM, microSD memory card slot
Availability : October 14, 2007 (manufacturer's estimate)
Other : QWERTY keyboard, speakerphone, web browser
