Don't you just love this time of year when the rumor mills are spinning about new gadgets? I know I do. When the rumors start flying, my drool glands get all worked up, especially if the gadget rumors are regarding Palm. Then I have to put on my little drool bib and wear it wherever I go. Well, I actually don't go much further than my desk here in my office, but the drool bib does its job wherever I might happen to wander. Latest rumor has it that AT&T will be releasing a White Palm GSM Centro tomorrow, February 19th, 2008.
I've been seeing a few pics here and there on some of the other tech sites. And now one of our own TreoCentral forum members, smileyboy, has actually bought a White GSM Centro and has put up some pics over at our forums. And smileyboy was kind enough to allow us to show off some of his White Centro pics. Thanks smileyboy! ;-)
Although I don't normally care much for white gadgets, the White Centro looks rather nice. I was very surprised to see the green keys but I like them because they are really unique. Smileyboy took some great photos of his new toy. Check out this one of the green keys illuminated in the dark. Sweet! It's interesting how Palm changes the keyboard coloring with their smartphones. There are always the ten keys towards the left side of the keyboard, the E,R,T,D,F,G,X,C,V, and Zero, that are a different color than the other keys. Those ten keys on the White Centro are green of course. On my Copper Treo 680, those keys are white and the other ones are Copper. Harv mentioned in his "Migrating From a 700p to a 755p" article that on the 755p, all of the keys that were white on the 700p are black, and vice versa.
I mentioned in my article last week that we wondered if the White GSM Centro would have the same Phone App as the Treo 680. Well, it appears that it will as you can see in the first photo above. Smileyboy confirmed in the thread that he started that the White Centro does have the 680 Phone App and agrees with others that this app is better than the one on the 755p. We learned from a Palm representative in the past that the "classic" PalmOS Phone app is more geared toward a "power user" phone like the 755p, whereas the 680's phone app is tied relatively closely to its GSM radio. Transferring the app to the 755p would have taken quite a bit of work. So it makes since that the GSM Centro would have the same Phone App as the GSM 680.
Smileyboy also mentioned that the battery life on the GSM Centro was much better than that on his Treo 680. He said that the GSM Centro was a very stable device.
As with all new smartphones, you hear differing opinions. Most of the time, people either love or hate a device. I've been reading some negative comments on the green keys, like at The Boy Genius Report in the comments section of an unboxing article. And I've also read some positive ones such as several over at Engadget. Andrew over at Treonauts really seems to like the green keys. He said:
Most comments about both the white color of the Centro smartphone and its new green keys have thus far been very positive and I have to say that I personally love it as it perfectly matches my favourite “Aqua Green” PalmRevolt skin pictured on the right.
I have to agree! That PalmRevolt skin does indeed look great with the White Centro and the green keys.
So I guess we'll find out tomorrow if the GSM Centro will be officially released at AT&T. Of course if people are already buying them.... I'm just saying... ;-)
