New toy!!

I've got another new toy. After 2 months of contemplating whether to get the new Palm Centro or in the very first place whether there's a need for a new phone, I finally got the Centro yesterday for RM1399 including a 2G micro SD card. I must say that it was extremely daring of me as this was the first time in my "toy" buying history that I've bought something before even laying my hands and my eyes on the actual thing. Although, I must say that the Dopod hanging on me the whole of yesterday gave me the additional push to get a new phone. Prior to yesterday whatever I knew about the Centro was either through talking to people or the internet. Nevertheless, I'm glad to say that I'm quite happy with my impulsive purchase. Apparently it was launched at 6pm yesterday and I got it at 6:30pm :-) Talk about "kiasu"!!



Phone and Box


After using the Centro for 24 hours I will say that the phone is quite easy to use. Certainly very straight forward to setup and configure as compared to my previous Dopod. I guess it helps that I'm not new to the Palm OS. The other excellent thing is that now as compare to the palm handhelds that I've used previously, this can sync with MS Outlook. So I don't have to go through the hassle of figuring out how to convert the Outlook files to Palm Desktop. The size of the phone is a big plus factor as I can now carry the phone in my pocket and not have to put it in my handbag all the time. Helps especially when I have to help out at the restaurant.

However, because of it's small size the QWERTY keypad took a while to getting used to. At times I've had to use my nails to press a key. The size of the keypad was one of the "maybe not" factors in deciding whether to get the phone. Someone told me that the small keypad wouldn't be an issue unless I have giant fingers but Hubbs actually saw it in the US and said not to get it because the keypad was hopelessly minute. I figured that I don't think I have giant fingers hence the purchase yesterday. But seriously, I would advice the guys to really have a test drive on the actual phone before buying it. What is lacking in terms of text input is that it would have been great if it came with a predictive text input function. Helps prevent cramming of thumbs.

Another downside to the phone is the fact that it doesn't have wifi and doesn't run on 3G nor HSDPA mode. It only has EDGE. Hubbs reckons that I've downgraded by buying the Centro because the Dopod has all the above plus GPS. However, I must say that the net surfing speed on the Centro is just as fast or I dare say maybe slightly faster than on the Dopod on EDGE. I reckon this has got to do with Blazer being more efficient than IE. If only it has wifi...

Prior to buying the phone I've heard die hard palm users touting the stability of the Palm OS. Maybe it's just my luck but in just 24 hours of owning the phone, it has hung on me no less than 5 times. Of which I've had to soft reset twice by removing the battery. (Centro doesn't have a soft reset button) As I said maybe it's just my luck but other than that, the speed of switching from one application to another is certainly faster and not as lagging as WM6. I'm hoping that the "hanging" experience today was just part of the "getting to know you" process and would actually stabilize once we've gotten to know each other better.

Overall, I'm happy with the phone. I'm glad I bought the phone but I wish the nagging feeling of having downgraded will pass with time :-) For now, I'm still carrying my Dopod on a prepaid Celcom line just in case. ;)