Product Design: Palm Centro
via Palm Infocenter
via SlashphonePalm introduced their new Palm OS based smartphone, the Palm Centro, in the Fall 2007. It is the smallest and lightest Palm Os based smartphone currently on the market. The Centro brought with it a range of high end phone features, along with 3G wireless data and full qwerty keyboard at the sub-$100 price range.
Initially the Centro comes in two color choices, onyx black and ruby red. The phone is available through the Sprint network. The casing is a smooth plastic with silver trims accenting the sides, along with the front and back buttons. The design is similar to the classic Palm devices. The form factor remind one of their Z22 model, with the exception of the exposed keyboard. The rounded look of the design helps to make the product looks smaller visually. The actual dimension and weight of the product are 4.22" (L) x 2.11" (W) x 0.73" (D); 4.2 ounces.
Palm did many things right in the design of the Centro over their other smartphones like the Treo's. The design of the Treo's have been to me a bit clunky. It is oversized, with not very well thought out arrangements of the elements on the front plate of the product. The designs of the buttons are very unpleasant to look at, unlike the Centro which conformed more to the straight geometric shapes. This allows for easier readability over the Treo design, creating a nice separation for all the required button interface. The use of the silver band to separate the screen from the keyboard was also a smart choice. Not only does this allows for a visual break in the design, but also create enough space for both elements to breath and function.
The Palm Centro runs of Palm OS Garnet version 5.4.9. This is the same OS version as the Palm OS 5 that has been around since mid-2002. But for the Centro, Palm has made some tweaks to the OS, though no new improvements on the underlying architecture. The device includes updated software that one comes to rely on from a Palm device, plus added application from Sprint.
In this my opnion, this is one of the sleekest Palm design in recent memory. Though it is not exactly the iPhone, the product does have its charms. Palm OS has become a bit antiquated, with products that people are hardly going crazy over. Though their Treo line is a mainstay with the smartphone crowd, the competition from the iPhone means that Palm really needs to overhaul both their phone design, and their Palm Operating System. The release of the Centro seems like a step in the right direction.
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