So two bits of interesting news this morning. As you've already heard, some people were already being able to grab a black Centro at their local Sprint stores. Yesterday, October 14th, Sprint stores started officially selling the Centro. The Ruby Red Centros won't be available until November 4th though. Below is a screenshot from Spint.com after putting in my zip code.

As you can see, the Centro starts out at a price of $399.99, then there's the instant savings of $200.00, and the Mail-in Rebate of $100, which leaves the great price of $99.99. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I were with Sprint.

Here are some juicy pics from the gallery on Sprint's website. Even though it's a $99 smartphone and I already have a Treo 680, 750, and an iPhone, I still had to pull up my drool bucket. ;-)

So far, I've read mostly positive things about the Centro. The keyboard seems great and easy to type on. The small size is nice and the device feels great in the hand and feels solid. On the negative side, I've read that the stylus feels cheap and flimsy and there have been several reports of the battery door being pretty hard to get off. You can read all this and more, plus post your own thoughts on the Centro here.

In other Palm smartphone related news, Alltel is now carrying the Palm Treo 755p.

So the 755p finally isn't exclusive to Sprint anymore! I'm sure there are plenty of Alltel customers itching to get their hands on this solid Treo. We reported just last week that there is a rumor that Verizon will have the 755p in November. And now all of a sudden Alltel is carrying the device.

The Treo 755p is priced at $579.99. After $180 instant savings and a Mail-in Rebate of $100, you can get the 755p for $299.99 with a New 2-year contract.

Someone in the Treo 755p forums has asked the question, "anyone switching to the centro?". I'm sure this will be an interesting thread in the days to come! The Centro is like the 755p in a cheaper suit of clothing with a lower price and less memory. Check out this comparison chart that forum member johncc linked to and you can compare the Centro and 755p. And be sure to check out the thread entitled "What is the feature diff between T755p?".

One more thing. Is it just me, or does this Alltel 755p look Black? I could have sworn that the 755p colors were Burgundy and Midnight Blue. The 755p in these pics sure looks Black as black can be to me. I looked at the 360 degree 3D view and looked at the device from every angle possible. It always looks Black to me. Maybe it's just the lighting though. Or did Palm make Black models for the Alltel 755ps? Or is my insomnia making me color blind? ;-) Either way, the Black actually looks pretty nice on the 755p. I see no mention of color on the Alltel site. I don't see any pics of the Burgundy model and as I've already mentioned, the 755p in the photos on Alltel's site look Black. And......... I just called up Alltel and the nice guy on the phone said that the Treo 755p is definitely a charcoal black color. Well, at least I know I'm not crazy now! ;-)