Palm Centro - Great phone except for camera & email use!

I have a love-hate relationship with my new Palm Centro. I purchased the item as an upgrade from the Palm Treo about 4 months ago. For the first 2 months, the phone worked great, but now two of the applications have drastically slowed down. Namely, the camera function and email function. Once in a while the phone freezes up completely –in which case removing and re-inserting the battery will bring it back to life and full functionality.


The camera is horribly slow, and not exactly a “point and shoot” function. Unless you hold the phone still for 10 seconds after capturing your photo, it just comes out as a big blur. Also, when trying to click on a picture to look at the full-size view, the phone takes 30 seconds to load the photo! Since this was not a problem in the first 2 months I had the phone, I thought that ordering a new battery might help – it did not. I also tried deleting all pictures (thinking memory might be close to full and therefore slowing the application) – this did not help either. I’m at a loss for what to do next, I guess I will try to contact Palm support.


The email function is slow as well. Sometimes the email will not connect at all, even though you are in a coverage area. Adding attachments is a long process – if they are a previously saved file, you have to re-save into some palm file in order to attach to an email or text. If you need to send emails and attachments (or text attachments) quickly, I would NOT recommend this phone! Also, the battery gets drained very quickly when talking, using Internet, or playing music - so always remember to carry a spare! It does charge back up fast though, which is a plus.

Now, for the reasons I love this phone…

1. It’s great if you love to text, and have small hands! My boyfriend tried to use the keypad for texting, but kept pushing two buttons at once – so it’s definitely better for people with little hands since the keypad is tiny.
2. Holds a mini SD card to you can store tons of music, files and pictures. My only complaint is that if you use a phone cover, it’s tough to access the SD card slot. I preferred the fact that my other phone (Palm Treo) loads a full-size SD card from the top.
3. The Word and Excel functions are great. Very easy to add data, locate files, and save onto SD card.
4. The Internet function works well – it’s like having a personal mini-computer with you at all times. Internet connects quickly in most situations and is easy to navigate.
5. If you like to IM or live chat, this phone is perfect for you. Yahoo live chat connects quickly.
6. The speaker works wonderfully – plays downloaded music and sounds like a small stereo. Phone conversations are clear.
7. The touch screen is very easy to use – works with feather light touch.

I would highly recommend this phone to anyone who does not find camera or email functions to be a high priority. If only the camera worked better on this phone, I would give it a 5 star rating!