IN YOUR PALM

If you8217;re looking for PDA features and a full keyboard, go for the Palm Centro

Last week, Palm announced its smaller, slicker PDA-based smartphone. For those interested in a phone with a full keyboard and more PDA features than just the e-mail, and who have always loved the Palm except for its pop-out antenna, read on.

The phone is available in red and black, is priced at US 300 it hasn8217;t released in India, but should do so soon enough, and has a new curvy design that all phone companies are trying out these days. The phone is much smaller than most Palm smartphones, but small size has its drawbacks.

I find the new curvy look impressive and much more appealing than the earlier versions. With a small 2-inch screen, but a great resolution of 320215;320, it looks fantastic. The small size also means that the keyboard is smaller, but the red colour and the curvy looks mean that Palm probably had young women in mind as buyers, in which case the keyboard works well. Besides, having a full QWERTY keyboard is much much better than T9 or not having one at all. If, on the other hand, you have fat fingers like mine, stay away from it.

The main buttons are much bigger now and capable of switching from phone to e-mail to organiser and returning to home screen. The usual 8216;send8217; and 8216;end8217; keys are also there. The layout is well done but the big buttons and the design lack tactile feedback. The four-way rocker is also in the shape of the body and adds design value.

The greatest feature in a Palm phone is the slider switch to turn it to silent and it has managed to fit it here as well. It has also included the standard Hot Sync and the 2.5-mm headphone jack.

It was a shock for the geek community when Palm announced that it would switch to the Windows mobile platform with its 750 series. This phone is back on high speed with the Palm OS, which outshines every other platform. Though the icons on the iPhone look cool and efforts have been made to make them more interactive, it still has a long way to go. The phone bundles in multiple chat clients AOL, MSN, Yahoo and PDF/ Word and Excel editors, but using the Internet or e-mail on this phone is not as impressive as in a Windows mobile or a BlackBerry device.

The sound quality in all Palms is good and the Centro is equipped with a decent ear-piece and a speaker. Though having the speaker on the backside limits you to putting the phone down on a table when using the speaker phone, the good part is that Palm uses a recessed screen, so you can keep it screen-side down without the fear of scratching it.

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The Centro also features a 1.3-megapixel camera, which is nothing much to write home about. Since the Palm OS was not designed for camera and video applications, the performance is a bit sluggish, but if you just want to take a picture, you have a camera handy.

Then there are other features like the prompt option to save a dialed number not in your address book, and reply with SMS when declining a call, which are Palm8217;s hallmark features. Some symbian phones too have started to add these features.

So if you are looking for a phone that stands out in the crowd and has a full keyboard, give it a shot. Trust me, you will fall in love with it.

Gagandeep S. Sapra is the Chairman and CEO of System3 group of companies.gagandeepsystem3group.com